Paul Robeson: "I'm a Negro. I'm an American."

Streaming video - 1989

A cinematic homage to the African American singer, actor, civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898–1976). At the peak of his singing career in the late 1940s, Robeson began to work primarily as a political activist and subsequently had to endure years of discrimination and isolation in his own country during the hysteria of 1950s McCarthyism. The documentary tells Robeson’s story in non-chronological order, using a compilation of materials: rarely shown historical footage, including from the 1949 Peekskill riots; photographs of the U.S. civil rights movement; speeches; performances and visits to East Germany and the Soviet Union. Interviews with Paul Robeson Jr., Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte give insight into the coura...geous life of a Renaissance man. Commonly referred as the “voice of the other America,” East German officials used Robeson’s image to bolster GDR solidarity with the U.S. civil rights movement. more