Africanism and Socialist Persuasion

Abstract: This paper explores adult educational dimensions of the work of Paul Roberson the acclaimed athlete, singer, actor, linguist and political activist. In the discourse surrounding influential African American adult educators the name of Paul Robeson is surprisingly absent; surprising because, as a respected contemporary of W.E. DuBois (and acknowledged by DuBois as an important peer) Paul Robeson was one of the towering Black public intellectuals of the twentieth century. Philip Foner (1978) notes that Robeson’s emphasis on racial pride, racial unity, the connection between civil rights organizing in the USA and anti-colonial struggles across the globe, and the importance of mass action and collective unity amongst African Americans, means he must be considered the intellectual brother and forerunner of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. In his willingness to use popular culture to raise questions of race and racism with the larger White population, Robeson also anticipates the work of organic intellectuals such as Cornel West. Robeson’s influence on US affairs was tempered by his commitment to Socialism (which grew concurrent with the advent of the cold war) and his refusal to disavow the Soviet Union, even after Kruschev’s 1956 address publicizing Stalin’s repression. When the State departmen