Nicole Hill

People like Langston Hughes, W.B.

Du Bois, opera singer Marian Anderson.

And all of them are saying the same thing.

They're like, when we are in the USSR, we are being treated like equals.

Which, like, I can't really even imagine what it would have felt like to finally be treated like a human being.

The Robesons are getting a very particular experience of the USSR.

But the reality is, Stalin at this point has perpetrated a genocide in Ukraine.

And within two years of the Robesons' visit, Stalin will enact the Great Purge, in which he imprisons or executes his so-called enemies.

We don't really know how much Essie and Paul knew about Stalin's actions.

Maybe they'd heard rumors, but maybe they viewed those rumors as US propaganda.

Obviously, in hindsight, it seems like a clearly controversial thing to have looked past.

They knew anything at all.

But what we do know is that after their visit, Paul becomes one of the world's most famous supporters of the USSR.

And his son, Paulie, will later learn that the CIA opened a file on his dad.

Essie, meanwhile, is doing some traveling of her own, inspired by her interest and curiosity about Africa.

In 1936, Essie goes to places like South Africa and Uganda, and it kind of radicalizes her.

So she writes this article being like, attention everyone.

Paul and I have traveled essentially Earth at this point, and everywhere we go we see the same thing, which is workers of every race being exploited.

After that, she steps away from Paul's world to be a writer and an international speaker on pan-Africanism, communism, and women's and civil rights.

Polly will later learn that the FBI opened a file on his mom.