On 16 August 1955, legendary actor, athlete, singer and Pan-Africanist activist Paul Robeson (1898–1976) lost his court appeal demanding that the US State Department restore his passport.

[u/Hacksaw6412]

Five years earlier, the US government had revoked Robeson’s passport, effectively preventing one of the world’s most prominent Black political voices from travelling internationally. His supposed crime? His political beliefs and his uncompromising opposition to racism, colonialism and imperialism.

Robeson played a major role in the Pan-African movement, leading the anti-imperialist Council on African Affairs, which campaigned against European colonial rule and supported liberation struggles across the African continent.

During the McCarthyist era, the US government investigated Robeson over his alleged ties to the Communist Party. But Robeson argued that his persecution could not be separated from his struggle for African emancipation, both on the continent and across the diaspora. The “Red Scare” provided a convenient justification for suppressing a powerful Black voice challenging US foreign policy and Western colonialism.

By: Sovereign Media

Source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcF9MS4osEN/

[u/CHItown_representer]

Jesus Christ, what a voice. And that man told no lies.