Paul Robeson, 1898-1976: He Traveled the World Singing Songs to Support Peace and Equal Rights for Black Americans
ANNOUNCER:
Now,the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember finish the story of the life of Paul Robeson. He was a singer and international political activist.
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VOICE ONE:
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| Paul Robeson |
By the late nineteen twenties, Paul Robeson had become the most highly praised black actor and singer of the time. During the nineteen thirties, he became involved in national and international movements for peace, equal rights for black Americans, and better labor conditions. He traveled around the world singing his songs to support these struggles. However, his friendship with the Soviet Union brought strong opposition from conservative groups in the United States.
Many people in the United States opposed Robeson’s political beliefs as too liberal or extreme. As early as nineteen forty-one, American government agencies, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, reportedly had targeted him as dangerous. They considered his political activism to be against the best interests of the American government.
VOICE TWO:
During World War Two, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies fighting against Nazi Germany. Robeson recorded several Russian songs to honor the Soviet people’s defense of their land against the Nazi invasion. These recordings were broadcast in the Soviet Union.
Many Soviet soldiers were said to have heard Paul Robeson’s voice before going into battle. This is one of those songs. It is called “Native Land.”
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VOICE ONE:
After World War Two, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union became tense. In the late nineteen forties, Americans feared communism as a threat to their way of life. The people in the Soviet Union were denied the freedoms that Americans enjoyed. The United States joined with other nations to try to halt the spread of communism around the world.
In addition, the crimes of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin became public. These included the killing of millions of people in the Soviet Union who opposed his policies. As a result, many former American supporters of communism stopped supporting the Soviet Union.
VOICE TWO:
Robeson, however, continued to support the Soviet Union. He still believed in the idea of communism. And he believed in friendship between the United States and the Soviet Union. A congressional committee began investigating Americans who supported communism or who were friends of people who supported it. The committee questioned Robeson. He refused to say if he was a communist. Robeson saw the questioning as an attack on the democratic rights of everyone who worked for international friendship and for equality.
VOICE ONE:
Robeson also was condemned in the United States because of his criticism of the United States government. He spoke at the World Peace Conference in Paris in April, nineteen forty-nine. He was reported to have said he did not believe black Americans would fight for the American government that oppressed them against the Soviet Union.
This statement brought a strong reaction against him from some people in the American press, government and public. It led to rioting at a concert in New York State where Robeson was to appear. Hundreds of people were injured when crowds threw stones at people attending the concert.
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In nineteen fifty, the American State Department withdrew Robeson’s travel document because of the political ideas he expressed. This prevented him from leaving the United States to perform in other countries. The State Department said his travel to other countries would not be in the best interest of the United States.
Robeson also was barred from performing in many places in the United States. His concerts were canceled. His records were withdrawn from stores. Record companies refused to produce new recordings of his songs. Robeson said the actions against him were attempts to silence artistic expression. He said they were attempts to control whom people could hear and what they could hear.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen fifty-two, the Mine, Mill and Smelters Workers Union of British Columbia, Canada, invited Robeson to attend its yearly meeting. Americans do not need a passport to enter Canada. But the United States government barred him from entering Canada anyway. So the union invited him to sing at an outdoor concert in the United States.
The concert was held at Peace Arch Park. The park is in the northwestern state of Washington, on the border between the United States and Canada. Robeson sang to more than thirty thousand people in both countries. Here is a recording from that concert. Robeson sang a famous labor union song called “Joe Hill.”
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VOICE TWO:
Robeson performed at another outdoor concert at Peace Arch Park the following year. At the end of the program, Robeson spoke to the thousands of people attending. He promised to continue the fight for freedom as long as he could. Here is part of that speech.
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VOICE ONE:
Nineteen fifty-eight was an important year for Paul Robeson. His regained his passport that year after a Supreme Court ruling on a similar case. The Supreme Court ruled that the State Department could not withhold passports of American citizens because of their suspected beliefs or the groups they joined. A book he wrote about his life, “Here I Stand,” also was published. And, that same year, he performed in a concert at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York. It was his first appearance there in eleven years. Every seat in the hall was filled. Paul Robeson sang an African American spiritual called “Didn’t My Lord Deliver.” Here is a recording from that concert.
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VOICE TWO:
Paul Robeson and his wife Essie moved to London where he continued to sing and act. They also visited the Soviet Union often. In nineteen sixty-three, they returned to the United States. Paul Robeson was suffering from physical and mental problems. He retired from public life because of his bad health. Paul Robeson died in nineteen seventy-six, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In nineteen forty-nine, Paul Robeson had written these words: “I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope…in the face of…fear. My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail.”
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ANNOUNCER:
You have been listening to the story of the life of singer and political activist Paul Robeson. This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I’m Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for another
PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.
Too Much Time Watching TV? You may be a Couch Potato
Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.
Some unusual words describe how a person spends his or her time. For example, someone who likes to spend a lot of time sitting or lying down while watching television is sometimes called a couch potato. A couch is a piece of furniture that people sit on while watching television.
Robert Armstrong, an artist from California, developed the term couch potato in nineteen-seventy-six. Several years later, he listed the term as a trademark with the United States government. Mister Armstrong also helped write a funny book about life as a full-time television watcher. It is called the “Official Couch Potato Handbook.”
Couch potatoes enjoy watching television just as mouse potatoes enjoy working on computers. A computer mouse is the device that moves the pointer, or cursor, on a computer screen. The description of mouse potato became popular in nineteen-ninety-three. American writer Alice Kahn is said to have invented the term to describe young people who spend a lot of time using computers.
Too much time inside the house using a computer or watching television can cause someone to get cabin fever. A cabin is a simple house usually built far away from the city. People go to a cabin to relax and enjoy quiet time.
Cabin fever is not really a disease. However, people can experience boredom and restlessness if they spend too much time inside their homes. This is especially true during the winter when it is too cold or snowy to do things outside. Often children get cabin fever if they cannot go outside to play. So do their parents. This happens when there is so much snow that schools and even offices and stores are closed.
Some people enjoy spending a lot of time in their homes to make them nice places to live. This is called nesting or cocooning. Birds build nests out of sticks to hold their eggs and baby birds. Some insects build cocoons around themselves for protection while they grow and change. Nests and cocoons provide security for wildlife. So people like the idea of nests and cocoons, too.
The terms cocooning and nesting became popular more than twenty years ago. They describe people buying their first homes and filling them with many things. These people then had children.
Now these children are grown and have left the nest. They are in college. Or they are married and starting families of their own far away. Now these parents are living alone without children in their empty nest. They have become empty nesters.
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This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus.
For the Candidates, a Last Weekend to Make Their Case to Americans
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
The American presidential candidates are in the final weekend of campaigning for the elections on Tuesday. Barack Obama’s lead has narrowed but most opinion polls still point his way.
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| California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with John McCain at a campaign rally Friday in Columbus, Ohio |
The Democrat hopes to win states that voted for President Bush. These include big states like Ohio and Florida that John McCain must win if he has any chance for victory.
Both candidates have campaign workers and volunteers making calls and going door-to-door in neighborhoods to spread their message. In political campaigns this is called the ground war. Broadcast advertising is the air war.
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| Barack Obama greets supporters at a rally Friday in Des Moines, Iowa |
Another kind of advertising, and one that is often criticized, especially during mealtimes, is the robocall. Robocalls are recorded telephone messages — like this one paid for by the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee.
CALLER: “Hello. I’m calling for John McCain and the R.N.C. because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. … “
Barack Obama and the Democrats have their own robocalls. The Campaign for Change, a project of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, paid for this one:
CALLER: “Hi, this is Jeri Watermolen, calling for the Campaign for Change. I live in Green Bay and, like you, I’ve been getting sleazy phone calls and mail from John McCain and his supporters viciously — and falsely — attacking Barack Obama. I used to support John McCain because he honorably served our country. But this year he’s running a dishonorable campaign. We know McCain will continue many of Bush’s policies, and now he’s using George Bush’s divisive tactics. … “
Barack Obama has heavily outspent John McCain on local television ads in battleground states. His campaign also bought thirty minutes on seven national broadcast and cable networks Wednesday night. The program included stories of families struggling in difficult times, and Senator Obama talking about his proposals.
BARACK OBAMA: “I believe we need to usher in a new era of responsibility. Families are tightening their belts and so should Washington.”
Nielsen Media Research estimated that almost thirty-four million people watched the Obama infomercial, or information commercial. That was more than the number that watched last season’s final show on “American Idol.”
The presidential campaign has also produced the highest ratings in years for the NBC comedy show “Saturday Night Live.” Tina Fey has gotten big laughs playing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president.
Two weeks ago, the real Sarah Palin was on the show. She came on stage while the fake one was giving a “news conference.”
TINA FEY: “To answer your question, you know, I don’t worry about the polls. Polls are just a fancy way of systematically predicting what’s going to happen. The only poll I care about is the North Pole and that is melting, it’s not great … What? The real one? Bye!”
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SARAH PALIN: “Thank you, thank you. Now, I’m not going to take any of your questions, but I do want to take this opportunity to say: Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”
And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember.
