And it shows the power of the Cold War and the power of McCarthyism and so much of the language that we're hearing today about enemy of the people and the enemy within. And I think one of the things that I was really trying to get at is the tension in the African American community in this book, because so much of the Black establishment felt that Robeson was toxic, and they abandoned him as well and, in doing that, really isolated him and set the stage for the federal government and the rest of the country to really turn its back on him as well. And, to me, it was just so representative of this question that African Americans are constantly having and we have to this day about belonging and about patriotism and about that twoness, that ability to, one, be patriotic and feel like you are part of this country while at the same time living in at that time a segregated society and all of the forces that sort of came to it.
Author: Geoff Bennett, Jackson Hudgins
Published at: 2026-01-27 23:20:54
Still want to read the full version? Full article
