Secret Invasion: Paul Robeson and Nick Fury Reference Explained

Secret Invasion‘s first episode is out and a lot of Marvel fans are probably wondering who is Paul Robeson and why does Sonya Falsworth joke about Nick Fury looking like him. Well, it’s a bit complicated but there’s a historical significance. United States entertainer and activist Paul Robeson is known for thrilling audiences with performances. But, also, for his close relationship to the USSR before the Cold War and enduring afterward. He famously said to The New York Times, “Here, I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life … I walk in full human dignity.” Just like Nick Fury walks the world in the Marvel series as a man without country, Robeson found refuge in the Soviet Union.

So, when Olivia Colman’s character makes that quip, she gestures to the famous concert that Robeson gave in Moscow back in 1949 and multiple times later. (The fact Moscow celebrated his 60th birthday as well could actually gesture to Fury advancing age too.) The entertainer believed he could just exist in the USSR back then and history would seem to corroborate that fact. However, there would be some strange gazes like the one that Fury receives over the course of the episode. He doesn’t look like anyone else presented except for a new Skrull rebellion recruit. With themes of home abound in Secret Invasion, it’s an interesting nod to a complicated man.

Robeson began, “I have heard some honest and sincere people say to me, ‘Yes, Paul, we agree with you on everything you say about Jim Crow and persecution. We’re with you one hundred percent on those things. But what has Russia ever done for us Negroes?’ And in answering this question I feel that I go beyond my own personal feelings and put my finger on the very crux of what the Soviet Union means to me—a Negro and an American.” (Credit to Seton Hall’s Maxim Matusevich for collecting these quotes.)

Moscow’s Picture Becomes Less Rosy For Robeson and Fury

However, pointedly, the USSR was not without faults and Robeson was alike in that regard. While he was treated very well by the people of Moscow who attended his concerts and shook his hand, there was an undercurrent of distrust in the relationship. (After all, how could there not be in this situation.) As reports of Jewish people being persecuted came to his attention, he feared coming down hard on the USSR because of both psycholgical intimidation from both his homland and the place he found himself in exile. (He could have done a lot more and should have considering the circumstances!) But, Robeson was adamant that he was being treated better abroad than he was in the United States.

“For the answer is very simple and very clear: ‘Russia,’ I say, ‘the Soviet Union’s very existence, its example before the world of abolishing all discrimination based on color or nationality, its fight in every arena of world conflict for genuine democracy and for peace, this has given us Negroes the chance of achieving our complete liberation within our own time, within this generation.”

While that promises has escaped most of the world, the hopeful streak never left Robeson even as his homeland would put him into a precarious position because of his proximity to communism. He was a man out of step with both locales as he was unwilling to pledge full loyalty to either country.

What Does Home Mean in This Context

Home is thorny, especially when it’s going through changes. For Robeson, he could never quite walk in his dignity unfettered because he had to represent too much. He told his son that he feared assassination at one point. But, came home to prevent that. In an interview with the National Security Archive of George Washington University, Paul Robeson Jr. shared that story.

“I remember very vividly he said I could have stayed in the Soviet Union and been safe. I have a sense that I may not live out the year, that the authorities here mean to blow me away,” Robeson explained. “The only chance… and my place is here with my people, so I’m not going to be an exile any more, but under these circumstances, the only good chance of physical survival is an offence. If I start ducking around, there’s going to be some kind of accident and I’m going to be gone, so I might as well go right at ’em and take my chances.”

In these last sentences, a preview of what’s to come for our protagonist takes shape. The best defense will be a better offense. Unfortunately, the Skrulls know Fury a little bit too well. So, the odds are not behind Jackson’s old spy. But, he can square his place in a new world and find whatever happiness there is to be found in the present.

Did you know about the history of that little joke? Let us know down in the comments!