Customer Reviews

Here I stand

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Paul Leroy Robeson (1898-1976) was a famed athlete, concert singer, actor, and civil rights activist, whose outspoken criticism of U.S. policies and imperialism caused him grief from the FBI and CIA.

He writes in the "Author's Preface" to this 1958 book, "In these pages I have discussed what this fight for Negro freedom means in the crisis of today, of how it represents the decisive front in the struggle for democracy in our country, of how it relates to the cause of peace and liberation throughout the world. In presenting my views on this subject ... I have sought to explain how I came to my viewpoint and to take the stand I have taken."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Deep in my heart from that day on was a conviction which none of the Ackermans of America would ever be able to shake. Equality might be denied, but I KNEW I was not inferior." (Pg. 25)

"On many occasions I have expressed my belief in the principles of scientific socialism, my deep conviction that for all mankind a socialist society represents an advance to a higher stage of life---that it is a form of society which is economically, socially, culturally, and ethically superior to a system based on production for higher profit." (Pg. 39)

"(O)ne of the committee members angrily demanded, 'Why did you not stay in Russia?' 'Because my father was a slave,' I retorted, 'and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear?" (Pg. 48)

"When will Americans learn, that if they would encourage liberty in other countries, they must practice it at home?" (Pg. 68)

"What difference is there between the Master Race idea of Hitler and the White Supremacy creed of Eastland? Who can convince the European peoples that the burning cross of the white-robed Klan is different from the swastika of the Brownshirts? ... the deep-rooted racism here and its violent outbursts arouse the worst fears of those who survived the holocaust of Hitlerism." (Pg. 83)

"We need more of our women in the higher ranks, too, and who should know better than the children of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Mary Church Terrell that our womenfolk have often led the way." (Pg. 105)

Searching for the truth? Read about how possibly the greatest American to ever live was erased from U.S. history.