Abstract
These words—from a Negro spiritual Paul Leroy Bustill Robeson sang and recorded in New York City on 10 May 1927—epitomize a gifted but tormented life. Robeson rose to the pinnacle of fame as an actor/singer, but fell to the nadir as an activist. On 23 January 1976, age 77, Robeson died, but Ebony asserted, in quoting Coretta Scott King, that he had been “buried alive” long before his funeral (Douglas 33). Many people today do not know his name, in spite of the 1998 Centennial Celebration of his 100th birthday. The curtain of silence had come down for too long.
I’m goin’ to tell God all of my troubles when I get home.
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© 2000 Glenda E. Gill
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Gill, G.E. (2000). The Silencing of Paul Robeson. In: No Surrender! No Retreat!. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-05361-9_3
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