Video Library Beta
ABC video clips sourced for the Australian curriculum in partnership with Education Services Australia
Search Video Library
- Video Clip
- Paul Robeson [3:10]
- Network
- ABC Spotlight
- Broadcast
- 5th November 1960
- Summary
- On the power of religion and organisation, 1960
- Download Clip [5.01 MB]
- Learning Area
- History
- Strand/s
- Historical knowledge and understanding
- Year/s
- 8-12
Keywords
Activism, American history, Celebrities, Civil rights, Discrimination, Paul Robeson, Political campaigns, Religion
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Description
This clip from the ABC TV 'Spotlight' program features US entertainer and rights activist Paul Robeson in a panel interview conducted during his 1960 Australian tour. Robeson speaks with program host Alan Manning and panellists about the importance of religion as a powerful organising force in the lives of African Americans. He comments that this level of organisation could lead to an easy win by either Kennedy or Nixon in the Kennedy-Nixon Presidential race if African Americans in the most populous states voted as 'one unit' for one or the other.
Educational Value
This clip is a useful resource for historical studies of African Americans and the movement for civil rights in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is relevant for courses in modern history in years 11 and 12 and useful as background for the year 10 history depth study focusing on rights and freedoms. This depth study requires an examination of the US civil rights movement and its significance for Australia.
In the clip, Robeson discusses two central themes in the civil rights movement - religion and political power. He describes African Americans as a spiritual people and points out the importance of black churches. He speculates about what a voting bloc of African Americans in the north and the main populated states could achieve.
As well as being an international entertainment celebrity, Robeson was the foremost US civil rights campaigner of the 1940s. Denounced as a communist sympathiser in the 1950s, his public standing was destroyed and his passport confiscated until 1958. His subsequent singing tours included Australia in October-November 1960. While on tour Robeson advocated international peace, workers' rights, and gender and racial equality. A number of the Australian Freedom Riders of 1965 were influenced by what he said and sang in 1960.
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Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2010 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2010 (except where otherwise indicated). You may view, display, print out, copy and modify this material for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the material.
