Paul Robeson (167 page)

14
. Copy of Perlmutter's medical notes on PR are in RA; ER to Kotov, Nov. 22, 1964, RA (“exhausted”);John Henrik Clarke (associate editor of
Freedomways
) to PR, Oct. 6, 1964, RA. The seven-page typescript of PR's article on Du Bois—by far the most extensive writing he had attempted in some time—is in RA. Esther Jackson to PR, March 25, 1965, RA; New York
Amsterdam Nevis
, April 10, 1965 (ovation). In PR's own hand is the brief statement he wrote for
American Dialog
, the replacement for
Mainstream
(which had folded in Aug. 1963), edited by his friend Joseph North; in the statement Robeson hailed “the gallant new chapter in American history” written by the recent Selma-to-Montgomery March (
American Dialog
, May-June 1965). Yet another death in this period was that of Lil Landau, a close associate of Vito Marcantonio's and friendly with the Robesons since Progressive Party days; the ms. of ER's brief tribute to her, dated March 6, 1965, is in RA.

15
. The arrangements for Claudia Jones's funeral produced some incidental friction. Her associate, A. Manchanda (“Manu”), publicly announced that Robeson had agreed to serve as honorary chairman of the memorial committee, when in fact he had not. Harry Francis was indignant about Manchanda's role (Francis to Robesons, Jan. 18, 1965; Francis to Manchanda, Jan. 17, 1965; “Manu” to Robesons, Jan. 20, 1965 [misdated 1964]—all in RA, along with a transcript of PR's tape recording). On the Hansberry funeral:
The New York Times
, New York
Herald Tribune
, both Jan. 17, 1965, plus PR's brief eulogy, partly written in his hand, RA. ER had put Hansberry's mother in touch with Hubert Delany for legal advice and had visited Lorraine in the hospital twice during her last days (ER to George Murphy, Jr., Dec. 24, 1964, MSRC: Murphy. PR in early 1965 also put in a surprise appearance at the Jan. 15 Statler-Hilton dinner to mark the double celebration of Alexander Trachtenberg's eightieth birthday and the fortieth anniversary of International Publishers, which he had founded (
National Guardian
, Jan. 23, 1965; James S. Allen [president of International Publishers] to PR, Jan. 6, 18, 1965; ms. of PR's tribute, partly in his hand—all RA). The FBI also attended (FBI New York 100-25857-4635). Several weeks later PR spoke briefly at a party to raise money for the Upper West Side W. E. B. Du Bois Club, a Marxist youth group of the New Left (Frieder to PR, Feb. 6, March 1, 1965, RA).

16
. Conversations with PR, Jr. Malcolm X's comment on Robeson is quoted in
The Afro-American
, Nov. 30, 1963; the occasion was an attack Malcolm was making on Jackie Robinson for having criticized the Muslims, during which he alluded to Robinson's earlier assault on Robeson. Essie wrote a sympathetic account of Malcolm X's funeral (
The Afro-American
, March 16, 1965), though it's possible to read hostility toward the Muslims in general in a cryptic comment she makes about them in a letter to Henry Winston (Dec. 12, 1964, RA); moreover,
she had earlier written the Rosens that she found Muslim influence in the United States “very frightening.… Brother, it's bad enough with the Arabs!!” (ER to Rosens, May 6, 1963, courtesy of Helen Rosen.) RA contains the typescript of an interview with PR by Jack O'Dell and Esther Jackson, editors of
Freedomways
, in which Robeson is described as having “great respect” for the Muslims' “emphasis on the development of economic power among Negroes, discipline, responsibility and pride.” But according to PR, Jr., who was present at the interview, the editors of
Freedomways
added so much extraneous material that, in consultation with his father, PR, Jr., denied permission for the interview to be published.

There are several other versions (besides PR, Jr.'s) of the Muslims' approach to Robeson. According to an article in the
Amsterdam News
(May 1, 1965) reporting the
Freedomways
salute to Robeson on April 22, Ossie Davis recalled in front of the audience that Malcolm X “had asked him after Miss Hansberry's funeral to help arrange a meeting with Mr. Robeson whom Malcolm had come to admire.” Davis repeated the same version in his interview with Sterner. According to Chuck Moseley and Homer Sadler, Robeson's bodyguards during his May-June 1965 trip to California, a delegation from the Muslims came to them with greetings from Elijah Muhammad as well as an invitation to meet (interview with Moseley and Sadler [PR, Jr., participating], May 3, 1982).

17
. Davis/Baldwin/Killens to Jessica Smith, March 3, 1965, MSRC: Smith Papers; Young to Ossie Davis, April 6, 1965; Lawson to
Freedomways
, April 7, 1965; Wilkins to Davis, April 8, 1965; Susskind to
Freedomways
, April 2, 1965—all in RA.

18
. The program for the Americana Hotel salute is in RA. The fullest accounts of the event are in
The Worker
, May 2, 1965; the
Amsterdam News
, May 1, 1965 (audience four-fifths white); and Charles P. Howard in the Washington
Afro-American
, May 8, 1965. Among the transcribed speeches and greetings in RA is a letter hailing Robeson's “enormous courage and his complete devotion to his fellowmen” signed by fifty members of the House of Commons (Julius Silverman, the organizer, to PR, April 3, 1965), as well as congratulatory messages from Compton MacKenzie, Benjamin Britten, Stefan Heym, Cedric Belfrage, Konstantin Simonov—and PR's Somerville classmate Hazel Ericson (Dodge). Rev. Walter Fauntroy, at his June 4, 1965, commencement address at Howard University, praised Robeson as a “cultural giant,” though declaring, “He holds political views that are unpalatable to all of us” (the address was sent by Elizabeth Cardozo to ER, July 10, 1965, RA). In the seven hundred tapes and transcripts about the civil-rights movement at Howard University, there is not a single mention of Robeson—a devastating gauge of the generation gap. James Farmer records being taken to meet Robeson at his home in 1965, and inviting him to attend some CORE rallies. When he didn't, Farmer checked back and asked why: “Jim,” Robeson purportedly said, “I felt that you had enough problems without being embarrassed by my presence” (James Farmer,
Lay Bare the Heart
[Arbor House, 1985], p. 297).

19
. The text of PR's speech is in RA. The FBI, having long since decided that
Freedomways
(to say nothing of Robeson) was avowedly Marxist, conducted a “physical surveillance” of the Americana (FBI New York 100-25857-4704). PR's remarks, along with the speeches by Hope R. Stevens and John Lewis, were published in the Summer 1965 issue of
Freedomways
; the editors excerpted PR's comments.

20
. Joe North to Robesons, n.d., RA (“inspiring”); Norma Rogers to PR, May 6, 1965, RA (“memorable”); phone interview with Alan Rinzler, May 5, 1986;
Liberator
, June 1965. The quote from Azikiwe is in a letter to Alphaeus Hunton (Feb. 25, 1958, RA), which was apparently passed on to PR. In a letter to PR himself—the salutation is “My dear Hero”—Azikiwe expressed the fear that “we are now on the verge of realising our dreams, and I do hope that we shall not have dreamt and fought in vain. I say this because as I near my 54th milestone I begin to become disillusioned and I
begin to appreciate the aphorism: things are not always what they seem” (Aug. 23, 1958, RA).

21
. Multiple conversations with PR, Jr.; interviews with Alice Childress, Sept. 19, 1983, Oct. 9, 1984.

22
. ER to Rosens, May 19, 1965, courtesy of Helen Rosen; ER to family, May 19, 1965, RA; Los Angeles
Times
, May 16, 1965;
People's World
, May 22, 1965; the ms. of PR's speech at the church is in RA—it was also recorded; interview with Chuck Moseley and Homer Sadler (PR, Jr., participating), May 3, 1982. Essie also gave a short speech (
Morning Freiheit
, May 27, 1965). Frankie Lee Sims had been treasurer of the Los Angeles Negro Labor Council in the early fifties, and her husband, George Sims, had been active in the AFL Carpenters Local; both were devout Baptists (
Freedom
, Dec. 1952). In Dorothy Healey's view, to rely on Fritchman and his church as sponsors for Robeson's one major appearance was tantamount to admitting that he had failed to “get a major black response.… You do that when it's your last refuge and you have to show a big audience, and there's no question he would … pack the church … but it wouldn't be packed with black people” (interview, April 1982). Geri Branton (interview, April 2, 1982) confirms that he was not enthusiastically received “in the white
or
the black community.”

23
. Interviews (PR, Jr., participating) with Geri Branton. April 2, 1982; Dorothy Healey, April 1982; Rose Perry, April 27, 1982. According to Essie, Gus Hall was brought to the Simses' house for a visit by Bill Taylor only “after respectfully obtaining permission … didn't stay long. Nice visit … All cordial” (ER to family, May 31, 1965, RA). Some of Essie's protectiveness seemed justified when the local Peekskill informer (see p. 371) reappeared in California. Somehow he had ingratiated himself with George and Frankie Lee Sims, and they recommended him to Robeson, who immediately remembered him and refused to get in a car he was driving (interviews with Helen Rosen).

24
. ER to family, May 19, 1965, RA. In that letter, Essie reported that Paul had been induced to sing by a woman in the audience who said “she would like to hear Paul sing 8 bars of Go Down Moses. Paul laughed, hesitated, then said, ‘O.K., I'll try. I don't know if it will come out, but I'll try'. He then proceeded to sing it right through, beautifully, really beautifully, and the people went wild, and then the lady got up and said: ‘I just wanted to prove to you that you could do it'. And Paul said, ‘Well, you did!' And the people were delighted.”

25
. ER to family, May 31, 1965, RA; multiple conversations with PR, Jr; phone interviews with Ruby Silverstone, Feb. 23, March 1, 1987.

26
. Phone interviews with Ruby Silverstone, Feb. 23, March 1, 1987; ER to family, May 31, 1965. Transcripts of Robeson's various brief remarks at
People's World
, etc., are in RA.

27
. Multiple conversations with PR, Jr. The June 4 Salute to Paul Robeson came off despite his absence and was well attended and enthusiastic (Alvah Bessie to PR, June 6, 1965; James Herndon [chairman] to ER. June 30, July 19, 1965; Mary Helen Jones to ER, July 7, 1965; ER to Herndon, July 8, 1965—all in RA; San Francisco
Sun Reporter
, May 22, June 12, 1965; Canadian
Tribune
, July 19, 1965, reprinting Alvah Bessie's tribute). On June 13 a Musical Tribute to Robeson also came off as planned, sponsored by the San Francisco Negro Historical and Cultural Society; Ethel Ray Nance, who had been an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance, was the chair of the library committee (the program is in RA;
Sun Reporter
, June 12, 1965).

28
. It is Paul, Jr.'s belief that in the days preceding the Gracie Square admission Kline had prescribed amphetamines for his father, which were discontinued only because PR, disliking their effect, refused to take them. Dr. Kline had agreed to turn his records on PR over to me, having previously denied to Paul, Jr., that he still had them, but his sudden death intervened. In the absence of those records, the possibility of amphetamines' being used can be neither confirmed nor denied. Perlmutter to PR, Jr., Oct. 31, 1979 (referral to Kline); interview with
Pearlmutter, March 7, 1983; Gracie Square Hospital records (all courtesy of PR, Jr.) for the quotes about “scissors” and “difficulty,” recorded by a Dr. Robins when he took PR's history from Essie on the day of admission. In his first entry under “Progress Notes” in the Gracie Square records, Perlmutter refers to the suicide attempt of the previous evening as having been made “with a double-edged razor blade.”

29
. The physicians' reports and the nurses' comments are all from the Gracie Square Hospital records, courtesy of PR, Jr.

30
. In the nurses' notes for June 19, 1965 (Gracie Square Hospital), R.N. Paul Jones recorded, “He said many people felt that he was taking an active part in left wing organizations and this turned them against him.”

31
. Interview with Dr. Alfred Katzenstein (Buch Clinic), July 26, 1986. Dr. Katzenstein's view that Robeson should have had intensive psychotherapy immediately following his ECT treatments—indeed, his view that ECT is only useful when done in conjunction with analysis—is not shared by most ECT specialists (see note 11, pp. 743–44). At any rate, Robeson never had rigorous psychoanalytic treatment.

32
. Interview with Dr. Ari Kiev, Dec. 14, 1982; follow-up phone discussion, Nov. 1, 1986; Du Bois,
Negro Digest
, March 1950.

33
. Interview with Dr. Ari Kiev, Dec. 14, 1982; follow-up phone discussion, Nov. 1, 1986.

34
. Ibid.

35
. Essie's medical records are in RA; multiple conversations with PR, Jr., and with Helen Rosen.

36
. Multiple conversations with Helen Rosen.

37
. Multiple conversations with Helen Rosen and with PR, Jr.; Gracie Square Hospital records, courtesy of PR, Jr.; interview with Dr. Ari Kiev, Dec. 14, 1982. PR, Jr., ms. comments. Apparently Robeson was no longer on Librium, though it is not clear when he was taken off. Since that medication had worked so well, its withdrawal could alone account for his deterioration.

38
. Physicians' reports and nurses' notes are part of the Gracie Square Hospital records, courtesy of PR, Jr.; Essie's medical records are in RA.

39
. Physician reports and nurses' notes are from Gracie Square Hospital records, courtesy of PR, Jr. Dr. Kiev has indicated (in follow-up conversations of Nov. 11, 1986, and June 11, 1987) that, although it was contrary to his usual practice to put a patient on Valium
and
Thorazine, he felt the combination was indicated in Robeson's case. Thorazine, then and since, is the most widely used of the major tranquilizers, and the amount Robeson got was below the recommended dosage. He received no more than three hundred milligrams on any one day (and probably less), while for “Hospitalized Patients: Acutely Agitated, Manic, or Disturbed,” the
Physicians' Desk Reference
suggests that “500 mg. a day is generally sufficient” and “gradual increases to 2,000 mg. a day or more may be necessary” (
PDR
[Medical Economics Oradell, 1987], p. 1934). Moreover, the dosages used in clinical practices tend to run higher than what are generally viewed as the conservative estimates of the
PDR
.