Now you’re making it up, brother: Paul Robeson, HUAC, and the challenge of institutional narrative authority

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the mid 1950s, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was a rhetorical colossus. Within the closed doors of a hearing, committee members displayed a rhetorical mastery of procedural, topical, and logical moves that left even the best-prepared witnesses sputtering. HUAC used institutional narrative authority as a major rhetorical resource. This strategy rhetorically produced a narrative “reality” conducive to achieving institutional goals. Having established the “official” version of events, the committee situated further argumentation within a value hierarchy that placed national security above “secondary” values that witnesses attempted to invoke in their defenses. A notable exception to the committee s rhetorical dominance came in the 1956 testimony of Paul Robeson, an African American singer and activist who had been called before the committee to answer for pro-Soviet statements he made while traveling abroad. Using a number of rhetorical tactics to disrupt the institutional narrative, Robeson was able to recontextualize his comments within an interpretive framework of racial justice in America – a debate the committee was less prepared to handle. This article contributes to ongoing studies of institutional rhetoric, especially rhetorical argumentation that takes place within institutional settings.