Paul Robeson's Chicago History
1921-1958

"Paul Robeson’s all-around versatility during his four years at Rutgers was more than matched by the wide range of his activities over the next four years. From the summer of 1919, when he moved to New York, Paul worked his way through law school, got married, played three seasons of professional football, made his debut on Broadway as a dramatic actor, appeared there again as a singer in a hit musical show, toured England playing opposite one of that country’s most famous actresses, sang numerous recitals (some for fee and some for free) at churches, schools, and community centers, served as an assistant football coach for Rutgers in New Jersey and for Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, played semi-pro basketball, tutored a Newark high school student in Latin, clerked in a Wall Street law office, . . ."

"In 1917 and 1918 Walter Camp, the legendary Yale coach, put Robeson on his All-American football team–the first Rutgers player ever named–calling him ‘a veritable superman. . . . the National Football Foundation’s Hall of Fame whose officials contend that though Robeson’s playing record qualifies him for their roster of college gridiron greats, his later controversial activities make him unacceptable. . . .’ On January 18, 1995, the National Football Foundation announced that Paul Robeson would be posthumously inducted that year into the College Football Hall of Fame, seventy six years after the legendary ‘Robeson of Rutgers’ played his last game for that school."

"When he could clear his schedule, Paul Robeson also joined the lineup. One of the best players of his time and the most famous black player in the land, Rutgers grad Robeson was studying law at Columbia University while pursuing a career as a singer and actor. Understandably, his time for pro football was limited, but he made it to eight of the Pros’ twelve games in 1921 and starred each time while playing several different positions."

"I have just heard the finest of all Negro voices and one of the most beautiful in the world. Those who were fortunate enough to be present last night in Orchestra Hall, when Paul Robeson made his first Chicago appearance, will testify that I do not exaggerate. In the soft mellow resonance, in sympathetic appeal, in its organ-like ease and power, it is distinguished among the great voices of the times. . . ."

"ROBESON DELIGHTS WITH NEGRO SONGS

Great Audience Thrills to Spirituals and Folk Melodies

Heard in a program devoted exclusively to the folk music and spirituals of his race, Paul Robeson, last night sang his way into the hearts of his hearers in a manner that betokened the sincere artist. The occasion was an evening sponsored by the Evanston Inter-Racial Council and the Woman’s Club Auditorium held one of the largest audiences that has ever gathered within its walls."

"PAUL ROBESON SINGS

Orchestra Hall did not seem large enough to house the distinguished audience assembled to hear Paul Robeson in his recital of spirituals last night. Mr. Robeson returns to us after an interesting experience abroad for we all have read of his adventure with Othello under Maurice Browne’s direction, if I mistake not?

Barely has a reputation so perfectly fitted the stature of an artist. Robeson is all that, we have heard, and more. He is a singer first, with a gloriously rich and expressive baritone which modulates with the resiliency and docility of a violin. But he is also a musician of parts, for no one can sing and feel song as Robeson does without a technical foundation abetted and employed to reveal an innate kinship with the musical intent of a composer. . . .

The public may almost be called historic. It was décolleté and white-shirted audience, whites predominating, and the whole auditorium had an air of informed sophistication, for we Chicagoans confess to liking our Americans, principally after they have received the cachet of European approval."

". . . Proceeds from the concerts will be used to meet the increased demands on the services of
the Helping Hand Community Day Nursery. The nursery, founded 11 years ago by a group of  Southsiders, gives recreation, protection, food and medical attention to both white and Colored children whose mothers are employed."

"Negro Singer Expresses Spirit of Race at Orchestra Hall

Paul Robeson, the famous Negro singer, gave a recital at Orchestra hall last night. His admirable accompanist was Lawrence Brown, who had arranged many of the numbers in the singer’s program. Mr. Brown was Mr. Robeson’s associate when the two first made their appearance here, unknown and unheralded, more than five years ago. And, as those who heard them then hoped he would, last, night, on occasion, Mr. Brown lifted up his interested little face away from the keyboard and added a saucy tenor to Mr. Robeson’s good-natured bass-barytone.

Except for ‘Ol’ Man River’ and Cook’s ‘Exhortation,’ Mr. Robeson’s songs were all Negro spirituals, and he sings them, in his way, better than anybody else. Nobody so totally expresses their spirit with nothing added. And there is not a more beautiful voice to be heard in this country."

"I remember how, after the concert, the audience was invited to attend a reception in honor of the singer and his family. It was to be at the Appomattox Club on Grand Boulevard, later South Parkway Avenue, now Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. I took the number three bus and got off at 35^th Street. I wanted to get a close look at this magnificent black artist. I remember how frightened and insignificant I felt surrounded by so many elegant and prominent people, both black and white. I was jostled along in the receiving line where I got a chance not only to shake Paul’s hand but also those of his wife, Eslanda, his son Pauli, about eight years of age at that time, and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Goode. Paul shook my hand, me, an insignificant, awed and frightened black daughter of a worker, with just as much warmth, sincerity and interest as he did the furred and sequined fancily dressed dowagers of the black bourgeoisie. Then Paul spoke of his travels in faraway lands and how much he learned from other peoples and their cultures. Throughout it all, he exuded love and respect for people, especially the common people."

"The next order of business was to set up a date for Robeson and Dickerson with Judge Landis. That meeting took place before Rowland could come to Chicago. It turned out that Dickerson did not appear so we decided that Paul should talk with the commissioner alone. Judge Landis gave him more than an hour. Paul later told us that he had raised two questions: the absence of Black players from organized baseball and the Commissioner’s responsibility to remedy this situation. The Commissioner acknowledged the first point but said that while he might not have been sharp enough, he had raised the question at the club owners’ meeting. Robeson replied that it was not enough to have discussions—‘it was time to act.’ The Commissioner promised to ‘see what could be done.’"

"Paul Robeson took Chicago by storm. More than 165,000 Chicagoans of every nationality, color and creed filled Grant Park and overflowed onto the surrounding lawns. A demonstration of love and affection greeted the appearance of Robeson and his accompanist, Lawrence Brown."

"Paul Robeson Wins Ovations from Throng in Grant Park

Paul Robeson, the great Negro bass-baritone, made his first Chicago appearance in nearly five years last night. He sang from the stage of the Grant Park band shell to an audience that packed the tens of thousands of available seats and overflowed onto the spacious lawns all about. . . .

Mr. Robeson first won the enthusiastic friendship of his audience by the charm of his personality. He is a great giant of a man, with an infectious smile; bright, humorous eyes, and that dignity of bearing that springs from an honest sense of worth. The moment that he walked upon the stage the crowd that faced him from every corner of the big breezy auditorium put on a big demonstration in his honor. . . .

The climax of the evening came when popular demand–in the shape of numerous shouted requests from the audience–compelled Mr. Robeson to do ‘Ol’ Man River.’ He sang it with an awesome virility. There were cheers and screams at its end. After another Negro number–the mock-serious ‘Scandalize My Name’–the singer offered ‘Ballad for Americans,’ a folksy and warming piece that has become one of the best liked bits of Americana of our day. . . ."

". . . We were on the steps of the Field Museum [about 3/8ths of a mile to the Band Shell–ed.]. The whole place was jammed with people. No wonder they said 165,000–they could be low by one third!"

". . . By 1937, war raged in Spain, a kind of dress rehearsal for World War II. Fascists in Spain, with the help of Mussolini and Hitler, were fighting to overthrow the popularly elected government in Spain. The Spanish Civil War became another turning point in Paul’s life. He cut short a second trip to Moscow to participate in a huge meeting in London’s Albert Hall for the Spanish Loyalists. His appearance on stage was greeted by a deafening roar. Through his music, Paul had come to symbolize the artist dedicated to the cause of freedom. . . . [It was there that Paul Robeson made the now-famous quote: ‘The artist must choose to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.’–ed.]

A few months later, my grandparents were on their way to Spain at the height of the civil war there. Paul sang to the front-line Loyalist troops, which included volunteers from America and all over Europe. He traveled with Essie to the front lines at Madrid and Barcelona, where they experienced some of the worst bombings of the war. At Teruel, the guns on both sides were stilled while Paul sang. Paul emerged a living legend and a worldwide symbol of the artist as freedom fighter."

". . . It was the first of only three stars that we gave to men who had been with us, but not in the Brigades. It was the only one we gave without reservations of any kind, for in some way that it is impossible to define, he had become one of us. And it was more than that; for when I stood beside him to pin the star on his lapel, up there on the stage at our first convention, all the veterans gathered sitting quiet, watching, I had this feeling that Paul Robeson was not so much becoming a member of the Lincoln Brigade, as that we were becoming a part of Paul Robeson, that Robeson joining us in this way was all the medals, ribbons and honors that any organization could want to have. And still have."

"Defeat Is Slavery for All—Robeson . . .

The struggle for human dignity is not just a struggle of the Negroes, Paul Robeson, Negro baritone, told 2,000 persons last night in Orchestra Hall, where he was guest artist and principal speaker at a meeting of the Chicago Civil Liberties Committee.

‘In our own country there are many others than the Negroes who can be classed as underprivileged, who have not yet had the chance to live decently in our democracy,’ Robeson said.

‘All the problems that confront us, the problem of freedom itself, are intertwined in this war. If we lose, all Americans will become slaves.’ . . .

Ald. Earl B. Dickerson, 2^nd ward, vice-chairman of the Chicago Civil Liberties Committee, was chairman of the meeting. Robeson said he is touring the nation to mobilize support for the people’s war on Fascism."

"The Lincoln school is a new educational project scheduled to open in Chicago early in 1943, offering comprehensive courses in social, economic and political problems especially as they relate to the winning of the war.

An innovation in the Middle West, the school will focus attention on the democratic heritage and traditions of America. It’s student body enlisted from all walks of life, regardless of race, color, or creed, will be provided with the knowledge and clarity necessary for safeguarding and developing democracy."

". . . Paul Robeson, famed Negro baritone, was guest artist at a Station concert last week. He sang popular and classical songs before a jammed house in the Ross Auditorium.

Music lovers, both jive-hounds and long-hairs, were pleased with the entertainment bill at Great Lakes this week.

Paul Robeson, noted baritone, sang for Station sailors Thursday night in Ross Auditorium after earlier making a tour of the Negro training camps."

"Paul Robeson Guest at Big Defense Plant

Mr. Robeson, in a short talk, emphasized the necessity for victory by the United Nations and the stake of labor and the Negro people in victory. He urged upon the workers unrelenting effort to produce aluminum so essential to the implements of war for our sons, brothers and relatives at the front. He pointed out that everything that labor and the Negro people have fought for is tied up with victory over the Axis, and the guarantee of a people’s victory and a people’s peace was the fullest unity of labor, the Negro people and all sections of America who believe in democracy."

"One of the greatest examples of interracial goodwill to be witnessed in Chicago in a decade was the rousing approval given by 35,000 citizens, white and colored, of the mammoth program featuring the 4^th annual American Negro Festival Saturday night under the brilliant floodlights of White Sox Park.

From the time the program opened with a selection by the U.S. Navy Band from Camp Robert Smalls at Great Lakes, Ill., until the singing of ‘Star Spangled Banner,’ marked its close, there was never a dull moment or a single drag in presentation of the big show. . . . Heading the long list of celebrities appearing was Sgt. Joe Louis Barrow, world’s heavyweight champion, now on leave from the U.S. Army and whose message of greeting was broadcast during the 30-minute hook-up, arranged by the Mutual Broadcasting company, with the popular Jack Brickhouse of WGN, at the microphone."

"On a visit to Chicago in September 1943 Robeson participated in an important meeting that underlined his political alignment. At the Win-the-Peace rally before 20,000 people he shared a platform with the Vice-President of the United States, Henry A. Wallace. This was no mean achievement for a black American at that time. Hitherto, Robeson may have stated his views clearly, but this association with Wallace was a political act that had an impact on the American public—a meeting between two major public figures, one white the other black, symbolizing future political possibilities. Adherents to white supremacy took note."

"Of Robeson’s public efforts, his participation in the campaign to desegregate major-league baseball brought him special satisfaction. The pressure created by the long-standing arguments of the Negro Publishers Association and other groups for the desegregation of baseball was heightened in 1943 when Peter V. Cacchione, Brooklyn’s Communist councilman, introduced a desegregation resolution. Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the high commissioner of baseball, agreed to let eight black newspapermen and Robeson attend the annual meeting of the club owners in December 1943 and plead their case . . .

Mr. Robeson took along to the meeting two friends, William Patterson [founder of the Abraham Lincoln School of Social Research-ed.] and the Chicago-based Ishmael Flory (who was executive secretary of the left-wing Negro People’s Assembly and managing editor of its newspaper, The New World)–but both were kept cooling their heels in the anteroom. Robeson, however, was allowed to address the club owners. ‘I come here as an American and former athlete,’ he told them. ‘I come because I feel this problem deeply.’ For twenty minutes he used his own history to make an impassioned appeal, citing his earlier experience in college football and his current performance as Othello as arguments against the assumption that racial disturbance automatically follows desegregation. When Robeson finished, the owners applauded him vigorously but did not ask questions . . ."

". . . Othello broke all Broadway records for Shakespearean productions, with a record run of 296 consecutive performances . . .

The Othello production of 1942-45 was my grandfather’s crowning achievement as an actor. Paul’s interpretation and performance revolutionized Shakespearean theater in modern times. His Othello was hailed as a classic and stands today as the yardstick for measuring the greatness of others, including such eminent actors as Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles, in portraying Othello. . . .

Paul was graced with many honors, but two stand out. The American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him the Medal for Good Diction on the Stage in 1944. Only nine people have ever received that award since its inception in the 1920’s. He was also given the First Annual Donaldson Award–the equivalent of today’s Tony–for Outstanding Lead Performance of 1944. . . .

Those who ordinarily found Shakespeare alien discovered Othello to be an exciting and meaningful experience. Paul viewed his triumph as more than an artistic success. To him it was a social weapon. Paul was catapulted to the heights of national stardom and hailed as ‘America’s number-one Negro’ and a role model for America’s youth."

"History is being written by the great Paul Robeson these nights at the  Erlanger theater in the loop. It is more than theatrical history. It is epoc-making, precedent-shattering American history that is a happy omen of a new world acomin’ in U.S. race relations.

But Robeson’s magnificent performance as Othello is important not only because it is a historic event. Its significance goes further than the simple fact that Robeson is the first Negro to play Othello on an American stage and kiss a white person before a mixed audience.

Perhaps even more remarkable is Robeson’s masterful ability to translate this great work of Shakespeare into human terms, into thrilling, moving drama understandable to the everyday common man. Othello, as played by Robeson and a splendid supporting cast, is not the heavy-handed Elizabethan drama of free verse that is crammed down the throats of unwilling students. The Erlanger production is as modern and up-to-date as a jazz concert. . .

His achievement in bringing Othello down to terms of today will live and be remembered for years to come. To miss Robeson in Othello is to miss history in the making."

"After a busy schedule the greying Robeson had earned himself a two-month rest before he began a cross-country tour (including the Canadian cities Toronto and Montreal) of Othello in September 1944. Of course the Southern Jim Crow states were omitted, except for black colleges and unsegregated audiences. This tour, covering some forty-five cities, gave him the opportunity to take the tragedy of the moor to an even wider public. Above all the tour was instructive. The play had a unifying effect on educationalists. Schoolteachers—black and white—who had brought their classes to see the play, would crowd around Robeson’s dressing-room with their pupils after the performance.
In spite of the demands of the role, and a punishing schedule, Robeson always gave them the warmest welcome. For him, tiredness was no grounds for excusing himself, especially when children and students were involved. The next generation must know and understand the problems of the present,
to ensure a more enlightened approach to the future. In effect, then, Robeson was not merely a symbol but a living example to American youth who looked to him."

"Informants advised that ROBESON maintained a rigorous schedule during his stay in Chicago during April and May, sometimes making two or three appearances in addition to his performances in Othello. . . ."

". . . Paul meanwhile continued to tour in Othello. Chicago was the final city, and the production opened at the Erlanger Theater on April 10, 1945. Two days later Franklin Roosevelt died suddenly. It was an especially stunning blow to black Americans. Even Paul, who according to his friend Hope R. Stevens, didn’t find the New Deal reforms enough, considered Roosevelt an exemplary politician and his death a great loss. . . . Paul read an ode that Carl Sandburg had written in Roosevelt’s
memory. . . .

Sunday mornings in Chicago often found Paul speaking in black and white churches and at synagogues. . . ."

". . . The famous artist paid tribute to the late President Roosevelt and urged the young orators competing to use their talents in keeping the principals the great leader died for before the world."

"Paul Robeson, spotlighted in a Campus Peace rally at the University of Chicago this week, was spurned as a guest speaker at Northwestern for war bond drive purposes.

Robeson was invited to speak by students of the University at a war bond rally, but administration authorities wanted to know whether he would ‘sing, or talk too.’ When informed that he might talk, the students were told no hall was available.

Later a hall was tentatively obtained, but again it was thumbs down from  N.U. brasshats, this time on the grounds that there was no one available to clean it up afterward. When 25 students offered to show up to do the clean-up job, they were told that ‘the right balance of activities seems to be lacking at Northwestern.’"

Jun.19

"Paul Robeson Thrills Packed House Here

. . . Remarkable for a dozen reasons—his great poise, his ease of bearing, his dignity and modesty, his deep friendliness—and possessing one of the great voices of the age, Mr. Robeson has much to give an audience, but to this reviewer, one of his greatest talents is his own inborn feeling of song and his ability to interpret, to a point of perfection, the mood and whimsy of a song. . . .

And when the audience still was not satisfied, he gave a beautifully dramatic excerpt from his part in Othello, after recalling that he was in Bob Stone’s ‘home territory,’ and the two had trouped together in that famous Shakespeare production. . . ."

"Robeson Electrifies In Hour of Encores

A GREAT basso—may be an even greater personality!

That was Paul Robeson in an inspired recital at Orchestra Hall last night.

It was the concluding concert of a triumphant transcontinental tour, Robeson was in superb voice, and he had a highly appreciative audience.

Enthusiasm passed both ways across the footlights, the concert got more and more frenzied, requests were shouted, Robeson let down his hair, and it was getting along toward midnight when the jamboree ended.

Statistics add up to almost a full hour of encores."

"Young Nisei Vets Flay Bilbo and Rankin at Testimonial Dinner

Rankin and Bilbo, known as America’s leading race baiters, were flayed here by young Japanese American war veterans during a testimonial dinner in honor of their war dead at the  Stevens hotel.

Fighting racism as he had fought fascism, militant young Ben Kuroki, a former tail gunner on America’s bombers during the war, denounced racial bigotry . . . . He bitterly criticized this nation’s overall jim crow pattern against minority groups, and declared that ‘Japanese Americans are the worst persecuted minority in this country.’ . . .

Paul Robeson, America’s famed actor-singer and crusader against fascism, brought thunderous applause from the Japanese war veterans and guests by singing ‘Ol’ Man River,’ ‘Water Boy,’ and a new tune dedicated to the success of the United Nations organization. Robeson took time out to appear on the Nisei program in spite of his engagement to appear at a Win-the-Peace rally at Orchestra Hall.

‘Your fight is my fight,’ he said. ‘We must all unite to fight against fascism here at home and abroad.’ . . .

Among the prominent guests present were Marshal Field, publisher of the Chicago Sun; . . . and Ira Latimer, executive secretary of the Chicago Civil Liberties Committee"

"Paul Robeson Holds His Grip On Audience

Generous with his time and talents, Mr. Robeson enjoys singing for people. Few performers can match his skill at turning concert-going people into partisans of Paul Robeson.

Mr. Robeson appears to shun conventionalized ‘art’ material. When not giving folk songs, he devotes attention to music of historical interest. His ‘collector’s items’ include excerpts from two of the very earliest operas, Monteverde’s Arianna and Jacopo Peri’s Euridice.

Heard yesterday, also, were a recitative derived from 18^th Century Jewish-Hassidic inspiration and several old French and English songs."

"When the school was inaugurated, telegrams came from many workers. James E. Murray, Democratic Senator from the state of Montana, made the principal speech. I quote from his address:

‘The front on which the Abraham Lincoln School and other similar institutions of learning are today fighting for the protection of democracy is a front that must not be neglected if liberty and freedom are to survive. They are fighting the battle for a better world and for a lasting peace. . . .
The Abraham Lincoln School has been established to train your fellow-citizens in sound democratic principles and in the maintenance of national unity so necessary for the winning of the war and the preservation of democracy. Today the people are often confused by the great welter of propaganda they encounter in the press and on the air and find it difficult to form sound judgment on national problems. I think you are giving the best answer to that question right here in Chicago through the Abraham Lincoln School, dedicated to the preservation of the people and for the people.’"

"We would like to introduce ourselves to you. Our name is American Youth for Democracy, and Democracy is just what we ARE for. We have no million dollar organizing fund; we were not set up, nor are we led, by adults. AYD was established by young people who recognized that there was a ‘youth problem’ and saw the need for an organization to fight for a solution to all the phases of this many-sided problem. What are some of these phases? There’s the problem of the married veteran who can’t find a place for his family to live; the student who can’t get into an overcrowded school; the problem of the young Negro, who faces all the above problems magnified a hundred times by the system of discrimination that blocks his right to equality."

"Robeson spurs drive to crack jim crow in courts

The drive to smash jim crow on the Superior Court bench roared to a climax this week following a rousing mass meeting at which Paul Robeson, famed Negro baritone, was to be the main speaker.

A huge turn-out was expected for the affair. A capacity crowd of 1,800 was expected to fill the auditorium of DuSable high school, and loud speakers were set up to carry the speeches to an overflow throng which was expected to gather outside the building at 49^th and State Sts.

Oscar DePriest, Republican committeeman of the 3^rd ward, and Rexford Guy Tugwell, former aide to the late President Roosevelt, one-time governor of the Virgin Islands, and present professor of political science at the University of Chicago, were to be among the featured speakers."

"Steelworkers, railroad workers, packinghouse workers—they all turned out this week to hear one of the greatest of the greats, the mighty Paul Robeson.

Largest of the three labor meetings at which Robeson spoke and sang was the mass rally in the Union Stock Yards called by the Packinghouse Workers for Wallace and Taylor.

An estimated 5,000 stockyards workers poured out of the Swift, Armour, Wilson and other plants to gather on the street, on overhead runways, and in the buildings overlooking the famed ‘CIO Corner"–43^rd St. and Packers–where a temporary stand was set up.

‘Packing is a union that must understand the problems that face the working man today,’ said Robeson, urging his listeners to join the Progressive Party.

He said they must ‘see the link’ connecting the Meat Trust that fights their union with the Democratic and Republican politicians who work on behalf of the Meat Trust in Washington.

He told his listeners not to be discouraged by the seeming power of their enemies.

‘In the end,’ he declared, ‘the people–the people–are the power.’

Cheers greeted his announcement that he intends to follow Henry Wallace’s footsteps in a tour of the South beginning early in October.

The setting for Robeson Speech was possibly the most colorful in Chicago. Truckloads of bawling cattle rolled past as he spoke at the corner where the United Packinghouse Workers of America (CIO) first organized the stockyards workers.

The thousands of workers, with only a half hour for lunch, munched sandwiches as the full, rolling voice filled the dusty lanes of America’s slaughtering center. . . .

Other candidates who spoke with Robeson at one of the three meetings included Sam Parks, ex-president of the Wilson local of UPWA and nominee for sanitary district trustee; Grant Oakes, candidate for governor: Sidney Ordower, nominee for Congress from the 6^th district; and Oscar Brown, Jr., candidate for state representative from the 1^st senatorial district."

"Henry Wallace this week called upon Attorney General Clark to step in and block Republican and Democratic attempts to keep the Progressives off the ballot in Illinois. . . .

Three hundred and fifty uniformed police and plain clothesmen were on guard against violence–so the Chicago Police Department claimed. . . .

Paul Robeson, his voice solemn and bitter, also lashed out at the NAACP in his speech at Wrigley Field. . . .

Hailing DuBois as the ‘most forceful spokesman’ for the Negro people, Robeson cried out:

‘This patriarch of the Negro people will not be silenced. DuBois is the "latest victim of reaction,"’ Robeson said.

The dismissal of DuBois–obviously inspired by the Jim Crow Democrats–was the second assault on the political freedom of the widely revered sage.

Last spring the Chicago Defender, having abandoned the struggle for Negro rights in favor of the election of Truman, discontinued publication of Dr. DuBois’ popular column."

"Paul Robeson’s Los Angeles appearance this Friday will follow two triumphal receptions here.

The great Negro artist and anti-fascist leader was greeted by two capacity audiences, with thousands standing in the streets to hear his voice over amplifiers.

Unable to appear at a large central gathering because all major meeting halls were denied the Civil Rights Congress, Robeson spoke and sang on the near North Side, one of the city’s smaller Negro communities, and the South Side, where the bulk of Chicago’s Negro people resides.

Doors to the AFL Bakers hall on the North Side were closed by police after more than 800 persons packed it to standing capacity while a crowd estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 stood outside listening over loudspeakers. . . ."

"City Honors Paul Robeson

Chicago made its answer to Peekskill last weekend by greeting the great Paul Robeson with an outpouring of thousands who came to packed halls and stood out on the streets to hear his words and his songs.

The world-beloved Negro leader spoke to close to 10,000 people here who palisaded themselves against any would-be perpetrators of fascist violence.

His brief visit, marked only by silence in the commercial press, revealed his full stature as a people’s leader as masses of Negro and white Chicagoans thronged to his two overflow meetings and thundered their ovation.

Symbolic of his strong ties with the people, Robeson made an unscheduled appearance last Sunday afternoon at Washington Park for an informal day with the people of the South Side. . . .

Robeson spoke simply and from the heart, revealing in almost intimate terms the reasons why he must fight unceasingly for the freedom of his people and all oppressed people, and why personal glory is not enough for him.

‘I found that my career was going along fine,’ he said, ‘but my people were having more and more trouble.’

Then he lashed out suddenly at those who say he should remain simply a great artist an incomparable singer, a matchless actor.

‘I’m not sacrificing anything!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s only right that I should give of what I have to the labor movement, to my own people.’

‘I say to the Negro youth of this land: "Don’t bow your heads!"’ he declared, speaking in a warm personal vein of his own youth and of his realization that he comes from a people ‘who have a potential second to no people on earth.’"

"Dr. Louis Rawls, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church, a man of deeply conservative religious and political values, had not hesitated to open his church to Robeson. ‘I saw no reason,’ Rawls recalls, ‘why this church that serves the community should not allow these people to come in. Who are we to judge? They say Robeson "believes in Communism." Now, he never told me that. He said he wants freedom.’ Rawls not only agreed to lend his church, but also reduced the usual fee from $150 to $75. In a welcoming statement, Bishop W.J. Walls of the A.M.E. Zion Church compared Robeson to ‘the noble Frederick Douglass,’ who also refused ‘to bask in the sunlight of his great advantages without always bringing to the front the cause of his enslaved people. . . . You have gone the second mile.’ When Robeson attended a White Sox baseball game in Chicago, he was surrounded by autograph-seekers–but when he tried to get a meal at the Hotel Sherman, he was refused service."

"Robeson Not ‘News’ for Chicago Press

The corruption of Chicago’s ‘free press’ lay naked before its readers last week.

The Paul Robeson who rated ‘front page’ when rocks were hurled at him in Peekskill, N.Y., the Paul Robeson who rated column after column of distortion in that press when he spoke out against war in Paris, that Paul Robeson wasn’t ‘news’ when he came to Chicago!

Readers of the Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Daily News, or Herald-American never knew that Paul Robeson’s first meeting in Chicago was held with the men who write for these papers, one half hour after his arrival in the city.

THE newspapermen were there, that afternoon at the Southway Hotel, with their notebooks, their flashbulbs, their questions. Robeson talked, and they wrote.

In the stirring, passionate tones that make songs of his sentences, Paul Robeson told the press why he had put aside his career as actor and concert artist to devote his life to the fight for Negro rights, to carry around the world the plea for allies in the cause of liberating America’s Negroes from Jimcrow, and all Americans from the threat of fascism and war.

They wrote, as he told them: ‘At Peekskill, I knew I loved America. The 25,000 who stood with locked arms, ready to die for my freedom, these were the symbol of America for me–not the miserable band of fascists who attacked us, with the aid of state troopers and police.’

‘Peekskill,’ the magnificent voice thundered, ‘proved the American people will never let fascism conquer them!’

THOSE who run Chicago’s press could find nothing in the stories or pictures their working reporters brought back with which they could ‘scandalize’ Paul Robeson’s name.

Chicago gave Robeson not rocks–but an outpouring of love. There was no Peekskill here, but a magnificent Peekskill Protest.

The press chose the one way left to ‘scandalize’ Paul Robeson–silence. Cold, deadly, silence. But to the thousands who came to hear Robeson that very silence headlined the true scandal of Chicago–the scandal of its prostitute press."

"The prospects for the black worker seemed very bleak to these leaders when a group of them met in Harlem in 1949 to organize a fight for a larger share of the economic resources of the United States. In a move to establish a national organization, a call was sent out to other cities for representation; and a meeting was scheduled for June 10, 1950 in Chicago. Robeson, one of the organizers, gave a benefit concert in New York to help finance the Chicago meeting. The purpose of the Chicago meeting was to launch a more militant attack on job discrimination than had been undertaken by other existing organizations. The 900 delegates, black and white, were told that they had a common fight against a common enemy, in Robeson’s keynote address entitled ‘Forge Negro Labor Unity for Peace and Jobs’:

The delegates established continuation committees to organize local councils throughout the United States before the next annual meeting. They chose "National Negro Labor Council" (NNLC) as the name of their organization. . . ."

week preceding

"Last Friday in Mandel Hall Paul Robeson sang and spoke. Words and music were in perfect harmony.

His songs were drawn from the Negro people in America, the partisans of the Warsaw ghetto, and the Chinese revolution. He also performed some of his standard favorites: ‘Love Will Find a Way,’ ‘Scandalized My Name,’ and ‘Old Man River.’ The last of these was sung with the words Robeson has made famous–‘. . . must keep fightin’ until I’m dyin’. . . .’

The tonality of his speech was identical. Robeson explained why he has become a member of the ‘progressive’ movement in America. He told of his travels throughout the world, of the conditions of the Negro in America, and of the colonial revolutions of the Asian and African peoples.

The most important platform of progressives, he emphasized, is peace, for without peace there can be no improvement in the lot of any people. This idea paralleled a song that he sang about the four rivers: the Mississippi, the Thames, the Yangtze, and the Don. . . .

He said that neither the American Legion nor any other group could deprive him of his right to speak, won with three hundred years of struggle by his people."

". . . The distinguished Negro leader is here to give his personal assistance to the campaign of the two Progressive candidates, Sam Parks and Charles McCord. . . .

In a busy week here, the Negro leader took part in canvassing and street corner meetings as well as big mass meetings winding up the Parks and McCord campaigns."

"Robeson Spurs FEPC Fight Sings ‘Historic’ Concert

Robeson made an appearance here at a concert which has been described as ‘historic,’ and at the stewards’ parley called by the Council last Sunday afternoon. . . .

The huge turnout for the Robeson concert jammed the Metropolitan Community Church.

Robeson told the parley on Sunday that the concert ‘was an historic occasion.’

‘It marked the first time,’ he said, ‘that it was the workers that presented me in concert. That’s why I like to think I sang in a special way last night.’"

The appearance of Paul Robeson here last weekend was marked by a heightening of the fight for Negro rights and the launching of a campaign for FEPC [Fair Employment Practices Commission–ed.] by the South Side Negro Labor Council. . . .

Sam Parks, chairman of the Council, introduced a resolution calling for a nationwide gathering in Washington to press for FEPC and civil rights legislation. . . ."

"From June 29 to July 1, over 4,100 delegates from every corner of the United States conferred at the stirring Chicago Peace Congress. On the evening of June 29, about 8,500 men and women jammed Chicago’s Coliseum to hear the job of peace-making discussed by, among others, the Rev. Willard Uphaus, Gale Sondergaard, Professor Anton Carlson, William Hood of the U.A.W.-C.I.O., Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson. We are happy to publish the remarks made on that historic occasion by Mr. Robeson.

UNITY FOR PEACE by Paul Robeson

". . . The preparation of the giant mass rally at the Chicago Coliseum marked a high point in the peace movement, with thousands cooperating in the sale of tickets, the planning of the program, the technical staging of the rally, the erection of the giant exposition in the Coliseum corridors. . . .

Some of the city’s leading professional writers, designers, artists and photographers have been working on the Peace Exposition which occupies an entire hall at the Coliseum. . . .

Every "L" station in the city blossomed out in the last two weeks with a six-foot high, three-colored poster announcing: "End the War, make Peace Now," and urging Chicagoans to come to the Public Rally on Friday night. The bare sides of buildings and hundreds of store-front windows carried similar signs. . . ."

"‘It is a conspiracy,’ charged the Greater Chicago Negro Labor Council, ‘vicious, calculated conspiracy to silence the great artist and leader of the Negro people, Paul Robeson. It is a conspiracy to violate the basic rights of all Americans–the freedom of speech and assembly.’

This charge was leveled against federal, state and city authorities this week by the Council after repeated efforts of the Council and Committee for the Negro in the Arts to secure an adequate place in which to hold the birthday celebration of Paul Robeson with a festival of songs. . . .

Originally Robeson’s concert was scheduled to be held at Tabernacle Baptist Church [Rev. Louis Rawls, pastor–ed.]. The committee felt that it was fitting that a man, who had spent much of his life in the fight for the rights of his people, should celebrate his birthday in the greatest of Negro institutions–the church.

However, outside forces brought pressure upon the pastor of that church–pressure of such character as to make it impossible for him to go through with his plans to permit the Robeson concert to take place. . . ."

". . . ADDRESS AT NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY

"Paul Robeson’s appearance at the Lawndale Baptist Church in Chicago attracted only 200 people because ‘a number of persons were "intimidated" not to show up,’ . . . The Afro-American also reported that in Chicago ‘None of his activities received newspaper publicity; most of them received word of mouth notice or handbill announcement.’"

"Fifteen hundred delegates and friends of the National Negro Labor Council gathered in the main ballroom of the Pershing Hotel on Dec. 4 and heard Paul Robeson make a dramatic appeal for 15 million colored Americans to disassociate themselves from the foreign policy of the Eisenhower administration.

In a speech frequently punctuated with loud applause and enthusiastic cheering, Mr. Robeson opened the third annual convention of the Council by painting a graphic picture of the benefits of a peacetime economy for the Negro people. . . .

The audience responded with a thunderous cheer when he declared: ‘No one has yet explained to my satisfaction what business a black lad from a Mississippi or Georgia sharecropping farm has in Asia shooting down the yellow or brown son of an impoverished rice farmer. . . .’"

"Only recently I sang in a concert at the University of Chicago. The student organization which invited me was subjected to various pressures to get them to cancel the offer; local reactionary groups threatened violence against any who dared to attend; the newspapers fiercely denounced the concert as ‘un-American.’ But the students stood firm, and the result–a packed hall of 1,500 people, with hundreds more turned away for lack of room!"

"In a statement concerning the issues around the concert May 8^th, the Student Representative Party had this to say: ‘It is important that students make the opportunity to hear Mr. Robeson; first, because many have never had a chance to hear him, and second, because by doing so we refuse to accede to a policy of suppressing those whose views are controversial.’ The statement also congratulated the officials of the University for sticking to the tradition of academic freedom.

In this atmosphere of a resurgent spirit of campus freedom, Paul Robeson sang both the classics and the freedom songs of the people. The response of the audience attested to their awareness of the greatness both of the artist and the occasion."

". . . Paul Robeson, baritone and dramatic actor, will appear with Alan Booth, pianist, in Mandel Hall tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. over the protest of the American Legion as reported in the Southtown Economist. . . .

The story said ‘Officials of the Anti-Subversive committee of the Cook County council of the American Legion have made a formal demand upon Chancellor Lawrence Kimpton of the University of Chicago to cancel a recital scheduled to be given in Mandel Hall Saturday by Paul Robeson, classified by government agencies as being a "Communist."’ . . .

Yesterday Chancellor Kimpton told the MAROON that he had received a letter from the Legion. Compton said the University would not take any action on the Legion letter. . . ."

Ishmael Flory, the event organizer stated, "He was given a month and a half of the royal runaround by the Chicago Board of Education–leading to the necessity to cancel the event." On the flyer for the event it stated ". . . So powerful has become this famous voice for peace, freedom and democracy, so feared is he by the enemies of the Negro people and all oppressed people, that the U.S. State Department took his passport. This is an attempt to prevent him from singing throughout the world, and silence his mighty voice against all oppression: But they will not silence him!"

". . . Informants continued that ROBESON was present and in a speech praised the work of LIGHTFOOT and stated LIGHTFOOT would never go to jail if the people stood together and fought in his defense . . ."

"Mr. Robeson is on a ‘fight back’ concert tour on the question of the revocation of his passport. Because his songs are about the people he is singing to, the American forces of reaction have seen fit to deny him the right to travel abroad. Not only is he denied the right to travel in Europe, but those people are denied the right to hear his voice in concerts.

Mr. Robeson is preparing a special concert of songs of various nations for this Polish American Center. The opportunity to see and hear so great an artist as Mr. Robeson happens to some of us only ONCE in a lifetime. . . ."

"Chicago Fete Cheers World’s Greetings to Robeson

In Bombay and new Delhi, in Moscow and Novosibirski, in London and Paris, in Peking and Ghana, celebrations marked Paul Robeson’s 60^th birthday. Chicago also participated. But there was one difference. Robeson was present, the State department having prevented this great man from going abroad.

A simple sign adorned the platform at the birthday celebration here sponsored by the Chicago Council for American-Soviet Friendship. It read ‘Happy Birthday Paul.’ When the world-honored artist walked into the jam-packed hall of 750 people, many felt the applause and cheers could be heard at far-off celebrations.

The gay holiday mood of the crowd was heightened as greetings were read from the far corners of the world. The audience cheered the message of India’s Prime Minister Nehru who said that the birthday celebration ‘is something more than a tribute to a great individual. It is also a tribute to that cause for which he has stood and suffered.’"

" . . . Robeson paid tribute to political leftists, telling the gathering that ‘America could not be what it is today but for the sacrifices of the American left.’ He called for an end to nuclear tests and a summit conference of American and Russian political leaders.

Robeson, denied a passport by the state department for travel abroad after he declined to answer questions about associations with subversive organizations, . . ."

". . . Singing was not all in this unique appearance of the great star, and since he was returning to the stage he did a deft reading of the final words to the dying ‘Desdamona,’ in  Othello which brought a touch to his performance that the crowd will not soon forget.

In a group of folk songs of various nations Robeson related the music to that of Africa and traced some of the melodies of the Pre-Bach era to the present day.

He sang in Chinese, German, Hebrew, African, Scotch and Russian and showed the real feel of the song over a vast area."

"Chicago Climax of Robeson Birthday Fetes Set for April 13

At this affair Robeson will autograph copies of his recent book, Here I Stand. A young people’s chorus will sing at the Parkway Ballroom, and Robeson will record a message of thanks to Prime Minister Nehru of India and others who have joined in the world-wide birthday celebration."