The Remarkable, Persecuted Life of Paul Robeson
Chris Hedges and Dr. Gerald Horne discuss the work done and price paid by the American dissident
Paul Robeson, one of the most extraordinary Americans of the 20th century, was persecuted by his government
On a new episode of journalist and book author Chris Hedges’ new show on The Real News Network, The Chris Hedges Report, he interviews historian and attorney Dr. Gerald Horne about the life of dissident Paul Robeson. Horne’s biography of the world-famous American radical, “The Artist as Revolutionary,” is a must-read.
Though remembered by history not just as a remarkable artist but pillar of morality through his activism, Hedges and Dr. Horne discuss the ways in which the United States government and corporate state persecuted Robeson for his civil rights work.
“When you defy the imperial, capitalist, American state, when you denounce the crimes done to its own people, especially the poor, immigrants, and African-Americans, as well as the crimes it commits abroad, when you have a global audience in the tens of millions that admires you and respects you for your courage and integrity, when you cannot be intimidated or bought off, then you are targeted for destruction. Heroic dissidents are demonized, marginalized, physically and psychologically destroyed or assassinated by the American ruling class. Before the persecution of Julian Assange, before the FBI assassination of Fred Hampton and Malcolm X, before the murder of Martin Luther King, there was the relentless campaign to silence the activist, actor, and singer Paul Robeson,” Hedges says in his introduction.
“Robeson was a socialist, and militant who stood with the crucified of the earth. He was fearless, confronting then President Harry S. Truman in a face-to-face meeting in the White House, berating him, for failing to halt the terror of lynching that afflicted Blacks…His life illustrates the length to which the American Empire will go to destroy and silence its most powerful critics.”
Watch the entire episode, below, and share with your circle.