State Department Revokes Paul Robeson Passport for Political Views and Soviet Support

In 1950, the State Department revoked the American passport of Paul Robeson—All-American football player, Phi Beta Kappa recipient at Rutgers, Columbia Law School graduate, internationally acclaimed concert performer, actor, and persuasive political speaker. The revocation came in response to Robeson’s outspoken views and vocal support for the Soviet Union. In 1949, newspaper reports claimed Robeson had made public statements that African Americans would not fight in “an imperialist war.” Historians later discovered that Robeson had been misquoted, but the damage was almost instantly done as editorialists and politicians branded him a communist traitor.

No individual in the twentieth century endured more sustained persecution and harassment from the federal government than Robeson in the 1950s. J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI subjected him to intensive surveillance. Robeson’s name was stricken from college All-America football teams. Newsreel footage of him was destroyed, recordings were erased, and there was a clear effort in the media to avoid any mention of his name. Many African-American witnesses subpoenaed to testify at HUAC hearings in the 1950s were asked to denounce Paul Robeson in order to obtain future employment. The passport revocation prevented him from performing internationally, devastating his career and income.

The persecution of Robeson demonstrated how anti-communism was weaponized against civil rights activists and how racial justice advocacy could be criminalized as subversive. Robeson’s case illustrated the intersection of racial oppression and political persecution during the Red Scare. The Supreme Court did not rule the passport revocation unconstitutional until 1958, restoring Robeson’s right to travel after eight years of enforced confinement. His case established precedents for government suppression of dissent and the use of administrative actions to destroy careers without due process—tactics that would be replicated against civil rights leaders and anti-war activists throughout the 1950s and 1960s.