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BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant

03 Mar 00 - 06:52 AM (#188658)
Subject: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: AndyG

Found on the BBC web site today in a report about the release of ex-secret papers to the Public Records Office.

... files show that black American singer and actor Paul Robeson was regarded as a "nuisance" by the Security Service because of his outspoken left-wing views and support for black civil rights.

Although he had visited Britain in 1949 and again the following year - when his movements were tracked by MI5 - for much of the 1950s Robeson was prevented from travelling abroad after the US authorities withdrew his passport.

MI5 repeatedly advised that if he did regain his passport he should still not be admitted as the British Communist Party would "do all in its power to exploit the visit for propaganda purposes".

But in 1958 Robeson was granted a visa to visit Britain and allowed to perform concerts, despite MI5's warnings.

A Home Office official noted: "Paul Robeson may be a Communist but he is also a great artist and a world figure. To turn him out of the country or to refuse him entry would create a major crisis."

So, thanks to a nameless Home Office official, by parents were able to take me to see Paul Robeson when he performed in Manchester.
I was seven years old.
I still remember it vividly.

I'd really like to thank that man.

AndyG

03 Mar 00 - 08:19 AM (#188683)
Subject: RE: BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: jeffp

It's really nice to hear of a government official doing something right for a change.

03 Mar 00 - 09:01 AM (#188699)
Subject: RE: BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: JedMarum

good story Andy G, thanks for passing it on.

03 Mar 00 - 11:03 AM (#188752)
Subject: RE: BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler

Thanks Andy, I was about to cut and paste it from one of today's papers, too! I remember listening to his radio series, would that have been around 1958? Laurence Brown accompanied on piano in a rather staid way, but occasionally cut loose on a gospel tune with vocal backing to Paul that made you think he'd love to boogie it up a bit!

03 Mar 00 - 11:56 AM (#188781)
Subject: RE: BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: Amos

Nice story, Andy! Man, I have dug up some broadcasts -- both radio and TV -- from that era in researching some family trails and it is amazing how bloody stultified almost everyone in public forums was in those days -- it was a style, or a group mass consciousness, that you had to talk as though you had rags in your mouth and a ramrod up your backside...it was "de rigeur". pardon the expression. The artifice of that era is still discomfiting to me...no wonder the kids exploded in the 60's! They (we) were fighting for sanity!

03 Mar 00 - 12:09 PM (#188791)
Subject: RE: BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: Rick Fielding

Way to go Jed!

Once when playing an old folks home, an elderly man came up to me and asked if I would sing "Wayfaring Stranger". Somewhat unusual request from a Jewish man in his 80s..I took a guess, and asked if he was a fan of Paul Robeson? He waxed enthusiastically for twenty minutes about seeing Paul in New York in the 40s. He then brought a plastic shopping bag from his room FILLED with newsclippings about Robeson. A true "old lefty", I enjoyed listening to him talk on and on about his hero.

Rick

03 Mar 00 - 02:22 PM (#188859)
Subject: RE: BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: Liz the Squeak

See, some of us Civil Servants are really quite nice human beings.....

LTS

03 Mar 00 - 02:27 PM (#188864)
Subject: RE: BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: zander (inactive)

Paul was one of the truly great folk singers of our time

03 Mar 00 - 03:27 PM (#188897)
Subject: RE: BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: Mooh

I LOVE whistle-blowers and monkey-wrenchers...I feel a song comin' on...

Nice story.

03 Mar 00 - 03:31 PM (#188902)
Subject: RE: BS: Thanks to an anonymous civil servant
From: JedMarum

Liz - I have had enough life experience to know that some Civil Servants are both!