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T IS A SAD and bitter com-
mentary on the state of civil
liberties in America that the
very forces of reaction, typi-
fied by Representative Frances
Walter and his Senate coun-
terparts, who have denied me
access to the lecture podium,
the concert. hall, the opera
house, and the dramatic stage,
now hale me before a commit-
tee of inquisition in order to
hear what I have to say. It is
obvious that those who are
trying to gag me here and
abroad will scarcely grant me
_ the freedom to express myself
fully in a hearing controlled
_ by them.

ee eT ye a Teen

_ It would be more fitting for
me to question Walter, East-
land and Dulles than for them
to question me, for it is they
who should be called to ac-
count for their conduct, not I.

_ Why does Walter not in-
_ vestigate the truly “un-Ameri-
can” activities of Eastland and
his gang, to whom the Consti-
_ tution is a scrap of paper when
_invoked by the Negro people
-and to whom defiance of the
Supreme Court is a racial du-
_ ty? And how can Eastland pre-
tend concern over the intern-
al security of our country
while he supports the most

brutal assaults on 15 million
Americans by White Citizens
Councils and the Ku Klux
Klan? =

When will Dulles explain

his .reckless, irresponsible

“brink of war’policy by which
the world might have been de-
stroyed?

And, specifically, why is
Dulles afraid to let me have a
passport, to let me travel
abroad to sing, to act, to speak
my mind? This question has
been partially answered by’
state department lawyers who
have asserted in court that the
state department claims the
right to deny me a passport
because of what they called
my “recognized status as a
spokesman for large sections
of Negro Americans” and be-
cause I have “been for years
extremély active in~behalf of
independence of colonial ‘peop-
les of Africa.”

The state department has
also based its denial of a pass-
port to me on the fact that I
sent a message of greeting to
the Bandung Conference, con-
vened by Nehru, Sukarno and
other great leaders of the col-
ored peoples of the world.

My fight

for a passport

By PAUL ROBESON

THIS article is the text of a statement Paul Robeson attempted to read out when he
. was called before the Un-American Activities Committee, headed by Representa-
tive Francis Walter, last month. The committee refused to allow him to complete the
statement and voted to ask the U.S. Congress to cite him for contempt.

Principally, however, Dulles
objects to speeches I have
made abroad against the op-
pression suffered by my people
in the United States.

*

I am proud that those state-
ments can be made about me.
It is my firm intention to con-
tinue to speak out against in-
justices to the Negro people,
and I shall continue to do all
within my power in behalf of
independence of colonial peop-
les of Africa. :

It is for Dulles to explain
why a Negro who opposes co-
lonialism and supports the
aspirations of. Negro -Ameri-
cans should for those reasons
be denied a passport.

My fight for a passport is a
struggle for freedom — free-
dom to travel, freedom to ex-
press myself artistically and
culturally. I have been denied

- these freedoms because Dulles,

Eastland, Walter and their ilk
oppose my views on colonial
liberation, my resistance to
oppression of Negro Ameri-
cans, and my burning desire
for peace with all nations. But
these are views which I shall
proclaim, whenever given the
opportunity, whether before
this committee or any other
body.

President Eisenhower has
strongly urged the desirability

of international cultural ex-
changes. I agree with him. The
American people would wel-
come artistic performances by
the great singers, actors, ballet
troupes, opera companies, sym-
phony orchestras and virtuosos
of South America, Europe,
Africa and Asia, including the
folk and classic art of the Afri-
can peoples, the ancient cul-
ture of China, as well as the
artistic works of the Western
world.

I hope the day will come
soon when Walter will consent
to lowering the cruel bars
which deny the American
people to witness performance
of many great foreign artists.
It is certainly high time for
him to drop the ridiculous
“Keystone Kop” antics of fin-
gerprinting distinguished visit-
ors.

*

I find no such restrictions
placed on me abroad as Walter
has had placed upon foreign
artists whose performances the
American people wish to see
and hear. I have been invited
to perform all over the world,
and only the arbitrary denial
of a passport has prevented
realization of this particular
aspect of the cultural exchange
which the President favors.

I have been invited by Leslie
Linder Productions to play the
title role in a production of
Othello in England. British
Actors’ Equity Association has
unanimously approved of my
appearance and performance
in England.

I have been invited by
Workers’ Music Association to
make a concert tour of Eng-
land under its auspices: The
invitation was signed by all of
the. vice presidents, including
Benjamin Britten, and was
seconded by a personal invi-
tation of Ralph Vaughn Wil-
liams.

I have been invited by Adam
Holender, impresario, to make
a concert tour of Israel, and
he has tendered to me a pro-
posed contract for that pur-
pose. *

Mosfilm, a Soviet moving
picture producing company,
has invited me to play the title
role in a film version of
Othello, assuring me “of the
tremendous artistic joy which
association with your wonder-
ful talent will bring us.”

The British Electrical Trades
Union requested me to attend
their annual policy conference
recalling my attendance at a
similar conference held. in
1949 at which, they wrote me,
“you sang and spoke so mov-
ingly.”

The British Workers’ Sports
Association erroneously credit-
ing a false report that I would
be permitted to travel,~wrote
me, ‘“‘we view the news with
very great happiness.” They
invited me “to sing to our
members in London, Glasgow,
Manchester or Cardiff, or all
four, under the auspices ‘of
our -International Fund, and

on a financial basis favorable
to yourself, and to be mutually
agreed.” They suggested “a
choice of three different halls
in London seating, respective-
ly, 3,000, 4,500 and 7,000.

The Australian Peace Coun-
cil invited me to make a com-
bined “singing and peace tour”
of the dominion.

I have received an invitation
from the education committee
of the London Cooperative So-
ciety to sing at concerts in
London under their auspices.

A. Swedish youth organi-
zation called Democratic Youth
has invited me to visit Sweden
“to give some concerts here,
to get to know our culture and
our people.” The letter of in-
vitation added, “Your appear-
ance, here would be greeted
with the greatest interest and
pleasure, and a tour in Swe-
den can be arranged either by
us or by our organization in
cooperation with others, or by
any four cultural societies or
artists’ bureaus, whichever you
may| prefer.”

I have an invitation from the
South Wales Miners to sing at
the Miners’ Singing Festival
on October 6, 1956 and in a
series of concerts in the min-
ing valley thereafter.

In Manchester, England, a
group of people called the
“Let Paul Robeson Sing Com-
mittee” has asked me to give
a concert at the Free Trade
Hall in that city either pre-
ceding or following my en-
gagement in Wales.

I have been requested by the
artistic and literary director of
the Agence Litteraire et Artis-
tique Parisienne Pour les
Echanges Culturels to sign a
contract with the great French
concert organizer, Marcel de
Valmalette, to sing in a series
of concerts at the Palais de
Chaillot in Paris.

*

There is no doubt that the
governments of those coun-
tries and many others where. I
would be invited to sing if I
could travel abroad, would
have no fear of what I might
sing or say while there, whe-
ther such governments be
allies and friends of America
or neutrals or those others
whose friendship for the Am-
erican people is obstructed by
Dulles and Walter and like-
minded reactionaries.

My travels abroad to sing
and act and speak cannot pos-
sibly harm the American peop-
le. In the past I have won
friends for the real America
among the millions’ before
whom I have performed — not
for Walter, not for Dulles, not
for Eastland, not for the racists
who disgrace our country’s
name — but friends for the
American Negro, our workers,
our farmers, our artists.

By continuing the struggle
at home and abroad for peace
and friendship with all of the-
world’s people, for an end to
colonialism, for full citizenship
for Negro Americans, for a
world in which art and culture
may abound, I intend ‘to con-
tinue to win friends for the
best in American life.

July 6, 1956 —PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE Il