Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson
by Barbara Ransby, Yale University Press, (2012)

excerpt
Chapter 14
ALWAYS THE FIGHTER:
A PEN AS HER WEAPON

1961-1965

In fighting a just cause, in resisting oppression, there is dignity.
Eslanda Robeson


Throughout her protracted bouts with cancer and other illnesses, Essie wrote. For her, writing was cathartic and clarifying. Long before her words were published, writing was her way of coping with and understanding her life and the world around her. In the 1920sand 1930s, she kept a diary to chronicle life's twists and turns, to vent her frustrations and clear her head. In the late 195os and early 196os, in addition to her political journalism, and as she wrestled with her own mortality, writing took on even greater therapeutic importance, and she wrote with great ferocity and urgency, this time for a public readership. There were always writing projects on her desk. One especially consuming enterprise was her effort to sort, revise, and edit her notes from her 1946 trip to Congo—a project that she hoped would become another book. She also drafted a proposal for a collection of her articles and essays that she intended to pitch to a publisher. Finally, and most ambitiously, she dreamed of crafting a comprehensive "survey" text on sub-Saharan Africa, but ultimately life was too short for that too. More modest writing assignments were manageable, and would have to do.

Essie did publish numerous articles in the 196os on topics including the United Nations, civil rights protests, and the fast-changing political world. In fact, she turned out an amazing volume of essays and articles in this period. It was as if she was racing against time to have her say. And she had something to say about a wide range of international issues, from the Caribbean to North Africa to Asia to sub-Saharan Africa, to the changing racial landscape in the United States. With strong opinions and heartfelt loyalties, Essie wielded her pen as a political weapon, and she was unafraid of controversy.

One hotspot Essie wrote about in the early 1960s was Cuba. Although she had never visited the island (she and Paul had planned to do so but their plans were thwarted by illness), she came to know it through books, articles, and films. The Caribbean nation had undergone a revolution in 1959 to oust the U. S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. By 1961, the new Cuban leaders had embraced communism and allied themselves with the Soviet Union. In April of that year, President John F. Kennedy authorized an ill-conceived invasion of the island at the now famed Bay of Pigs, an effort spearheaded by U. S.-trained anticommunist Cuban exiles living in Miami. The plan was to topple Fidel Castro's two-year-old government and strike a blow against Soviet encroachment into the Western Hemisphere. Essie actually wrote one piece about Cuba right before the invasion; she then added a postscript about the failed foray. In the essay Essie used the film Island in Flames, which she had just seen in Moscow, to introduce readers to Cuban history and politics. She described a country in transition, moving from an oppressive dictatorship to something more hopeful. "The Cuban people, led by Fidel Castro, fought their way out from under Batista and the American Dollar, and are now happily building Cuba for themselves," she wrote.' The unpublished postscript was harshly critical of the U.S.-led invasion: "The island WAS in flames .for several days recently when the United States sponsored and supported an émigré invasion of Cuba. But the people of Cuba rallied immediately to their Leader and successfully defended their revolution." 2


In 1961, Essie wrote a series of articles for the Chicago-based Associated Negro Press about the annual meeting of the Family Council of the British Commonwealth of Nations (BCN) in London, where prime ministers from former and current British colonies and territories had gathered to discuss issues of common concern. Essie analyzed their discussions and debates about South Africa, a place and a struggle dear to her.' Indeed, of all the issues addressed by the gathering, South Africa was the most contentious and prolonged. South Africa was scheduled to officially become an independent republic in May, and the white leadership had requested that it continue to enjoy the rights and privileges of membership in the commonwealth. As Essie noted, although the question had been buried in the agenda, perhaps to disguise its sig-


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