Journal #4

I am glad I waited to post on Paul Robeson until after yesterday's class because we actually got to witness some of his work as an actor. Now that I can put a face to this author and also can identify with the talent he possessed to play such important roles not only in O'Neill's plays but in the equal rights movement as a whole. When he speaks of his role as Emperor Jones he seems to identify with the character saying that he suffers as we all suffer, "re-living all the sins of his past-experiencing all the woes and wrongs of his people-throwing off one by one the layers of civilization until he retyrns to the primitive soil from which he (racially) came" (58). Robeson takes pride in his part in the play's success, although he has had his fair share of criticism. "All God's Chillun'' created a huge uproar and negative attention, until most of the opposition saw the play and walked away in tears from the dramatic plot. Robeson knows that there will always be critics, but he is above most of it because those who object most strenously knew nothin about the play and had no just cause to chastise it. His comments make me wonder what type of criticism he recieved for his roles, there most have undoubtedly been violent threats made during those particularly prejudiced times. Robeson could have done a lot of different things with his career, we learned in class about his wide range of talent, from being a star athlete to a law school student and also acting. True dedication to his work is evident in his recollections of the plays and his resistance to being silenced during such a dynamic era.

In Garvey's "Africa for the Africans," I detected a lot of anger and frustration with the racial disupute. He covers a variety of topics so I will pick some specific areas to comment on. Garvey wants to break away from the America which holds forever the terrible past of African enslavement. He even agreed with some of the white supremicist groups that blacks did not belong in America. He sought to bring all of the African Americans back to Africa in order to start their own nationality. I think that Garvey's opinions are very strongly based on his experiences in the U.S. and understandably many African Americans during that time felt that they did not belong in America. I feel however that Garvey's "evacuation plan" was just giving up on all of the progress on racial equality that was happening at the time. The speech was meant to be motivational, he declares that it is time for the race to do something for themselves and that a great future is in store for them.

Works Cited

Garvey, Marcus. "Liberty Hall Emancipation Day Speech." The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. Ed. David Lewis. New York: 1995. 17-28.

Robeson, Paul. "Reflection On O'Neill's Plays." The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. Ed. David Lewis. New York: 1995. 58-60.