PAUL ROBESON
preface by Lloyd L. Brown
Here I Stand was first published in 1958 and promptly ignored by the white press. Lloyd L. Brown in his preface to this edition reports that “with one insignificant exception, no white commercial newspaper or magazine in the entire country so much as mentioned Robeson’s book.” The black press of the nation, however, recognized the importance of the work and the authentic, passionate tone of one of the great black Americans of the twentieth century.
“Here I Stand is a program of action for colored Americans. But no American of whatever color can really quarrel with Robeson’s principles and his program. . . . It is a challenge to fulfill the American dream.”—Saunders Redding in the Afro-American
“Love is really the theme of this book. For Paul Robeson deeply loves people. He loves his native land—‘the America of the common people’. . . . It is a book to read and pass on and on.” —Shirley Graham Du Bois in Mainstream
As Paul Robeson writes in his foreword, “I speak as an American Negro whose life is dedicated, first and foremost, to the winning of full freedom—and nothing less than full freedom—for my people in America. In these pages I have discussed what the fight for Negro freedom means in the crisis of today; how it is related to the cause of peace and liberation throughout the world. In presenting my views on this subject, I have sought to explain how I came to my viewpoint and to take the stand I have taken.”
from the back cover of the 1958 Beacon Press edition