Quote

I've learned that my people are not the only ones oppressed... I have sung my songs all over the world and everywhere found that some common bond makes the people of all lands take to Negro songs as their own.

Paul Robeson

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Paul Robeson
Age: 77 †
Born: 1898
Born: April 9
Died: 1976
Died: January 23
Actor
American Football Player
Basketball Player
Film Actor
Lawyer
Musician
Politician
Singer
Stage Actor
Writer
Princeton
New Jersey
Paul Leroy Robeson
Makes
Oppressed
Found
Everywhere
Music
Songs
Take
Ones
World
Learned
Sung
People
Land
Lands
Common
Negro
Song
Bond

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Artists are the radical voice of civilization.
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I do not hesitate one second to state clearly and unmistakably: I belong to the American resistance movement which fights against American imperialism, just as the resistance movement fought against Hitler.
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To be free . . . to walk the good American earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil, to give our children every opportunity in life--that dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands.
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As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this.
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At every step the vast majority have expressed horror at the idea of an aggressive war.
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I feel closer to my country than ever. There is no longer a feeling of lonesome isolation. Instead-peace. I return without fearing prejudice that once bothered me . . . for I know that people practice cruel bigotry in their ignorance, not maliciously
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I am being tried for fighting for the right of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America.
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Artists are the gatekeepers of truth.
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My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you.
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With Othello, Shakespeare posed this problem of a black man in a white society in the role that he's playing. And Shakespeare gave Othello such dignity - he came not from - as he said - not from hate but from honor, from a sense of his own human dignity. And to me, to my mind, there could be no greater character played.
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The talents of an artist, small or great, are God-given. They've nothing to do with the private person they're nothing to be proud of. They're just a sacred trust... Having been given, I must give. Man shall not live by bread alone, and what the farmer does I must do. I must feed the people - with my songs.
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I said it was my feeling that the American people would struggle for peace, and that has since been underscored by the President of these United States.
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We must join with the tens of millions all over the world who see in peace our most sacred responsibility.
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And, gentlemen, they have not yet done so, and it is quite clear that no Americans, no people in the world probably, are going to war with the Soviet Union.
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Through the years I have received my share of recognition for efforts in the fields of sports, the arts, the struggle for full citizenship for the Negro people, labor's rights and the fight for peace.
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Freedom is a hard-bought thing.
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Sometimes great injustices may be inflicted on the minority when the majority is in the pursuit of a great and just cause.
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I found a special eagerness among the younger, and I am sorry to say, the more intelligent Negroes, to dismiss the spiritual as something beneath their new pride in their race. It is as if they wanted to put it behind them as something to be ashamed of.
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Freedom is a hard-bought thing and millions are in chains, but they strain toward the new day drawing near.
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Could I say that the reason that I am here today, you know, from the mouth of the State Department itself, is: I should not be allowed to travel because I have struggled for years for the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa.
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