Paul Robeson and the Cold War Performance Complex: Race, Madness, Activism

Appendix: Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956

Appendix: Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956 THE CHAIRMAN: The Committee will be in order. This morning the Committee resumes its series of hearings on the vital issue of the use of American passports as travel documents in furtherance of the objectives of the Communist conspiracy. . . . Mr. ARENS: Now, during the course of the process in which you were applying for this passport, in July of 1954, were you requested to submit a non-Communist affidavit? Mr. ROBESON: We had a long discussion—with my counsel, who is in the room, Mr. [Leonard B.] Boudin—with the State Department, about just such an affidavit and I was very precise not only in the application but with the State Department, headed by Mr. Henderson and Mr. McLeod, that under no conditions would I think of signing any such affidavit, that it is a complete contradiction of the rights of American citizens. Mr. ARENS: Did you comply with the requests? Mr. ROBESON: I certainly did not and I will not. Mr. ARENS: Are you now a member of the Communist Party? Mr. ROBESON: Oh please, please, please. Mr. SCHERER: Please answer, will you, Mr. Robeson? Mr. ROBESON: What is the Communist Party? What do you mean by that? Mr. SCHERER: I ask that you direct the witness to answer the question. Mr. ROBESON: What do you mean by the Communist Party? As far as I know it is a legal party like the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Do you mean a party of people who have sacrificed for my people, and for all Americans and workers, that they can live in dignity? Do you mean that party? Mr. ARENS: Are you now a member of the Communist Party? Mr. ROBESON: Would you like to come to the ballot box when I vote and take out the ballot and see? 163 Mr. ARENS: Mr. Chairman, I respectfully suggest that the witness be ordered and directed to answer that question. THE CHAIRMAN: You are directed to answer the question. (The witness consulted with his counsel.) Mr. ROBESON: I stand upon the Fifth Amendment of the American Constitution. Mr. ARENS: Do you mean you invoke the Fifth Amendment? Mr. ROBESON: I invoke the Fifth Amendment. Mr. ARENS: Do you honestly apprehend that if you told this Committee truthfully— Mr. ROBESON: I have no desire to consider anything. I invoke the Fifth Amendment, and it is none of your business what I would like to do, and I invoke the Fifth Amendment. And forget it. THE CHAIRMAN: You are directed to answer that question. Mr. ROBESON: I invoke the Fifth Amendment, and so I am answering it, am I not? Mr. ARENS: I respectfully suggest the witness be ordered and directed to answer the question as to whether or not he honestly apprehends, that if he gave us a truthful answer to this last principal question, he would be supplying information which might be used against him in a criminal proceeding. (The witness consulted with his counsel.) THE CHAIRMAN: You are directed to answer that question, Mr. Robeson. Mr. ROBESON: Gentlemen, in the first place, wherever I have been in the world, Scandinavia, England, and many places, the first to die in the struggle against Fascism were the Communists and I laid many wreaths upon graves of Communists. It is not criminal, and the Fifth Amendment has nothing to do with criminality. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Warren, has been very clear on that in many speeches, that the Fifth Amendment does not have anything to do with the inference of criminality. I invoke the Fifth Amendment. Mr. ARENS: Have you ever been known under the name of “John Thomas”? Mr. ROBESON: Oh, please, does somebody here want—are you suggesting—do you want me to be put up for perjury some place? “John Thomas”! My name is Paul Robeson, and anything I have to say, or stand for, I have said in public all over the world, and that is why I am here today. 164 APPENDIX Mr. SCHERER: I ask that you direct the witness to answer the question. He is making a speech. Mr. FRIEDMAN: Excuse me, Mr. Arens, may we have the photographers take their pictures, and then desist, because it is rather nerve-racking for them to be there. THE CHAIRMAN: They will take the pictures...