But most importantly, he was courageous. Despite being hounded and persecuted by our government, he was unwilling to compromise his socialist beliefs. In 1950, while attempting to renew his passport so that he could travel abroad to fulfill his performance contracts, our State Department officials insisted that he sign an affidavit declaring that he was not a member of the Communist Party and that he was loyal to the United States. Robeson refused to do so and filed suit in federal court.
On this day in 1955, a federal judge ruled that the State Department was within its legal rights to deny Robeson a passport. After the decision, Robeson declared that it was “rather absurd” that he was not “allowed to travel because of my friendship — open, spoken friendship — for the Soviet people and the peoples of all the world.”
Below, an example of Robeson’s courage and brilliance while under the intense pressure of interrogation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956:
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