Public Employee Press

All-American Activist
DC 37 and U.S. Postal Service salute Paul Robeson at Black History Month kickoff

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

The DC 37 Black History Committee and the U.S. Postal Service opened Black History Month at the union Feb. 2 by unveiling the postage stamp honoring the famed Paul Robeson.

“There could be no greater honor than to unveil this stamp celebrating Paul Robeson in a union hall like DC 37,” said Henry Foner, president of the Paul Robeson Foundation.

The New York City-based organization is dedicated to the work and memory of the late scholar, athlete, performer and civil rights fighter. “Today the name Paul Robeson is synonymous with freedom.”

The union hall was the site of the first public unveiling in lower Manhattan of the 37-cent Robeson stamp, which went into circulation on Jan. 20 as the 27th in the USPS Black Heritage Series.

More than 200 DC 37 members and presidents from locals 371, 372, 375, 420, 436, 768, 957, 983, 1070, 1219, 1407, 1482, 1549, 2021 and 2627 and the Retirees Association attended the traditional opening night ribbon-cutting ceremony along with City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Rachel Smiley, Postal Service regional marketing manager, and Manuel Gilyard, president of ESPER, an international society of Black stamp collectors. Chanteuse Karen Taylor and her trio performed jazz standards.

For the past 23 years, the DC 37 BHC has presented cultural themes during its annual month-long celebration of the achievements of African Americans. This year when the group sought to display the Black Heritage stamp series, the USPS suggested unveiling the new stamp at the union as a fitting tribute to international citizen Paul Robeson, who dedicated his life to the struggles of Blacks and oppressed people worldwide.

“Paul Robeson was truly an activist for working people. He gave so much so that we can have the right to organize,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. “He was persecuted and run out of this country, but he stood firm in his beliefs.”

After the Rutgers valedictorian and All-American athlete graduated from Columbia University Law School in 1923, he met hostility and discrimination in the legal profession and focused on his stage career. He canonized traditional spirituals as an American art form, and gained fame for his portrayal of the title role in Shakespeare’s Othello.

Mr. Robeson fought for an anti-lynching law and courageously lent his international fame to the early civil rights and labor movements. He embraced communism, for which his United States passport was revoked.

The obstacles of ignorance and institutional racism remain in spite of the heroic strides led by Mr. Robeson and later civil rights leaders. Speaker Miller said, “In the month marking the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, we have not realized the promises of that case.” Long-standing inequities in the state school funding formula leave local children behind. “Governor Pataki has argued that an eighth grade education is enough for New York City kids,” Mr. Miller continued. “The message sent to our children is: ‘We don’t care about your success. We don’t expect you to achieve.’ In this election year, we have to stand up to President Bush and Gov. Pataki and not let them get away with it. We can’t wait any longer.”