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By Emily Oldfield

An exploration of the history of African-American people and their treatment provided the backdrop for the ‘Paul Robeson in Spain’ event at The People’s History Museum this week.

One of the last film-orientated events as part of Manchester Metropolitan University’s Humanities in Public Festival, it featured a talk from historian Dominique Tesser, rare film footage, interaction with archives and discussion with Dr Carmen Herrero, also of Manchester Metropolitan University.

Opening with a brief talk, Tesser outlined the significance of Paul Robeson (1898-1976) as well as his links to Manchester. The evening emphasized to the public of Manchester the importance of acknowledging and revitalising parts of history which have previously been under-addressed, often because of political and racial prejudice.

Paul Leroy Robeson was born in America in 1898 and was likely aware of the impact of racial prejudice from being a child, his own father, of Nigerian descent, having escaped slave  plantations as a teenager.  Robeson went on to face many challenges during his own life, including becoming exposed to McCarthyism and the persecution of communists in 20^th century America, but he also became a prominent bass singer, actor and was the first black person to play Othello on a London stage. According to Tesser, “He made friends easily and gained a working-class consciousness.”

Robeson was a well-educated and articulate man, having been the third African-American in history to enrol at Rutgers College, and he studied as a young man at New York University School of Law, transferring to Columbia Law School, living in Harlem and getting involved with the community. This included his support of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as his own advancements as an actor. By 1928, he had starred in the American musical Show Boat, giving his now famous rendition of the classic song ‘Ol’ Man River’.

By the 1930s, he had also worked in London in his role as Othello, but his activism was even more extensive, as he believed that the fight against fascism during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War was something he wanted to support as a political activist. There were many African-American people fighting against rising nationalism and the threat of Franco and Robeson used performances to celebrate the Republican cause. He also travelled to Spain in 1938 and supported the International Brigade there, a significant focus of the film screened from 6.15pm Invisible Heroes. Courtesy of The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, the rare film footage considered the connection between the plantations of Mississippi and the later Spanish Civil War.

This screening underlined the final film event from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Humanities in Public Programme showcasing the city’s spirit of friendship, and the recognition of ‘art as a celebration for freedom’, the importance of multimedia resources as engagement with history being a focal point of the second half of the evening.  From 8pm, there was a conversation with Dr Carmen Herrero of Manchester Metropolitan University who emphasized the importance of revisiting the history of figures such as Paul Robeson:

“The film highlights that history is not only local, but transnational, global. These global connections were still resonant in the 1920s and 1930s, and there is real importance in tracing those histories and bringing them into the present. Part of my own childhood was spent in Spain under the dictatorship of Franco, and although he died when I was nine, under his rule a lot of history had been rewritten. The transition back to truth took a while.”

Making often-neglected areas of the past relevant again through historical study seemed to be the message as Herrero went on to say, “The importance of materials for encouraging interaction with history is key. For example, the song ‘Old Man River’ resonates with people, whilst artefacts such as film and music bring history alive and make you curious about the past.”

The highly engaging evening was also open to question and comment from the audience, and Humanity Hallows spoke to Dolores Long, who said that the film was especially resonant for her as her father had fought in the Spanish Civil War: “My father was from Manchester and he went to Spain to fight in the British Brigade 1936-38 and survived. My mother was also very involved in the Aid To Spain movement at the time, working against fascism and there is now a blue plaque on the house that they lived in when in Manchester.

“The film was interesting for me as one of the narrators was a friend of my dad’s and during a special trip to Spain in 1996 I met and was able to talk to him. It is also important to consider that the Spanish Civil War has real significance here; about 150 people from Manchester went to fight in Spain… most of them working class, some who had never been out of the North before.”

The evening ended at 9pm, following the discussion and interaction with a table of archival material, including a book about Ernest Hemingway written by Mancunian Anthony Burgess. Hemingway was also notably interested in the progress of the people in the Spanish Civil War.

For more from Humanities in Public, visit www2.mmu.ac.uk/hip/