NEGRO SINGER’S REFUSAL TO STATE IF HE IS COMMUNIST

Grey River Argus, 3 June 1948, Page 3

NEGRO SINGER’S REFUSAL TO STATE IF HE IS COMMUNIST

WASHINGTON, May 31. Paul Robeson, the famous negro singer, refused to-day to tell the United States Senate Judiciary Committee whether he was a member of the American Communist Party. Robeson, who has declared that he will go to jail rather than tell, said: “This is an invasion of my right of secret ballot.” He appeared before the committee to oppose the Mundt-Nixon Bill to control Communism, and . said he thought members of the Communist Party had done “a magnificent job in America.” ♦' The question whether Robeson will be cited for contempt for refusing to say whether he is a Communist will he considered by the committee. Robeson told the committee that he would not obey the Mundt-Nixon Bill if it become law. “I would classify it as a Fascist Act,” he said. Robeson said that his son went to school in Russia, where he had found complete freedom from racial prejudice. “I too walk the earth in Russia for the first time with complete dignity,” he said. I-Tis father. Robeson said, had been a slave in South Carolina. Gradually raising his voice he declared-that the slaves had built the South’s cotton industry, and commented: “What did

we get out of it Poverty.” Senator H. Moore (Republican, Oklahomo) asked if there were any country other than the United States where people had the opportunity to rise in one generation-from slavery to wealth and prominence, to which Robeson replied: “They have more opportunity in Russia than I would have in Mississippi. There have not been as many people liquidated in Russia as in American slavery.” Senator Homer Ferguson (Republican, Michigan) who had asked Robeson whether ha was a Communist, told reporters after the committee adjourned: “Robeson seems to want to be made a martyr. Maybe we ought to make him' one. Sometimes a year in gaol cools off some of these neople.” LONDON, June 1. Mr J. F. F. Platts-Mills, whom the Labour Party expelled after the sending of the Nenni telegram, cabled congratulations to Paul Robeson for refusing to tell the United States Senate Judiciary Committee whether- he is a Communist or not.