- At a time when people fear voices being silenced, there's one man whose experience is a reminder of the damage that can be done when government suppresses the free speech of those who speak, and in this case sing their beliefs.

(suspenseful music) One man regained his voice at the foot of the International Peace Arch in Blaine, Washington while under heavy sanctions from the US government.

But Paul Robeson was defiant and would not be silenced.

(whimsical music) Paul Robeson, son of an enslaved father, was an American phenomenon.

* There's an old man called Mississippi * - One of the best known black men of his time, he became an international celebrity.

In the 1920s, he was a football all American and academic all star at Rutgers University.

He later played professional football for one of the foundational teams of the NFL, the Milwaukee Badgers.

He earned a law degree at Columbia University, but his commanding presence, charisma, and gorgeous bass baritone voice brought him world fame in the theater, at concert halls, and on Hollywood silver screen.

* I get weary - He starred in plays like Shakespeare's "Othello" to rave reviews.

He sang "Ol' Man River" on stage and film in the musical "Showboat", and he made it a classic.

* But ol' man river * He just keeps rolling along - While he performed, he was also a political activist fighting for civil rights.

He was the darling of progressives.

He traveled the world singing and speaking on behalf of black rights and world peace.

He spoke out against the Korean War.

As the Cold War took hold in the 1940s, he went to Europe and spoke at a Soviet sponsored peace conference and the American press created a sensation saying that Robeson was a Russian propaganda tool, a black Stalin.

The combination of his race and leftist politics became toxic.

Rich, charismatic, and a critic of America on race and foreign policy, the US government seized his passport, so he could not travel abroad.

His international performances were popular.

He sang all over the world.

But with the travel ban, Robeson's income from performing dropped from $150,000 per year in 1949 to a mere 3000.

Right wing agitators attended some of his speaking events and attacked attendees.

This created the impression that it was Robeson's ideas that were unsafe.

He would not be silenced.

Robeson jumped at the chance to speak and sing in Vancouver, BC when invited to do so by Canada's International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers in January of 1952.

But even though not needing a passport to travel in Canada, he was turned back at the border.

The US and Canadian government had cooperated to keep him out.

He tried again in February, this time accompanied by International Longshore Union head Harry Bridges, a well known labor activist.

Again, the party was turned back.

The Longshore Union protested saying, the United States had become quote, "A prison for any of its citizens who possess ideas that do not meet the approval of the State Department."

Bridges' lawyer compared the US tactics to those used by Nazi Germany.

Robeson subsequently tried to book Seattle Civic Auditorium for a concert, but the city canceled citing an ordinance that denied the use of public buildings for events that might incite quote, "racial or religious antagonisms."

Undeterred, Robeson found the perfect venue.

In May, he headed to the border in Blaine with some 30 chartered buses.

He parked a flatbed truck on the US side of the Peace Arch from which to speak and give a concert.

The FBI and INS expected trouble.

Some other Robeson events had attracted right wing hooligans but none showed.

Who did show?

Some 30,000 people.

(people cheering) The vast majority of them on the Canadian side.

They created a massive traffic jam which closed the border for a time.

Robson sang "Ol' Man River" and also lefty anthems like the folk song "Joe Hill" about a wobbly union martyr.

* "I never died" says he (people cheering) - The event was such a hit that Robson came back on an annual basis for three more of his Peace Arch concerts.

Four in all, the last in 1955.

On the Canadian side, the Arch inscription reads, "Brethren dwelling together in unity."

A message Robeson himself was preaching.

His troubles weren't over.

(foreboding music) He was called before the House on American Activities Committee as a suspected communist during the witch hunt years.

He refused to say if he was by invoking the Fifth Amendment.

He also told the committee quote, "Gentlemen, you are the un-patriots.

You are the other un-Americans, and ought to be ashamed."

Robson eventually won the legal fight to have his passport restored.

The Supreme Court having decided that the right to travel was an essential liberty, but he continued to struggle against blacklisting and racial prejudice and his right as an American to enjoy equal rights.

His stand at the Peace Arch was a major statement for those causes.

Perhaps it's best to end with some of the words Robeson uttered before the crowd from that flatbed truck.

(somber music) - [Robeson] But I want to just say a few words and to thank you again for your very great kindness in coming here today.

It means much to us in America.

Much to the Americans struggling for peace in the Northwest.

Some of the finest people in the world under pressure today, facing jail, facing hostile courts for the simple fact that they are struggling for peace, struggling for a decent America where all of us to have helped build that land can live in decency and in goodwill.

- [Voiceover] Hear more about this episode on the Mossback Podcast.

Just search Mossback wherever you listen.

- [Voiceover] Mossback's Northwest is made possible by the generous support of Port of Seattle.