Declaration of War

Paul Robeson knew what it was like to be popular--as an All America football star, as a concert artist who packed halls from coast to coast and made a fortune. In recent years, he had also learned what it meant to be unpopular--for being a party-liner and saying he preferred Russia to the U.S. Only last week a fellow Negro denounced him before a congressional committee as a would-be "black Stalin."

Mrs. Paul Robeson, a leftwinger herself, wrote a letter to the Springfield (Mass.) Union. It was a little slick, and studded with the tag ends of party phrases, but also in it were sentences which showed a little of what it meant to be famously unpopular in the U.S. Excerpts:

"During these last few days, when our beloved and only child married the girl he loves [Paul Robeson Jr., who went to school in Russia, married a white girl], I have taken the crucial beating at the hands of my fellow countrymen. Some of them collected in the street to boo my children, whom they did not even know. The natural thing for people to do when they see a newly married pair is to smile indulgently, vaguely wish them well. These people were wishing my children evil.

"I brought my children home with me to the peace and quiet and friendliness of Enfield [Conn.], but already we have received postcards, letters and telegrams from strangers who dare not sign their names, wishing us evil."

Mrs. Robeson asked herself if she was expected to feel some sort of loyalty to such fellow citizens. She decided not.

"I found that my loyalty is given to the laws of my country as set down in our beautiful Constitution and Bill of Rights, to those communities which obey these laws, to my fellow citizens, fellow progressives, and friends here in my country and all over the world who think, feel, and work for the equality of man.

"Obviously, it would be ridiculous for anyone to be loyal to those people who do him harm and wish him evil. Such people are his enemies. Even animals recognize their enemies and make war on them or at least defend themselves.

"I therefore, being sound of mind, wind, and limb, having at least as much sense as an animal, do hereby declare war on my enemies, and ... I will fight them every step of the way until we achieve the equality as American citizens which is guaranteed by our Constitution . . ."

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