“I’m tired of living, but scared of dying.”
Every year we celebrate Black History Month, but as I’ve grown older I’ve come to think of February not so much as a celebration but an exercise in discovery, a moment to reflect on the black men and women whose contributions have been forgotten, erased, papered over. |
The show tune, written by Oscar Hammerstein II in 1927 for the musical “Show Boat,” is what made Robeson famous for those of us who knew of him as Joe, the black dock worker with a smooth baritone. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned Robeson’s influence stretched beyond Broadway and Mississippi barges. |
I learned about Robeson’s testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, his fight to end segregation and his distinguished career as a student at Rutgers and Columbia Law School. Robeson was the class valedictorian at Rutgers in 1919, and that year he delivered a commencement speech before a mostly white audience. |
In it, he talked about the beginning of a new era in American life. The war was over and the country faced an “unparalleled opportunity” to reshape its future with a new idealism, he said. |
| It will be the purpose of this new spirit to cherish and strengthen the heritage of freedom for which men have toiled, suffered and died a thousand years; to prove that the possibilities of that larger freedom for which the noblest spirits have sacrificed their lives were no idle dreams; to give fuller expression to the principle upon which our national life is built. We realize that freedom is the most precious of our treasures, and it will not be allowed to vanish so long as men survive who offered their lives to keep it. |
The speech was called “The New Idealism,” and the optimism in it was tested and pushed to its breaking point. But Robeson’s words remain inspiring. For me, they are a reminder that the spirit of Black History Month is about reclaiming our stories, and that it will take a lifetime, rather than a month, to do it. |
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