The US government systematically undermined Robeson by passport denial and smear campaigns

Evidence

Paul Robeson, among others, was undergoing similar treatment by American agencies at this time. See Philip S. Foner (ed.), Paul Robeson Speaks, Brunner/Mazel, New York, 1978: “[B]eyond revoking Robeson’s passport and forbidding him to leave the continental United States from 1950 to 1957, officials of the United States government also sought to influence public opinion against Robeson; to discourage another government ‘from honoring Robeson as a great humanitarian and activist for human rights’; to prevent Robeson’s employment abroad in a non-political area; and to undermine his political impact by issuing anti-Robeson news releases, and using or soliciting statements of other black leaders to discredit him” (p. 4). — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2463

Categorization

• XREF: State suppression of Black radicals across multiple figures — key mechanism in the tradition’s downfall narrative.