Controversies concerning Paul Robeson's life abound, and I'm getting tired of tracking down so many things in reference books and feeling compelled to substantiate everything I say. This is the last time I'll do it.

Paul Robeson's family and close friends were concerned about his depressed mood for years before his death. In 1961, after a party in Moscow, Robeson attempted suicide. He later said that he believed that this happened because the CIA had slipped something into his drink at the party. A team of Soviet doctors gave the diagnosis "depressive paranoic psychosis generated by an involutional form of arteriosclerosis." (Dispute that one, Mudcatters.) He was subsequently treated in psychiatric wards/hospitals in Moscow, London, and the U.S.

Whether or not Paul Robeson was a Communist or a victim of mental illness, he was a highly courageous, principled, and talented man.

I'm outta here.