Editing Paul Robeson (section)

== Political Persecution ==

Robeson's political commitments—his support for the Soviet Union, his advocacy for racial equality, his criticism of American foreign policy—made him target of the anticommunist persecution that characterized the late 1940s and 1950s. His passport revocation in 1950, which prevented international travel, destroyed his ability to perform in the European venues that had welcomed him when American opportunities closed. The House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, at which he refused to cooperate, demonstrated both his courage and the price his resistance would exact.<ref name="duberman"/>

His blacklisting from American venues, enforced through threats against any who would hire him, reduced one of the world's most celebrated performers to near-invisibility within his own country. His health declined under the stress of persecution, the combination of professional destruction and personal isolation taking toll that his formidable constitution could not indefinitely resist. The years of enforced silence represented waste of extraordinary talent that political conformity demanded.<ref name="boyle"/>

His partial rehabilitation in later years, including the restoration of his passport in 1958, came too late to restore the career that persecution had destroyed. His declining health, including severe depression that required extended treatment, prevented the comeback that the easing of persecution might have allowed. His return to Philadelphia in his final years, living with his sister Marian Forsythe in West Philadelphia, connected his end to the region where his career had occasionally centered.<ref name="duberman"/>