A Centennial Tribute to an American Communist 41 James Ellison, "Paul Robeson and the State Department," The Crisis, Vol. LXXXIV, May 1977, pp. 184-189.] The US attempt to muzzle Robeson was not news to Nehru, who was advised in 1947 not to say things in the UN that might upset the US. "If I went to America," Nehru wrote on 18 January 1947, "I have no doubt that I will meet prominent African leaders, notably Mr. Paul Robeson who is not only a personal friend but a person of world reputation." As a point of principle, Nehru noted, "what is more important is whether what we did was right or wrong apart from its reaction on certain Americans of position." [Selected Works ofjawaharlal Nehru. Ed. S. Gopal (New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, 1984), Second Series, Volume I, p. 475.] A decade later (1958), this principle held and the Indian press and All-India Radio offered a suitable, if curtailed, tribute for Robeson. The battle over the legacy of Paul Robeson continues in this his birth centenary. The Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee of the US Post Office decided on 9 December 1997 not to approve a Paul Robeson stamp (despite a petition with almost one lakh signatures); instead of Robeson, the Committee elected to anoint US stamps (as yet, public property) with images owned by the Walt Disney Corporation and Warner Brothers. The Paul Robeson Centennial Celebration offered some events towards honouring the man, but his legacy certainly exceeds this brief applause. In India, 1958 was not repeated and the entry of the Hindu Right to governance is certainly a rebuff to the heritage of Robeson. The anti imperialist struggle, of course, must keep in mind such people as Robeson, who gave so much of their lives to a valiant cause. We must also keep in mind those who kept Robeson afloat, both his family (who bore the brunt of the anti-communist attacks on Robeson) and his Party (the CPUSA). On 31 May 1998, Gus Hall (national chair of the CPUSA) openly declared, after many decades, that Paul Robeson was indeed a card-carrying member of the CPUSA. "Unlike Comrade WEB DuBois," Hall wrote, "Paul Robeson was not able to declare his Party membership openly," this "because of the extreme repression of the McCarthy period." "Paul was forced to serve a political life sentence." But he did not serve this alone, for he took comfort in the struggles of the CPUSA and he stood beside its leaders when the state arrested them in 1949. The CPUSA revealed Robeson's membership to fight the sanitized image partially celebrated these days, an image "cleansed of the convictions he fought so hard to live by." [Gus Hall, "Paul Robeson: Artist, Freedom Fighter, Working Class Hero, American Communist," People's Weekly World (6 June 1998), p. 8 and Frank Chapman, "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Paul Robeson and Martin Luther King," Political Affairs, Vol. 77, no. 4 (April 1998).] The revived CPUSA is one tribute to Robeson's heritage. Another tribute is the formation of the Black Radical Congress (BRC) in Chicago, 111. Between 19 and 21 June 1998. The Congress' emergence truly honors the heritage of Robeson, who spent much energy on a previous incarnation, the Civil Rights Congress (founded in the Spring of 1946 whose Executive Secretary was Robeson's close friend, the CPUSA leader William L. Patterson). One way to honor Robeson is to remember his fight, the main lines of which will be delineated in this brief essay.