Changes

Robeson performed "Ballad" on the [[CBS]] radio network in 1943, accompanied by chorus and orchestra. [[Bing Crosby]] would also record a commercially successful recording of the piece but the song is almost always associated with Robeson as it represents the pinnacle of his music and radio career prior to the [[Cold War]]<ref name=Duberman241>Duberman, Martin. ''Paul Robeson'', 1989, pg 241. </ref>He would perform it at [[The Hollywood Bowl]] to the largest sold-out crowd in its history.<ref name=Duberman241 />

Robeson performed "Ballad" on the [[CBS]] radio network in 1943, accompanied by chorus and orchestra. [[Bing Crosby]] would also record a commercially successful recording of the piece but the song is almost always associated with Robeson as it represents the pinnacle of his music and radio career prior to the [[Cold War]]<ref name=Duberman241>Duberman, Martin. ''Paul Robeson'', 1989, pg 241. </ref>He would perform it at [[The Hollywood Bowl]] to the largest sold-out crowd in its history.<ref name=Duberman241 />

===Communist Party membership ===

===Communism===

Robeson's political statements and activism, including sympathies expressed towards the Soviet Union, [[Lenin]], [[Mao Zedong]], [[Josip Broz Tito]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] were the subject of great controversy in the mass media, in particular rumors of membership in the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]].

Robeson's political statements and activism, including sympathies expressed towards the Soviet Union, [[Lenin]], [[Mao Zedong]], [[Josip Broz Tito]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] were the subject of great controversy in the mass media, in particular rumors of membership in the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]].

Robeson's son, Paul Robeson, Jr. (who admits being a member of the Communist Party from about 1948 to 1962) claimed that his father "never joined the Communist Party."<ref>Arnold H. Lubasch, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/21/garden/in-harlem-with-paul-robeson-jr-finding-his-own-voice-and-learning-to-use-it.html?pagewanted=all IN HARLEM WITH: Paul Robeson Jr.; Finding His Own Voice And Learning to Use It]," ''The New York Times'', October 21, 1993</ref> Biographer Martin Duberman also claims that Robeson "was never a member of CPUSA, never a functionary, never a participant in its daily bureaucratic operations."<ref name=dubermanpages/>

According to records released under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], the [[FBI]] believed that Robeson might have joined the Party under the name "John Thomas" but "his Communist Party membership book number is not known."

 

In 1949, Manning Johnson, a former CPUSA member, identified Robeson as a fellow member of the Communist Party in testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Johnson testified that:

{{Cquote|[W]e were told, under threat of expulsion, never to reveal that Paul Robeson was a member of the Communist Party because Paul Robeson's assignment was highly confidential and secret... Paul's assignment was to work among the intellectuals, the professionals and artists that the party was seeking to penetrate and influence along communist lines. As long as Paul Robeson's identify with the party was kept secret, so long would his work among these groups be effective and serve the best interests of the party...<ref>Manning Johnson testified July 14, 1949.</ref><ref>[http://www.archive.org/stream/investigationofu0304unit#page/4497/mode/1up ''Testimony of Paul Robeson,''] Investigation of the Unauthorized Use of United States Passports- Part 3, Hearings before the Un-American Activities Committee, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress Second Session, June 12 and 13, 1956, p. 4497. Cf. ''The Media Falsify Robeson's Record,'' AIM Report, March 1976, pages 5, 6., quoted in Herbert Romerstein, [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''] (usasurvival.org)</ref>}}

According to records released under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], the [[FBI]] believed that Robeson might have joined the Party under the name "John Thomas" but "his Communist Party membership book number is not known."

Robeson's son, Paul Robeson, Jr. (who admits being a member of the Communist Party from about 1948 to 1962) claimed that his father "never joined the Communist Party."<ref>Arnold H. Lubasch, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/21/garden/in-harlem-with-paul-robeson-jr-finding-his-own-voice-and-learning-to-use-it.html?pagewanted=all IN HARLEM WITH: Paul Robeson Jr.; Finding His Own Voice And Learning to Use It]," ''The New York Times'', October 21, 1993</ref> Martin Duberman, whom Robeson, Jr., asked to be his father's "official biographer"&mdash;in part (according to Duberman) because of "my left-wing views"&mdash;also claimed in his 1988 biographr that Robeson "was never a member of CPUSA, never a functionary, never a participant in its daily bureaucratic operations."<ref name=dubermanpages/>

The same year Duberman's book appeared however, this claim was undermined by no less an authority than CPUSA General Secretary [[Gus Hall]]. He corroborated Manning's testimony in a pamphlet entitled ''[http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Robeson-Communist-Gus-Hall/dp/B0006QXVGS/ Paul Robeson: An American Communist].'' Hall identified Robeson as a secret member of the CPUSA but, he wrote, "The U.S. Ruling Class and its corporate-ruled government made it impossible for Paul to declare his commitment to the Communist Party and a socialist USA."<ref>Herbert Romerstein, [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''], usasurvival.org</ref> According to [http://wernercohn.com/ Werner Cohn], professor emeritus of sociology at the University of British Columbia,<ref>[http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/u_arch/cohn.html#bio Biographical Sketch], Werner Cohn fonds, University of British Columbia Archives</ref> Hall wrote:

{{Cquote| ...we were told, under threat of expulsion, never to reveal that Paul Robeson was a member of the Communist Party because Paul Robeson's assignment was highly confidential and secret...Paul's assignment was to work among the intellectuals, the professionals and artists that the party was seeking to penetrate and influence along communist lines. As long as Paul Robeson's identify with the party was kept secret, so long would his work among these groups be effective and serve the best interests of the party...<ref>Manning Johnson testified July 14, 1949.</ref><ref>[http://www.archive.org/stream/investigationofu0304unit#page/4497/mode/1up ''Testimony of Paul Robeson,''] Investigation of the Unauthorized Use of United States Passports- Part 3, Hearings before the Un-American Activities Committee, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress Second Session, June 12 and 13, 1956, p. 4497.</ref><ref>''The Media Falsify Robeson's Record,'' AIM Report, March 1976, pages 5, 6., quoted in [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''], by Herbert Romerstein, usasurvival.org</ref>}}

In 1988, CPUSA General Secretary [[Gus Hall]] corroborated Manning's testimony in a pamphlet entitled ''[http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Robeson-Communist-Gus-Hall/dp/B0006QXVGS/ Paul Robeson: An American Communist].'' Hall identified Robeson as a secret member of the CPUSA but, wrote Hall, "The U.S. Ruling Class and its corporate-ruled government made it impossible for Paul to declare his commitment to the Communist Party and a socialist USA."<ref>Cliff Kincaid, [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''], usasurvival.org</ref> According to [http://wernercohn.com/ Werner Cohn], professor emeritus of sociology at the University of British Columbia,<ref>[http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/u_arch/cohn.html#bio Biographical Sketch], Werner Cohn fonds, University of British Columbia Archives</ref> Hall wrote:

{{Cquote|My own most precious moments with Paul were when I met with him to accept his dues and renew his yearly membership in the CPUSA. I and other Communist leaders like Henry Winston, the Party's late, beloved national chair, met with Paul to brief him on politics and Party policies and to discuss his work and struggles."<ref>Werner Cohn, "[http://www.amazon.com/review/R323I3TZ2LOB18/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R323I3TZ2LOB18 Inadequate]," Review of ''Comrades!: A History of World Communism'' by Robert Service, Amazon.com</ref>"}}

{{Cquote|My own most precious moments with Paul were when I met with him to accept his dues and renew his yearly membership in the CPUSA. I and other Communist leaders like Henry Winston, the Party's late, beloved national chair, met with Paul to brief him on politics and Party policies and to discuss his work and struggles."<ref>Werner Cohn, "[http://www.amazon.com/review/R323I3TZ2LOB18/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R323I3TZ2LOB18 Inadequate]," Review of ''Comrades!: A History of World Communism'' by Robert Service, Amazon.com</ref>"}}

Robeson, notes ex-Communist [[David Horowitz]], "received a Stalin Peace Prize from the dictator himself."<ref>Horowitz, David, "Moment of Truth (for the anti-American Left)", ''Jewish World Review'', March 31, 2003''</ref> In accepting the Prize, Robeson stated, "We know how [[Truman]] betrayed the American people in their hopes for peace, how he betrayed the Negro people in their thirst for equal rights, how he tore up the [[Bill of Rights]] and subjected the whole American people to a reign of FBI-[[terror]]ization."<ref>[http://www.mltranslations.org/Miscellaneous/RobesonSPP.htm Thoughts on Winning the Stalin Peace Prize], Paul Robeson, January 1953.</ref>

 

On the 100th anniversary of Robeson's birth in 1998, CPUSA Executive Vice-Chairman Jarvis Tyner concurred in a cover story in ''Political Affairs'', an official organ of the Communist Party:

{{cquote|Because of the extreme repression of the McCarthy period, Robeson was not able to publicly announce the nature of his association with the Communist Party. During the House Un-American Activities Committee's hearing, Robeson joined thousands of others and refused to answer the infamous 'are you now or have you been' question... As the centennial celebrations are taking place today, many are shamelessly going out of their way to distance Robeson from his Party. Unfortunately, if these lies go unanswered, Paul's legacy will be at war with the life he actually lived. We cannot allow the ruling class to praise him, in order to tear him down. We cannot allow them to turn Robeson into an ordinary liberal. The real Paul Robeson was no liberal&mdash;he was a freedom fighter, a revolutionary, a Communist, a 20th century giant.<ref>Quoted in [http://www.slate.com/id/1000896 Robeson Revised], Slate.com, June 22, 1998</ref>}}

==The Soviet Union==

==The Soviet Union==