【1-People in America】Paul Robeson Pt. 1

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Paul Robeson Pt. 1

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By Shelley Gollust
2004-1-3

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with the V-O-A Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Paul Robeson [ROBE a son]. He was a singer, actor, and civil rights activist. In the Nineteen-Thirties, he was one of the best known and most widely honored black Americans. Later in his life he was condemned for supporting communism and the Soviet Union.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey in Eighteen-Ninety-Eight. His father was a former slave who became the religious leader of a Protestant church. Paul was an excellent student and athlete. Rutgers University in New Jersey gave him money so he could study there. He played four different sports while at Rutgers. He also was the top student in his class. Members of his class believed Paul Robeson would become the leader of black people in America.

VOICE TWO:

Paul Robeson graduated from Rutgers in Nineteen-Nineteen. He attended law school at Columbia University in New York City. He was only the third black person to attend Columbia Law School. On the weekends, he earned money by playing professional football. He also acted in plays. He married Eslanda Cordoza Goode while he was in law school. After he graduated in Nineteen-Twenty-Three, he got a job with a group of lawyers in New York. However, he left when he experienced unfair treatment because he was black. He decided not to work as a lawyer. Instead, he wanted to use his ability in theater and music to support African-American history and culture.

VOICE ONE:

Robeson became a professional actor. He joined the Provincetown Players, an acting group linked to American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robeson was the star in two famous productions by Eugene O'Neill in the Nineteen-Twenties. They were "All God's Chillun Got Wings" and "The Emperor Jones." Critics praised his performances. Robeson became the most recognized black actor of his time.

VOICE TWO:

In London, he earned international praise for his leading part in William Shakespeare's great tragic play, "Othello." That was in Nineteen-Thirty. Thirteen years later, he played "Othello" on Broadway in New York. It was very popular. In "Othello," Robeson played an African general in ancient Venice. He is married to a young white woman. Othello kills his wife after being tricked into believing that she loves someone else. This is how Paul Robeson sounded in "Othello."

(MUSIC: "MONOLOGUE FROM "OTHELLO")

VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson also was famous for appearing in the popular American musical play "Show Boat." He performed the play in London in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight and on Broadway four years later. He played a riverboat worker. Jerome Kern wrote the music for "Show Boat." Paul Robeson sang the song "Ol' Man River."

(MUSIC: "OL' MAN RIVER")

VOICE TWO:

Paul Robeson appeared in eleven movies in the Nineteen-Twenties and Nineteen-Thirties. However, he realized that his acting was limited by the small number of parts for black actors. He criticized the American movie industry for not showing the real lives of black people in America. He stopped making movies and decided to sing professionally instead.

Robeson sang many kinds of music. He sang folk music from many countries. He sang songs to support the labor and social movements of his time. He sang songs for peace and justice. And, he sang African-American spiritual music. One of his famous songs was this spiritual, "Balm in Gilead."

(MUSIC:"BALM IN GILEAD")

VOICE ONE:

Paul Robeson was recognized around the world for his fight for civil rights for black Americans. Separation of black people and white people was legal in the United States. Black people did not have the same rights as white people. They were not treated equally. For example, Robeson could not be served in some eating places in the United States. Violence against black people was common. Angry mobs of whites sometimes killed black people, especially in the southern United States.

VOICE TWO:

In the late Nineteen-Thirties, Paul Robeson became involved in national and international movements that sought peace and better labor conditions. He also supported independence for African colonies from their European rulers. He learned the languages and folk songs of other cultures. He said these folk songs expressed the same feelings that were in African-American music. He learned to speak, write and sing in more than twenty languages.

VOICE ONE:

Robeson traveled a great deal in Europe during the Nineteen-Thirties. He found that black people were treated better in Europe than in the United States. He met members of liberal political organizations, socialists and African nationalists. He also met many working people and poor people.

For many years, he performed in concerts in many countries. The songs he sang supported the struggle for racial justice for black Americans, and for civil rights and economic justice for people around the world. He refused to perform at concerts where the people were separated by race. He said, "The idea of my concerts is to suggest that all men are brothers because of their music."

VOICE TWO:

In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, Paul Robeson made the first of many trips to the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, he said, he was treated as an equal of whites for the first time in his life. He declared his friendship for the Soviet Union. And he spoke about the need for peaceful co-existence between the United States and the Soviet Union. Conservative groups in the United States strongly opposed his friendship with the Soviet Union and his support for other liberal issues.

VOICE ONE:

Paul Robeson went to Spain in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight during the Spanish Civil War. He sang for Spanish civilians. And he sang for the Loyalist forces fighting for the Spanish republic. One of the songs he sang was this Spanish Loyalist song, "The Four Insurgent Generals."

(MUSIC: "THE FOUR INSURGENT GENERALS")

VOICE TWO:

In the Nineteen-Forties, many people in the United States were strongly opposed to Paul Robeson's political beliefs. They said he was too liberal or extreme. Next week, we will tell you about how opposition to his political beliefs affected the last part of his life.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This PEOPLE IN AMERICA program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis.

Broadcast: January 4, 2004

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with the V-O-A Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Paul Robeson [ROBE a son]. He was a singer, actor, and civil rights activist. In the Nineteen-Thirties, he was one of the best known and most widely honored black Americans. Later in his life he was condemned for supporting communism and the Soviet Union.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey in Eighteen-Ninety-Eight. His father was a former slave who became the religious leader of a Protestant church. Paul was an excellent student and athlete. Rutgers University in New Jersey gave him money so he could study there. He played four different sports while at Rutgers. He also was the top student in his class. Members of his class believed Paul Robeson would become the leader of black people in America.

VOICE TWO:

Paul Robeson graduated from Rutgers in Nineteen-Nineteen. He attended law school at Columbia University in New York City. He was only the third black person to attend Columbia Law School. On the weekends, he earned money by playing professional football. He also acted in plays. He married Eslanda Cordoza Goode while he was in law school. After he graduated in Nineteen-Twenty-Three, he got a job with a group of lawyers in New York. However, he left when he experienced unfair treatment because he was black. He decided not to work as a lawyer. Instead, he wanted to use his ability in theater and music to support African-American history and culture.

VOICE ONE:

Robeson became a professional actor. He joined the Provincetown Players, an acting group linked to American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robeson was the star in two famous productions by Eugene O'Neill in the Nineteen-Twenties. They were "All God's Chillun Got Wings" and "The Emperor Jones." Critics praised his performances. Robeson became the most recognized black actor of his time.

VOICE TWO:

In London, he earned international praise for his leading part in William Shakespeare's great tragic play, "Othello." That was in Nineteen-Thirty. Thirteen years later, he played "Othello" on Broadway in New York. It was very popular. In "Othello," Robeson played an African general in ancient Venice. He is married to a young white woman. Othello kills his wife after being tricked into believing that she loves someone else. This is how Paul Robeson sounded in "Othello."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson also was famous for appearing in the popular American musical play "Show Boat." He performed the play in London in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight and on Broadway four years later. He played a riverboat worker. Jerome Kern wrote the music for "Show Boat." Paul Robeson sang the song "Ol' Man River."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Paul Robeson appeared in eleven movies in the Nineteen-Twenties and Nineteen-Thirties. However, he realized that his acting was limited by the small number of parts for black actors. He criticized the American movie industry for not showing the real lives of black people in America. He stopped making movies and decided to sing professionally instead.

Robeson sang many kinds of music. He sang folk music from many countries. He sang songs to support the labor and social movements of his time. He sang songs for peace and justice. And, he sang African-American spiritual music. One of his famous songs was this spiritual, "Balm in Gilead."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Paul Robeson was recognized around the world for his fight for civil rights for black Americans. Separation of black people and white people was legal in the United States. Black people did not have the same rights as white people. They were not treated equally. For example, Robeson could not be served in some eating places in the United States. Violence against black people was common. Angry mobs of whites sometimes killed black people, especially in the southern United States.

VOICE TWO:

In the late Nineteen-Thirties, Paul Robeson became involved in national and international movements that sought peace and better labor conditions. He also supported independence for African colonies from their European rulers. He learned the languages and folk songs of other cultures. He said these folk songs expressed the same feelings that were in African-American music. He learned to speak, write and sing in more than twenty languages.

VOICE ONE:

Robeson traveled a great deal in Europe during the Nineteen-Thirties. He found that black people were treated better in Europe than in the United States. He met members of liberal political organizations, socialists and African nationalists. He also met many working people and poor people.

For many years, he performed in concerts in many countries. The songs he sang supported the struggle for racial justice for black Americans, and for civil rights and economic justice for people around the world. He refused to perform at concerts where the people were separated by race. He said, "The idea of my concerts is to suggest that all men are brothers because of their music."

VOICE TWO:

In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, Paul Robeson made the first of many trips to the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, he said, he was treated as an equal of whites for the first time in his life. He declared his friendship for the Soviet Union. And he spoke about the need for peaceful co-existence between the United States and the Soviet Union. Conservative groups in the United States strongly opposed his friendship with the Soviet Union and his support for other liberal issues.

VOICE ONE:

Paul Robeson went to Spain in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight during the Spanish Civil War. He sang for Spanish civilians. And he sang for the Loyalist forces fighting for the Spanish republic. One of the songs he sang was this Spanish Loyalist song, "The Four Insurgent Generals."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In the Nineteen-Forties, many people in the United States were strongly opposed to Paul Robeson's political beliefs. They said he was too liberal or extreme. Next week, we will tell you about how opposition to his political beliefs affected the last part of his life.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This PEOPLE IN AMERICA program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again when we finish the story of Paul Robeson in Special English on the Voice of America.

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 Carlsbad Cavern National Park

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Cave formations in the Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns National Park near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

From VOA Learning English, welcome to This is America. I’m Steve Ember.

This week on our program, we explore a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the American Southwest, near the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park contains more than 100 caves below the surface of the desert. Most are closed to the public. But anyone can visit the main attraction, one of the largest caves in the world.

Stalactites and Stalagmites

Huge. Incredible. Inspiring. Words like these come to mind as visitors enter a world of silence, darkness and cold, almost 230 meters under the ground. Come along with us, as Bob Doughty and Barbara Klein tell you about Carlsbad Caverns.

An elevator lowers you into the world of Carlsbad Cavern, the big cave at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Silent, except for the voices of guides and visitors. And not completely dark. The National Park Service has enough lighting to see many of the beautiful formations all around. The temperature is about 13 degrees Celsius.

A cavern is a large cave. But Carlsbad Cavern is really a long series of chambers. One of these is called the Big Room. The Big Room is more than three hectares big. The ceiling is 77 meters high. The Big Room is the single largest underground chamber ever found in North America.

The Big Room and other parts of the cavern contain huge, sharp formations of minerals. People are free to explore the lit formations in the Big Room. But park rangers must guide visitors to other areas of the cave.

This Dec. 18, 2010 photo shows stalactites and a lone stalagmite in the Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns National Park near Carlsbad, N.M. More than 400,000 people visit Carlsbad Caverns each year to get a glimpse of the monumental stalagmites and stalactites

Stalactites hang from the ceiling. Stalagmites rise from the floor. Some even meet to create a column. Other formations look like needles, popcorn, pearls and flowers.

A visitor still remembers the memory aid she learned long ago from her fifth-grade teacher. Stalactites have to hang on "tight" to the ceiling or they might fall off. And be careful about stalagmites -- you "might" trip over one on the floor.

One of the first questions that visitors have is how did Carlsbad Cavern form? Guides explain that it did not result from the action of water and streams like other limestone caves. Instead, it was created by the action of sulfuric acid.

The limestone developed about 250 million years ago. Then, within the last 20 million years, movements in the earth pushed the rock upward, forming the Guadalupe Mountains. Today these mountains extend from west Texas into southeast New Mexico.

The action of oil and natural gas created hydrogen sulfide in the limestone. The hydrogen sulfide reacted with oxygen in rainwater moving through the rock. Sulfuric acid developed. The acid created the caves by dissolving the limestone in its path.

Later, the water and most of the acid left the caves as the Guadalupe Mountains continued to rise. This permitted freshwater to move through. The freshwater left behind minerals. These minerals became the formations and shapes on the ceilings, walls and floors of the caves.

Summer Home to Thousands of Mexican Bats

People are not the only ones who visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park. About 400,000 Mexican free-tailed bats come to the big cave from Mexico each summer to give birth.

Every evening, as the sun goes down, thousands of adult bats fly out of the natural entrance of the cave. It can take from twenty minutes to more than two hours for them all to leave. The bats fly to nearby river valleys to feed on night-flying insects. Then, toward morning, they return to the bat cave within Carlsbad Cavern.

Park Service rangers explain that mother bats find their babies by remembering their location, their smell and the sound of their cry. Mothers and pups hang in groups on the ceiling. They spend the day resting and feeding.

While the adults go out at night for food, the young bats hang out in the cave for four or five weeks. Then, in July or August, they join their mothers on these nightly flights.

Finally, in late October or early November, the bats all leave and return to Mexico. But they always return the next year.

This 2005 photo supplied by the National Park Service shows the nightly exodus of bats from Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico.

It is easy to imagine that it was the bats that led ancient people to discover the cave. Archeologists and others have found evidence of Ice Age hunters near the cave entrance. They have also found pieces of spear points left about 10,000 years ago.

More recently, Apache Indians painted pictures at the entrance. And evidence of one of their cooking areas was found beside a nearby path.

Curious Teen Found the Cavern around 1900

Around 1900, a teenage cowboy named James Larkin White began to explore the cave.

Jim White told his story in the 1932 book "The Discovery and History of Carlsbad Caverns." Here is a reading of his description of his first sight of the bats and the big cave:

"I thought it was a volcano, but then, I’d never seen a volcano -- nor never before had I seen bats swarm, for that matter. During my life on the range I’d seen plenty of prairie whirlwinds -- but this thing didn’t move; it remained in one spot, spinning its way upward. I watched it for perhaps a half-hour -- until my curiosity got the better of me. Then I began investigating …

"I worked my way through the rocks and brush until I found myself gazing into the biggest and blackest hole I had ever seen, out of which the bats seemed literally to boil …

"The more I thought of it, the more I realized that any hole in the ground that could house such a gigantic army of bats must be a whale of a big cave … I crept between cactus until I lay on the brink of the chasm, and looked down. During all the years I'd known of the place, I'd never taken the trouble to do this. There was no bottom in sight! I shall never forget the feeling of aweness it gave me."

Jim White told how he built a ladder from rope, wire and sticks and returned to the entrance of the cave a few days later.

"I found myself climbing down, down, deeper and deeper into the blackness ... At last my feet touched something solid. I lighted my lantern, and found that I was perched on a narrow ledge, almost at the end of my rope -- literally and figuratively.

"By now I could see into the tunnel -- it wasn’t much farther down to the floor of it, and that floor looked smooth and level. I decided that with a little exhibition of human-fly stuff, I could hold onto the rough wall and go down another twenty feet to level territory.

"Standing at the entrance of the tunnel I could see ahead of me a darkness so absolutely black it seemed a solid. The light of my lantern was but a sickly glow. Nevertheless, I forged ahead, and with each step the tunnel grew larger, and I felt as though I was wandering into the very core of the Guadalupe Mountains."

A few years later, a settler named Abijah Long also found the entrance and went into the cavern. He found huge amounts of bat droppings.

Abijah Long hired local workers to mine the guano which he sold to farmers as fertilizer. At the same time, he explored much of the caves. Some people might even say Abijah Long was the first real explorer of Carlsbad Cavern.

But Jim White made it his life’s work to make sure the public would see and enjoy the cavern. He worked on Abijah Long’s mining operation for 20 years.

The authors of the book "Carlsbad Cavern: The Early Years" say Jim White took the job for the chance to keep exploring the cave. And after the mining operation closed, he started building paths in the cavern. Yet once he had enough paths built to welcome visitors, no one seemed interested in his "bat cave."

Then, in 1918, Jim White took a professional photographer into the cave. Ray Davis' pictures of the Big Room appeared in the New York Times. National interest began to grow.

In 1923, scientists from the National Geographic Society explored the caves. The following year, President Calvin Coolidge named Carlsbad a national monument. Presidents can declare national monuments, but Congress must act to establish a national park. And that is what Congress did in 1930.

Since then, parts of Carlsbad Caverns have been used for movie sets, weddings, even meetings of the Carlsbad City Council.

Most visitors go to the main cavern. But some experienced cavers are permitted to explore five "wild" caves in the park. And in another one, scientists are studying microbes in search of a cure for cancer.

As for Jim White, he became chief ranger of Carlsbad Caverns. In his story in the book "The Discovery and History of Carlsbad Caverns," he talks about all the work that was done.

"I doubt if you can understand how happy this modernizing has made me. It's like the pleasant end to a dream."

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Bob Doughty.

And I’m Barbara Klein. Doug Johnson was our reader.

This is America is a production of VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember inviting you to join us again next week.

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This year, the U.S. National Park Service turns 100. America’s 28th President, Woodrow Wilson, formed the National Park Service in 1916 to “protect the wild and wonderful landscapes” in the United States.

Today, the National Park Service protects over 400 parks and historical sites from coast to coast. Every week, VOA Learning English will profile one of the sites within the National Park Service.

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往期回顾：

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【美国国家公园-D6】--------- 

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【荐读Dir】---------

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