Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956

[0:00] Are you now a member of the Communist Party? [0:02] Oh, please, please, please. [0:04] Please answer, will you, Mr. Robeson? [0:06] What is the Communist Party? [0:08] What do you mean by that? [0:10] Are you now a member of the Communist Party? [0:12] Would you like to come to the ballot box when I vote and take off the ballot and see? [0:17] Mr. Chairman, I respectfully suggest the witness be directed to answer the question. [0:21] You are directed to answer the question. [0:22] I invoke the Fifth Amendment and forget it. [0:25] I respectfully suggest the witness be directed to answer the question. [0:29] Whether, if he gave us a truthful answer, he would be supplying information [0:33] which might be used against him in a criminal proceeding. [0:36] You are directed to answer, Mr. Robeson. [0:38] In the first place, wherever I've been in the world, [0:45] the first to die in the struggle against fascism were the communists. [0:50] I laid many wreaths upon the graves of communists. [0:56] That is not criminal. [0:59] Chief Justice Warren has been very clear that the Fifth Amendment [1:02] does not have anything to do with the influence of criminality. [1:07] And I invoke the Fifth Amendment. [1:09] Have you ever been known under the name of John Thomas? [1:11] Oh, please. [1:12] Does somebody here want me to put up a perjury someplace? [1:15] John Thomas, my name is Paul Robeson. [1:18] And anything I have to say, I have said in public all over the world. [1:22] And that is why I'm here today. [1:23] Mr. Chairman, I ask that you direct the witness to answer the question he's making. [1:26] I ask you to affirm or deny the fact that your Communist Party name was John Thomas. [1:31] I invoke the Fifth Amendment. [1:32] This is really good. [1:33] The witness talks very loud when he makes a speech, [1:36] but when he invokes the Fifth Amendment, I can't hear him. [1:38] I have medals for diction. [1:41] I can talk plenty loud. [1:43] Well, you talk a little louder. [1:44] I invoke the Fifth Amendment loudly. [1:47] Sir, who are Mr. and Mrs. Vladimir and the Kiev? [1:49] I invoke the Fifth Amendment. [1:51] Do you know a Manning Johnson? [1:53] I invoke the Fifth Amendment. [1:54] Do you know Gregory Keifetz? [1:55] I invoke the Fifth Amendment. [1:57] Do you know a Max Juergen? [1:59] I invoke the Fifth Amendment. [2:01] Max Juergen. [2:01] Why don't you have these people here to be cross-examined? [2:05] Could I ask whether this is legal? [2:07] This is not only legal, but usual. [2:09] By unanimous vote, this committee has been instructed to perform this very distasteful task. [2:14] To whom am I talking? [2:15] You're speaking to the chairman of the committee. [2:18] Mr. Walter? [2:18] Yes. [2:19] The Pennsylvania Walter? [2:20] That is right. [2:21] Representative of the steel workers? [2:23] That is right. [2:24] And the coal mining workers? [2:25] That is right. [2:26] Not United States steel by any chance. [2:30] A great patriot. [2:31] That is right. [2:32] You are the author of the bills that are going to keep all kinds of decent people out of the country. [2:37] No, only your kind. [2:38] Colored people like myself? [2:40] And you would let in the Teutonic Anglo-Saxon stock? [2:43] We are trying to make it easier to get rid of your kind, too. [2:47] You don't want any colored people to come in. [2:51] Could I be allowed to read from my statement? [2:54] Will you just tell this committee, please, while under oath, Mr. Robeson, the communists who participated in the preparation of that statement? [3:02] Oh, please. [3:03] The reason I'm here today, from the mouth of the State Department itself, is I should not be allowed to travel because I have struggled for the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa. [3:14] The other reason I'm here today, again, from the State Department and from the record of the Court of Appeals, is that when I am abroad, I speak out against injustices against the Negro people in this land. [3:28] That is why I'm here. [3:30] I'm not being tried for whether I'm a communist. [3:33] I'm being tried for fighting for the rights of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this country, in this United States of America. [3:40] My mother was born in your state, and my mother was a Quaker. [3:44] My ancestors, in the time of Washington, baked bread for George Washington's troops when they crossed the Delaware. [3:51] My father was a slave. [3:53] I stand here struggling for the rights of my people to be full citizens in this country, and we are not. [4:00] We are not in Mississippi. We are not in Montgomery, Alabama. We are not in Washington. [4:06] We are nowhere. And that is why I'm here today. [4:10] You want to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers. [4:16] And I have been on many a picket line for the steel workers, too. And that is why I'm here today. [4:21] Would you tell us whether or not you know Thomas W. Young? [4:25] I invoke the Fifth Amendment. [4:26] Thomas W. Young is a Negro president of the Guide Publishing Company. [4:31] I'd like to read you his testimony, quote, [4:34] Paul Robeson has no moral right to place in jeopardy the welfare of the American Negro to advance a foreign cause. [4:41] In the eyes of the Negro people, this false prophet is unfaithful to their country, and they repudiate him, close quote. [4:48] Do you know the man that said that? [4:50] I invoke the Fifth Amendment. [4:51] Now, can I read my statement? [4:56] It is a sad and bitter comment. [4:58] While you were in Paris in 1949, Mr. Robeson, did you tell an audience the American Negro would never go to war against the Soviet government? [5:06] May I say that is slightly out of context? [5:10] May I explain to you what I did say? [5:12] I remember the speech very well. [5:15] Two thousand students who came from populations that would range to six or seven hundred million people asked me to say in their name that they did not want war. [5:25] No part of my speech in Paris says 15 million American Negroes would do anything. [5:31] I said it was my feeling that the American people would struggle for peace, and that has been since underscored by the president of these United States. [5:39] Now, in passing, I said it was unthinkable to me that any people could take up arms in the name of a man like Senator Eastman of Mississippi against anybody. [5:55] Gentlemen, I still say that. [5:57] This United States government should go to Mississippi and protect my people. [6:03] That is what it should do. [6:04] I lay before you, sir, an article. [6:06] Quote, I am looking for full freedom, unquote, by Paul Robeson in The Worker. [6:12] July 3rd, 1949, quote, I said it was unthinkable that the Negro people of America or elsewhere could be drawn into war with the Soviet Union. [6:21] I repeat it with a hundredfold emphasis. [6:24] They will not, close quote. [6:26] And, gentlemen, they have not. [6:28] It is clear that no Americans are going to go to war with the Soviet Union. [6:32] While you were in Stockholm, did you make a little speech? [6:35] I made all kinds of speeches. [6:36] Let me read you a quotation. [6:37] Let me listen. [6:38] Do so, please. [6:39] I am a lawyer. [6:40] It would be a revelation if you would listen to counsel. [6:42] In good company, I usually listen. [6:45] But, you know, people wander around in such fancy places. [6:48] You said, Mr. Robeson, and I quote, I belong to the American resistance movement, which fights against American imperialism, just as the resistance movement fought against Hitler. [6:58] Just like Douglass and Harriet Tubman were underground railroaders and fighting for our freedom, you bet your life. [7:05] I have to insist that you listen to these questions. [7:07] I am listening. [7:08] I quote further, why should the Negroes ever fight against the only nation in the world where racial discrimination is prohibited and where the people can live freely? [7:19] Never. [7:19] They will never fight against either the Soviet Union or the People's Democracies, close quote. [7:25] Did you make that statement? [7:26] I do not remember, but what is perfectly clear today is that 900 million people, other colored people, have told you they will not. [7:36] 400 million in India and millions everywhere have told you that. [7:39] Well, let us answer the question. [7:40] He doesn't need to make a speech. [7:41] Did you write an article that was published in the USSR Information Bulletin? [7:46] Yes. [7:46] Quote, I want to emphasize that only here in the Soviet Union did I feel that I was a real man with a capital M, close quote. [7:55] I would say, what is your name? [7:59] Arendt. [8:00] I am quite willing to answer the question. [8:02] When I was a singer years ago, and this you will have to listen to. [8:08] I am listening. [8:08] I am a bass singer, and so for me, it was Chelyopin, the great Russian bass, not Caruso the tenor. [8:17] I learned the Russian language to sing their songs. [8:20] I wish you would listen now. [8:21] Mr. Chairman, I ask you to direct the witness to answer the question. [8:24] Just be fair with me. [8:25] I ask for order. [8:26] The great poet of Russia is of African blood. [8:28] Let us not go so far afield. [8:29] It is important to explain this. [8:31] Did you make that statement? [8:32] When I first went to Russia in 1934. [8:34] Did you make that statement? [8:35] When I first went to Russia in 1934, in Russia, I felt for the first time like a full human being. [8:41] No color prejudice like in Mississippi. [8:44] No color prejudice like in Washington. [8:47] It was the first time I felt like a human being. [8:51] Where I did not feel the pressure of color as I feel it in this committee today. [8:55] Why do you not stay in Russia? [8:57] Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country. [9:02] And I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you. [9:05] And no fascist-minded people will drive me from it. [9:09] Is that clear? [9:09] You are here because you are promoting the communist cause. [9:12] I am here because I am opposing the neo-fascist cause, which I see arising in these committees. [9:19] Jemison could be sitting here. [9:20] And Frederick Douglass could be sitting here. [9:22] Eugene Debs could be sitting here. [9:24] Now what prejudice are you talking about? [9:27] You were graduated from Rutgers. [9:28] You were graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. [9:30] I remember seeing you play football at Lehigh. [9:32] There was no prejudice against you. [9:34] Just a moment. [9:35] This is something I challenge very deeply. [9:37] That the success of a few Negroes can make up for $700 a year for thousands of Negro families in the South. [9:46] My father was a slave, and I have cousins who are sharecroppers. [9:50] I do not see success in terms of myself. [9:53] I have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of dollars for what I believe in. [9:57] While you were in Moscow, Mr. Robeson, did you make a speech lauding Stalin? [10:02] I can't remember. [10:03] Have you recently changed your mind about Stalin? [10:06] What has happened to Stalin, gentlemen, is a question for the Soviet Union, [10:10] and I won't argue with a representative of the people who, in building America, wasted the lives of my people. [10:15] You are responsible, you and your forebears, for 60 to 100 million black people dying in the slave ships and on the plantations. [10:25] Don't you ask me about anybody. [10:26] I'm sure you wouldn't want to discuss with us the slave labor camps in the Soviet Union. [10:29] Nothing could be built more on slavery than this society, I assure you. [10:33] I would invite your attention to the Daily Worker of June 29th, 1949, [10:38] with reference to a get-together with you and Ben Davis, formerly Communist Councilman in New York. [10:43] Do you know Ben Davis? [10:44] One of my dearest friends, he is as patriotic and American as can be, [10:47] and you, gentlemen, are the non-patriotic. [10:49] Just a minute. [10:51] Are the un-American. [10:52] The hearing is now adjourned. [10:54] I think it should be. [10:55] I've endured all of this that I can. [10:56] Can I read my statement? [10:57] No! [10:58] The meeting is adjourned. [10:59] It should be.