Videos, Audio, Poetry, Paintings etc., that send a message

The Little Black Boy (by William Blake)

My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white,
White as an angel is the English child;
But I am black as if bereav'd of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree
And sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissed me,
And pointing to the east began to say.

Look on the rising sun: there God does live
And gives his light, and gives his heat away.
And flowers and trees and beasts and men recieve
Comfort in morning joy in the noon day.

And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love.
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear,
The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice,
Saying: come out from the grove my love & care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.

Thus did my mother say and kissed me.
And thus I say to little English boy.
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy:

I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear,
To lean in joy upon our fathers knee.
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him and he will then love me.

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"Despite the openly racist and violent opposition he faced, Robeson became a twelve letter athlete excelling in baseball, basketball, football, and track"

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Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers University. When he went out for the Rutgers University football team, the other players beat him viciously, even pulling out his fingernails. He bore the abuse to prove his worth and when he graduated he was a two-time All-American and the school valedictorian, exhorting his classmates to "catch a new vision."[2] Robeson was the third African-American student accepted at Rutgers, and was the only black student during his time on campus.

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(later in life) his name was retroactively struck from the roster of the 1917 and 1918 college All-America football teams.....

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A spokeman for NBC declared that Robeson would never appear on NBC. Press releases of the Civil Rights Congress objected that "censorship of Mr. Robeson's appearance on TV is a crude attempt to silence the outstanding spokesman for the Negro people in their fight for civil and human rights" and that our "basic democratic rights are under attack under the smoke-screen of anti-Communism." ....

However, because of the controversy surrounding him, all of Paul Robeson's recordings and films were withdrawn from circulation. From then until the late 1970s, it became increasingly difficult in the United States, if not impossible, to hear Robeson sing on records or on the radio, or to see any of his films, including the highly acclaimed and successful 1936 film version of Show Boat. As far as audiences of the late 1950s (and all of the 1960s) knew, there was only one film version of the show, the MGM Technicolor version of 1951.

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Robeson toured Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War and was photographed with members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, ....
{The Abraham Lincoln Brigade refers to volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades. They fought for Spanish Republican forces against the Nationalists under Franco.}

..... Robeson was among the first performers to sing in concert on behalf of the U.S. World War II war effort.
... Robeson left Britain during the Second World War. It was later discovered that his name was in The Black Book, a Nazi document listing thousands of people living in Britain who were to be arrested following the successful completion of Operation Sealion

Robeson's association with Wales began in 1928 while he was performing in London in the musical Show Boat. There, he met a group of unemployed miners who had taken part in a "hunger march" from South Wales to protest their situation...Robeson remains a celebrated figure in Wales. The exhibit Let Paul Robeson Sing! was unveiled in Cardiff in 2001,

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Political Activism, Politics, Communism, and the Cold War
On his frequent trips to Western Europe and the Soviet Union he was highly critical of the conditions experienced by black Americans, especially in the segregated southern states.

The Soviet Union, Stalin, and Communism
After traveling to Europe for several years in the early 1930’s, Robeson was extended and accepted an offer to visit the Soviet Union. While there, Robeson was given the red carpet treatment, according to biographer Martin Duberman, including trips to the theatre, banquets, and other attractions. Robeson became captivated with this new society and its leadership, declaring "that the country was entirely free of racial prejudice and that Afro-American spiritual music resonated to Russian folk traditions. “Here, for the first time in my life ... I walk in full human dignity.”

Robeson allegedly told a Daily Worker reporter that “from what I have already seen of the workings of the Soviet Government, I can only say that anybody who lifts his hand against it ought to be shot!”

Ten years later, in 1956, Robeson was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) after he refused to sign an affidavit affirming that he was not a Communist. In response to questions concerning his alleged Communist Party membership, Robeson reminded the Committee that the Communist Party was a legal party and invited its members to join him in the voting booth before he invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to respond. Robeson lambasted Committee members on civil rights issues concerning African-Americans. When one senator asked him why he hadn't remained in the Soviet Union, he replied, "Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you." At one point he remarked, "you are the nonpatriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves."[17]

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Events such as these, along with a negative public response, led to the demise of his public career.

Paul Robeson died on January 23, 1976, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after living in seclusion for ten years. Robeson's legacy has been an inspiration to millions around the world. His courageous stance against oppression and inequality inpart led to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Through his stage and film performances he opened doors to inter-racial performances. With his travels across America and abroad, he opened the world's eyes to oppression. Robeson stood tall and proud against powerful governmental and societal forces. He remains in our memory a successful scholar, athlete, performer, and activist.

In the words of Paul Robeson: "To be free -to walk the good American earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil to give our children every opportunity in life - that dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands." (Robeson 108)

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Over 3,000 people gathered in Carnegie Hall to salute Robeson's 75th birthday, including Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Pete Seeger, Angela Davis, Dolores Huerta, Dizzy Gillespie, Odetta, Leon Bibb, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte (who also produced the show), James Earl Jones, Zero Mostel, Roscoe Lee Browne, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Coretta Scott King; birthday greetings arrived from President Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania, President Michael Manley of Jamaica, President Cheddi Jagan of Guyana, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Indira Gandhi, Arthur Ashe, Linus Pauling, Judge George W. Crockett, Leonard Bernstein and the African National Congress. Robeson was unable to attend due to illness, but a taped message from him was played which said in part, "Though I have not been able to be active for several years, I want you to know that I am the same Paul, dedicated as ever to the worldwide cause of humanity for freedom, peace and brotherhood." [25]

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Montage of pictures and quotes of Paul Robeson. A multi-lingual, actor, athlete, bass-baritone, concert singer, writer, civil rights activist and Socialist.

The music is 'Let Robeson Sing' by the Manic Street Preachers.

Where are you now? Broken up or still around?
The CIA says you're a guilty man Will we see the likes of you again?

Can anyone make a difference anymore? Can anyone write a protest song?
Pinky lefty revolutionary Burnt at the stake for

A voice so pure - a vision so clear I've gotta learn to live like you
Learn to sing like you

Went to Cuba to meet Castro Never got past sleepy Moscow
A giant man with a heavenly voice MK Ultra turned you paranoid

No passport 'til 1958 McCarthy poisoned through with hate
Liberty lost still buried today Beneath the lie of the USA

Say what you want Say what you want
A voice so pure - a vision so clear I've gotta learn to live like you
Learn to sing like you

Now let the Freedom Train come zooming down the track Gleaming in the sunlight for white and black
Not stopping at no stations marked colored nor white Just stopping in the fields in the broad daylight

Stopping in the country in the wide open air Where there never was a Jim Crow sign nowhere
And no lilly-white committees, politicians of note Nor poll tax layer through which colored can't vote

And there won't be no kinda color lines The Freedom Train will be yours And mine
A voice so pure - a vision so clear I've gotta learn to live like you
Learn to sing like you

Sing it loud, sing it proud I will be heard, I will be found
Sing it loud, sing it proud I will be heard, I will be found

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson
In particular, Robeson spoke out against lynching and, in 1946, he founded the American Crusade Against Lynching.

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working jobs we hate - to buy **** we don't need
no great war , no great depresion
... our great depression is our lives

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