| Name | Paul Robeson |
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| Birth name | Paul Leroy Robeson |
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| Birth date | April 09, 1898 |
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| Birth place | Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
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| Death date | January 23, 1976 |
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| Death place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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| Instrument | Vocals |
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| Genre | SpiritualsInternational folkMusicals |
|---|
| Occupation | Actor, concert singer, athlete, lawyer, social activist |
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| Years active | 1917–63 |
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| background | solo_singer
}} |
|---|
| Name | Paul "Robey" Robeson |
|---|
| Birth date | April 09, 1898 |
|---|
| Position | End |
|---|
| Heightft | 6 |
|---|
| Heightin | 3 |
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| Weight | 219 |
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| Debutyear | 1921 |
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| Debutteam | Akron Pros |
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| Finalyear | 1922 |
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| Finalteam | Milwaukee Badgers |
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| College | Rutgers |
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| Teams |
Akron Pros ()
Milwaukee Badgers () |
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| Statseason | 1922 |
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| Statlabel1 | Games played |
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| Statvalue1 | 15 |
|---|
| Statlabel2 | Games started |
|---|
| Statvalue2 | 15 |
|---|
| Statlabel3 | TD |
|---|
| Statvalue3 | 2 |
|---|
| Nfl | ROB361120 |
|---|
| Highlights | First team All-American (1917, 1918) |
|---|
| Collegehof | 10080
}} |
|---|
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American concert singer (
bass), recording artist, actor, athlete, and scholar who combined advocacy for the
Civil Rights Movement with support for Soviet Communism. He gained international attention for his work in the arts and he merged his artistic career with political activism to speak out for the equality of minorities and the rights of workers throughout the world. His Communist affiliations at the outset of the
Cold War and during the age of
McCarthyism brought scrutiny, conflict and retribution from the American government. His public persona became diminished, his income plummeted and he faced isolation from the Civil Rights Movement in the second half of the 20th century. Robeson endured McCarthyism and briefly returned to the artistic spotlight, but the events in the 1950s combined with ongoing severe health breakdowns well into the 1960s virtually destroyed his health. Robeson lived out the last years of his life privately in Philadelphia.
Robeson won a scholarship to Rutgers College and there he was an All-American football player, and valedictorian of his class. He further advanced his education attending Columbia Law School, while playing professionally in the National Football League (NFL) and singing and acting in off-campus productions. He graduated from law school and had a brief stint working as a lawyer before focusing his career on the arts. He made singing tours of the US and Europe, and became an international star of stage, screen, radio and film.
He was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of Negro spirituals and the second black actor to portray Shakespeare's ''Othello'' with an otherwise all-white cast. (Ira Aldridge, who had played the role in London a hundred years before Robeson did, was the first.) As his artistic career progressed, he increasingly became a more out-spoken political artist. His promulgated political beliefs, with respect to American policy, caught the attention of the FBI, the CIA and the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), and also brought public condemnation in the US.
In 1950, his passport was revoked under the McCarran Act over his work in the anti-imperialism movement, his criticism of US civil rights policies, and his affiliation with members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Though internationally acclaimed, he was blacklisted in the US from performing on stage, screen, radio and television and as a result, his income suffered because he was not able to travel overseas. His right to travel was restored in 1958, but his already faltering health broke down under controversial circumstances in 1963.
Early life
Childhood (1898-1915)
Paul Robeson was born in
Princeton in 1898, to Reverend
William Drew Robeson and
Maria Louisa Bustill. He had three brothers, William Drew Jr (born 1881), Reeve (born c. 1887), and Benjamin (born c. 1893), and one sister, Marian (born c. 1895). Maria was from a prominent, black,
Quaker family of mixed ancestry: African, Anglo-American, and
Lenape. William was born a
slave but escaped from a plantation in his teens. William then served in an honorable, yet not formally inducted, capacity with the
Union Army during the
American Civil War. Post-bellum, he earned a degree from
Lincoln University and became a minister of Witherspoon Street
Presbyterian Church in Princeton in 1881. He is also related to famous female journalist
Gertrude Bustill Mossell who was his aunt.
In 1900, a disagreement between William and white, financial supporters of Witherspoon arose with apparent racial undertones, which were prevalent at the time in Princeton. William, who had the support of his entirely black congregation, resigned under pressure in 1901. The loss of his ministry forced him to work menial jobs. Three years later when Paul was six years old, Maria, who was nearly blind from cataracts, tragically died in a house fire. Eventually, William was financially incapable of providing a house for himself and his two sons, Ben and Paul, so they took up residence in the attic of a store in Westfield, New Jersey.
A few years later in 1910, William found stability in the parsonage of the St. Thomas A. M. E. Zion where Robeson would fill in for him when he was momentarily called away. In 1912, Robeson attended Somerville High School, where he performed in ''Julius Caesar'', ''Othello'', sang in the chorus, and excelled in football, basketball, baseball and track. His athletic dominance sometimes elicited racial taunts that he discreetly ignored. Prior to his graduation, he won a statewide academic contest for a full scholarship to Rutgers. Robeson took a summer job as a waiter in Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island, where he befriended Fritz Pollard.
Rutgers University (1915-1919)
In the fall of 1915, Robeson became the third African American student ever enrolled at Rutgers, and the only one at the time. Although he was determined to excel at his studies, he tried out for the
Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team that fall. During tryouts, the players tested his resolve to make the team by engaging in unwarranted, and excessive play that was somewhat precipitated by racism. In an ensuing practice, Robeson used his superior size and strength to physically exact retribution against the other players. Witnessing Robeson's brutal tactics, the coach,
Foster Sanford, decided Robeson had conquered the tribulation and announced that he had made the team.
Robeson then joined the debate team, and indirectly became involved with the Glee Club, as membership required attending all-white mixers. Undeterred, he sang on-campus informally and off-campus for spending money. He also joined track and field, the basketball, and baseball teams. In his sophomore year, amidst the sesquicentennial celebration of Rutgers founding, he was, in a stinging insult, benched, when a ''Southern'' team refused to play a team that fielded a Negro.
After a standout junior year of football, he was recognized in The Crisis for his athletic, academic, and singing talents. In what should have been a pleasant point in his life, Robeson was burdened with William falling grievously ill. Consequently, Robeson took sole responsibility to care for him as he shuttled between Rutgers and Somerville. Three days after his father's death, he somberly expounded on the incongruity of African Americans fighting to protect America, and yet not being afforded the same opportunities as whites.
His college days ended with four annual oratorical triumphs and numerous varsity letters in athletics. His memorable play as end in football resulted in him being named a first-team All-American in both his junior and senior year, with Walter Camp considering him the greatest defensive end ever. Academically, he was accepted into Phi Beta Kappa and into Cap and Skull, Rutgers' honor society. Due to the high opinion his classmates had of him, they elected him class valedictorian. and published a poem in The Daily Targum honoring his achievements. In his valedictorian speech, he exhorted his classmates to work for equality for ''all'' Americans.
Columbia Law School (1919-1923)
Robeson entered
New York University School of Law (NYU) in the fall of 1919. To financially support himself, he became an assistant football coach at Lincoln, where he joined the
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Harlem had undergone a dramatic change beginning in 1905, from a predominantly
Jewish American neighborhood, to an almost entirely African American one in 1915, and Robeson was drawn to it. He transferred to
Columbia Law School in February 1920 and moved to Harlem. By this time, Robeson was well known in the black community for his singing, and he was selected to perform at the dedication of the
Harlem YWCA. He began dating
Eslanda "Essie" Goode, a
histological chemist at
NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. Robeson then gave his theatrical debut as ''Simon'' in the
Ridgely Torrence play about ''
Simon of Cyrene''. After a year of courtship, Essie and Robeson married on August 17, 1921.
Robeson was recruited by Pollard to play for the NFL's Akron Pros, while he continued his law studies. In the spring, he postponed school to portray Jim in ''Taboo'' by Mary Hoyt Wiborg. Robeson then sang in a chorus in an Off-broadway production of ''Shuffle Along'' before he abandoned it to join ''Taboo'' in Britain for the summer. The play was adapted by director Mrs. Patrick Campbell to give greater prominence to his singing. After the play's run, he became acquainted with Lawrence Brown, a classically trained musician, before returning to the States and continuing at Columbia whilst playing for the NFL's Milwaukee Badgers. Robeson ended his football career after 1922, and a few months later, he graduated from Columbia.
Theatrical ascension and ideological transformation (1923-1939)
Harlem renaissance (1923–1927)
Robeson briefly worked as a lawyer, but then renounced law due to extant racism in the field, which would relegate him to a position far below his intellect. Essie supported them while they became acolytes to the social functions held at the future
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In December, he acquired the lead role of Jim in an
Eugene O'Neill production of ''
All God's Chillun Got Wings'', whose plot culminated in Jim symbolically emasculating himself, in order to metaphorically consummate his marriage with his white wife. ''Chillun's'' opening became postponed while a nationwide debate occurred over its plot.
''Chillun'''s delay effectuated a revival of ''The Emperor Jones'' with Robeson as Brutus, a role made famous by Charles Sidney Gilpin. The portrayal terrified and galvanized the novice Robeson, as it was practically a single, 90-minute soliloquy. Reviews of Robeson at the Provincetown Playhouse as Brutus declared him an unequivocal success. Weeks later, critical reviews of his performance as Jim in ''Chillun's'', though arguably clouded by the controversial subject matter, were neutral to unfavorable. However, the popular success of his achievements placed him in elite social circles. His ascension to fame was proceeding at a startling pace, forcefully aided by Essie whose naked ambition for his success was a startling dichotomy to Robeson's insouciance to it. Essie quit her job, became his agent, and negotiated his first movie appearance in a silent race film directed by Oscar Micheaux, ''Body and Soul''.
Robeson believed fate had drawn him to the "untrodden path" of drama and stressed the only "original" American culture was African American culture and stated the measure of a culture is its artistic contributions while reinforcing the importance of the culture of ancient Africa. To support a charity for single African-American mothers, Robeson headlined a concert singing spirituals. Robeson then took his repertoire of spirituals from the concert stage and performed them on the radio.
Brown, who had become a renowned accompanist-arranger while touring with gospel singer Roland Hayes, stumbled on Robeson back in Harlem. The two ad-libbed a set of spirituals, with Robeson's bass as lead and Brown's tenor as accompaniment, that so enthralled them that they booked Provincetown for a concert. The pair's rendition of African-American folk songs and spirituals captivated the audience and critics, and Victor Records signed Robeson to a contract.
Robeson and Essie embarked to London for a brief revival of ''Jones'' before spending the rest of their fall on holiday on the French Riviera socializing with political free thinkers such as Gertrude Stein and Claude McKay. Robeson and Brown began a series of concert tours in America, with and without Essie, from January 1926 until May 1927. During a hiatus in New York, Robeson encountered Essie who was several months pregnant. Nevertheless, Robeson and Brown launched a tour of Europe in October. On November 2, 1927, Paul Robeson, Jr. was born, but not without Essie experiencing complications. By mid-December, her health had deteriorated dramatically. Over her objections, Essie's mother wired Robeson and he returned to Essie's side in late December.
''Show Boat'' (1928-1929)
Robeson next played the
stevedore Joe in the London production of the American musical ''
Show Boat'', at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, His rendition of "
Ol' Man River" in the show became a benchmark to which all performers of the song would be judged. Some black critics were not pleased with the play due to its usage of the word ''nigger''. It was, nonetheless, immensely popular with white audiences, and it even gained a royal audience, principally
Queen Mary. Subsequently, Robeson was summoned for a
Royal Command Performance at
Buckingham Palace in honor of the
King of Spain,
Alfonso XIII. and he was befriended by
MPs from the
House of Commons Consequently, feeling comfortable in London, the Robesons bought a home in
Hampstead. The musical continued its run for 350 performances and as of at least 2001, it has remained Theatre Royal's most profitable venture.
Marriage difficulties (1930-1932)
Essie had known early in their marriage that Robeson had been involved in extramarital affairs, but she tolerated them. However, when Essie inadvertently discovered that Robeson was having an affair with a white Ms. Jackson, she unfavorably altered the characterization of him in the biography she was privately writing. They went on a concert tour of Europe and there was no suggestion that their relationship had been harmed. In early 1930, Essie and Robeson both starred in the experimental classic ''
Borderline''. They returned to the
West End for Robeson's starring role in
William Shakespeare's ''
Othello'', opposite
Peggy Ashcroft as
Desdemona. Essie's ''Paul Robeson, Negro'' was published, wherein she effectively defamed him by describing him with "negative racial stereotypes," which he found appalling.
Robeson became the first black actor cast as Othello in Britain since Ira Aldridge. The production, however, met with mixed reviews which pointed out Robeson's "highly civilized quality [but lacking the] grand style." Drawn into an interview, Robeson stated the best way to diminish the oppression African-Americans faced was for his artistic work to be an example of what "men of my colour" could accomplish rather than to "be a propagandist and make speeches and write articles about what they call the Colour Question." After Essie's discovery of Robeson's affair with Ashcroft, they split up and decided to seek a divorce. Robeson's and Jackson's relationship became serious and they broached marriage. Nevertheless, he returned to Broadway to play Joe in the spring 1932 revival of ''Show Boat'', wherein his performance was critically and popularly acclaimed. Subsequently, Robeson received, with immense pride, an honorary master's degree from Rutgers, and although sources are unclear, Robeson was about this time advised by Sanford that divorcing Essie and marrying Jackson would do irreparable damage to his public reputation. Jackson's and Robeson's relationship abruptly ended in 1932, following which Paul and Essie permanently reconciled. Their relationship, however, was permanently scarred.
Ideological assertion (1933–1937)
Robeson returned to the theatre as Joe in "Chillun" in 1933 because he found the character stimulating. He received no financial compensation for "Chillun", but he was an unbridled pleasure to work with. The play ran for several weeks and was panned by critics, except for his acting. He then returned to the US to portray Brutus in the film ''The Emperor Jones'' under lucrative financial terms. "Jones" became the first feature film starring an African American, unequaled for more than two decades in the US, and his acting was well-received, but offensive language in the script caused controversy. On the set of the film, he asserted his intolerance to any slight to his dignity, notwithstanding Jim Crow attitudes. Although, the winter of 1932-1933 was, until then, the worst economic period in American history, Robeson was viewed, by some biographers, as unmindful to the travesty occurring.
Post-production, he returned home to England and publicly criticized African Americans' self-abnegation of their own culture. His comments brought rebuke from the ''New York Amsterdam News'' as they retorted that his conveyance of elitism had "'jolly well [made an ass of himself].'" Nevertheless, he declared he would reject any offers to perform classical European opera because the music had no connection to his cultural heritage. He enrolled in the School of Oriental and African Studies to study Swahili and Bantu, among other languages. His ''sudden interest'' in African history and its impact on culture coincided with his essay ''I Want to be African'', wherein he wrote of his desire to embrace his heritage. Consequently, Robeson undertook Bosambo in the movie ''Sanders of the River'' set in Nigeria, which he felt would render a realistic view of colonial African culture.
His friends in the anti-imperialism movement and association with British socialists led him to visit the USSR. During their sojourn, they encountered a racist Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, they arrived in Moscow where they were welcomed by Eisenstein. He found the USSR free of racism and spoke of the transparency of his race he felt there. Robeson's statement mimicked the incorrect, mainstream analysis by Western intelligentsia of social equality in the USSR due to the desensitizing effect of Nazism.
''Sanders'' was released in 1935 and editing by Zoltan Korda produced an ''imperial'' film. The film was immensely popular and made Robeson an international movie star. However, his stereotypical portrayal of a colonial African was seen as embarrassing to his stature as an artist and damaging to his reputation. The Commissioner of Nigeria in London protested the film as slanderous to his country, and Robeson henceforth became more politically conscious of his roles. In 1936, he played the role of Toussaint Louverture in the play, of the same name, by C.L.R. James at the Westminster Theatre and appeared in the films ''Songs of Freedom'' and ''Show Boat'', in which he reprised his role as Joe. He then appeared in ''Big Fella'', ''My Song Goes Forth'', and ''King Solomon's Minds''. Consequently in 1937, he rose to the position of the 10th most popular star in British cinema.
Spanish Civil War (1937-1939)
The world-wide view, on the left, of the
Spanish Civil War, was that the
Republicans were fighting to defend, not only a popularly elected government, but to ideologically preserve the interests of the working class and repelling
Fascism.
Robeson's view of the USSR was enhanced by its assistance to the Republicans. In 1937, Robeson traveled from Moscow to London to attend a rally in support of Spanish refugees and he used his performance to advocate the Republican cause.
By December 1937 Robeson had addressed four rallies for the Republican cause and had expressed concern that Italy conquering of Ethiopia was unnecessary. His business agent was concerned about the implications of him becoming politically involved. However, Robeson had decided that contemporary events were paramount and trumped commercialism. No longer would he appear in "decadent Hollywood films", he stated, but instead would portray "the life, hopes and aspirations of the struggling people from which I come." Visiting Spain in 1938, Robeson met with the American men and women of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade on the battlefields. Back in Europe, he raised funds for the Spanish Republic, and to aid returning wounded Lincoln veterans in need of medical care. Throughout his life he cited the struggle against fascism in Spain as an essential part of shaping his transformation into a political artist and activist, writing in his autobiography that Spain was "the turning point of my life." Robeson recorded a message to the Republicans, which would become his epitaph:
The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative. The history of the capitalist era is characterized by the degradation of my people: despoiled of their lands, their culture destroyed, ... denied equal protection under law, and deprived their rightful place in the respect of their fellows. Not through blind faith or coercion but conscious of my course, I take my place with you.
A world-wide artistic response to the Spanish Civil War saw musicians change the theme of their songs from lamentations to battle hymns of resolution. Robeson, for his part, changed the lyrics of ''Ol' Man River'' in his recitals from ''I gets weary and sick of tryin'; I'm tired of livin' and scared of dyin','' to ''But I keep's laughing, instead of cryin'; I must keep fightin' until I'm dyin'.'' However, in performances of ''Show Boat'', he always kept to the original lyrics, except for the word ''niggers''.
The rescue of 4,000 Basque refugees and their subsequent evacuation to Great Britain instantly became legendary, but they needed financial support.
He visited the Rhondda Valley and the Talygarn Miners' Rest Home, and performed for miners and their families in Cardiff, Neath and Aberdare.
Robeson was one of four hosts who gave speeches to welcome Jawaharlal Nehru to Kingsway Hall to support his efforts in the Indian independence movement in which Nehru equated Imperialism with Fascism.
In 1938, Robeson appeared in a well-received two-month run of Herbert Marshall's ''Plant in the Sun'',. The play deal with sit-down strikes and union organizing in the US, and was produced by the Unity Theatre.
In 1938, he performed for an audience of 7,000 at the Welsh International Brigades National Memorial in Mountain Ash, to commemorate the 33 men from Wales killed while fighting on the side of the Republicans. These staged performances for the miners, coupled with impromptu visits to the miners' pits and seeing their working conditions, had a profound influence on his political development. Robeson soon befriended the miners and because of advocacy of the theirs, and others, labor strife, he became a popular cultural figure in Wales.
Political activism (1939–1958)
Outbreak of World War II (1939–1943)
After his return from Europe after the outbreak of
World War II, Robeson quickly became a national celebrity once again when he performed ''
Ballad for Americans'', an
American patriotic
cantata. In 1940, Robeson appeared in ''
The Proud Valley'', playing a black laborer who arrives in the
Rhondda Valley in Wales and wins the hearts of the local people. The film won good reviews. It was the film of which he was the most proud. He sang "Ballad for Americans" at
The Hollywood Bowl to the largest sold-out crowd in its history. The Beverly Wilshire was the only hotel in Los Angeles willing to accommodate Robeson, at the then exorbitant rate of $100 per night and only if he would register under an assumed name. He complied with the requirements, but then arranged to spend two hours every afternoon sitting in the lobby, where he could easily be recognized. When asked why, he responded, "To ensure that the next time Black singers and actors come through, they'll have a place to stay." During that period,
Collier's magazine named him both "favorite male Negro singer" and "America's no.1 entertainer."
Robeson co-founded with Max Yergan the International Committee on African Affairs in 1937 (from 1941, the Council on African Affairs, CAA). The CAA provided information about Africa across the US, particularly to African-Americans. During World War II, it functioned as a coalition including a variety of activists from varying leftist backgrounds. Its most successful campaign was probably that for South African famine relief in 1946. Under the weight of internal disputes, government repression, and financial hardships, the CAA disbanded in 1955.
When Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor brought the US into the war, Robeson was among the first performers to give benefit concerts on behalf of the American war effort, making him one of the top American actors and singers of that era.
In 1942 Robeson performed in the Frontier Films production of ''Native Land'' which was based on the La Follette Committee's investigation of the repression of labor organizations. The FBI labeled it "...obviously a Communist project."
In 1942, in Hollywood, Robeson participated in the anthology film ''Tales of Manhattan''. His segment depicted black people's living conditions under the sharecropping system. Robeson was dissatisfied, calling it "very offensive to my people. It makes the Negro childlike and innocent and is in the old plantation hallelujah shouter tradition". He attempted to remove the film from distribution by buying up all prints but this proved far too expensive. Robeson held a press conference, announcing that he would no longer act in Hollywood films because of the demeaning roles available to black actors and would gladly join others in picketing the film.
Robeson performed at the Polo Grounds to support the USSR cause in the war, where he met two emissaries from the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, Solomon Mikhoels and Itzik Feffer—who doubled as an informant for the NKVD.
The Broadway ''Othello'' (1943-1945)
Robeson reprised the role of Othello on Broadway at the
Shubert Theatre in 1943 under the direction of
Margaret Webster. He became the first African American to play the role with a white supporting cast on a Broadway stage and it was immensely popular. He parlayed his theatrical accomplishment to address an annual meeting of
Major League Baseball club owners, demanding they admit black players into the league. He toured North America with it until 1945. , his run of ''Othello'' is the longest of any Shakespeare play on
Broadway, running for 296 performances. Stage actress
Uta Hagen played Desdemona, and
José Ferrer played Iago. For his portrayal, Robeson received a
Donaldson Award, as well as the Gold Medal for the best diction in the American theater, and was awarded the
Spingarn medal by the NAACP for his distinguished achievements in the performing arts and his humanitarian endeavors.
Onset of Cold War (1946–1948)
The start of the
Cold war led to a climate in which anti-imperialist groups in America were considered antithetical to the best interests of contemporary US foreign policy.
In 1946, he opposed a move by the Canadian government to deport thousands of Japanese Canadians. Robeson accepted honorary life membership of the Japanese Canadian Committee for Democracy and gave a concert in Salt Lake City, then home to the Japanese American Citizens League.
In July 1946, as Chairman of the Council on African Affairs, he telegraphed President Truman on the lynching of four African Americans in Georgia, demanding that the federal government "take steps to apprehend and punish the perpetrators ... and to halt the rising tide of lynch law.
Following the rally, he led a delegation to the White House to present a legislative and educational program to Truman aimed at ending mob violence; demanding that lynchers be prosecuted and calling on Congress to enact a federal anti-lynching law. He then warned Truman that if the government did not do something to end lynching, "the Negroes will". Truman refused the request to issue a formal public statement against lynching, stating that it was not "the right time". Robeson also gave a radio address, calling on all Americans of all races to demand that Congress pass civil rights legislation.
On October 7, 1946, Robeson testified before the Tenney Committee that he was not a Communist Party member. He was never identified as an official member of any Communist organization.
Robeson sang and spoke in 1948 at an event organized by the Los Angeles Civil Rights Congress (CRC) and labor unions to launch a campaign against job discrimination, for passage of the federal Fair Employment Practices Act also known as Executive Order 8802, anti-lynching and anti-poll tax legislation, and citizens’ action to defeat the county loyalty oath climate.
In 1948, Robeson was preeminent in the presidential campaign to elect Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace, who had served as Vice-President under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wallace was running on an anti-lynching, pro-civil rights platform and had attracted a diverse group of voters including Communists, liberals and trade unionists. On the campaign trail, Robeson went to the Deep South, where he sang before "overflow audiences... in Negro churches in Atlanta and Macon."
Robeson's belief that the labor movement and trade unionism were crucial to the civil rights of oppressed people of all races became central to his political beliefs. Robeson's close friend, the union activist Revels Cayton, pressed for "black caucuses" in each union, with Robeson's encouragement and involvement. As a precondition to the renewal of his passport, he complied with a request from the State Department to sign a waiver to not make any "political or charitable appearances while on tour." Under continual heavy surveillance by the FBI and the CIA during this tour, he attended the Paris congress of the World Peace Council and gave a speech. The speech, although misquoted by the Associated Press, became a catalyst for him becoming an ''enemy'' of mainstream America. According to the original text of the speech, it was an anti-imperialistic statement, however over the wires came a declaration, attributed to Robeson, that America was a fascist nation and it was ludicrous to believe that American Negroes would assist American armed forces due to generations of oppression. The reaction by the press in the US was nearly universal, and sometimes vitriolic, condemnation.}} At the urging of the State Department, Roy Wilkins, of the NAACP, stated that regardless of the number of lynchings that were occurring or would occur, Black America would always serve in the armed forces.
Robeson arrived in Moscow in June, but, unable to find any of his Jewish friends, including Feffer, he let his feelings be known to Soviet authorities. Not willing to lose Robeson as a propagandist for the USSR, Soviet authorities brought Feffer to him from a Moscow prison. Feffer told him that the room was probably bugged, Mikhoels had been murdered, and, with insight, revealed his own fate to be a state execution. At an ensuing concert, Robeson paid tribute to Feffer and Mikhoels, singing the Yiddish song "Zog Nit Keynmol". Back in the US, Robeson denied any persecution existed in the USSR to prevent the right wing of the US from the moral high ground, and to prevent the USSR to be subject from disrepute, he kept the meeting secret, except from his son, for the rest of his life. Robinson was reluctant to testify, in part because of Robeson's prior advocacy in the integration of professional baseball. Robinson's testimony did not attest to the veracity of Robeson's published remarks, but he advised that such thinking was 'silly' and, in this regard, it was proficiently used as a weapon to politically isolate Robeson. Robeson declined to comment on Robinson personally but would only say that Robinson was entitled to his own opinion.
Days later, an announcement of a concert to support the CRC, to be headlined by Robeson and held near Peekskill, New York, provoked local papers to decry the use of their community to support such ''subversives''. A small riot broke out prior to the concert, which was initiated, principally, by local residents of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the concert was postponed. Robeson pronounced that Peekskill was a part of the "'anti-fascist struggle'" and the concert was rescheduled. The ensuing concert occurred without incident, while hundred of New York State troopers patrolled the area amongst local residents who looked on from afar. As concert attendees left, the local residents, then a mob, bombarded them with rocks and randomly beat them, resulting in scores of injuries—some serious, as police passively looked on. Under public pressure, the Governor of New York Thomas Dewey called a grand jury which promptly concluded the riots were a Communist plot "'to foment racial and religious hatreds.'" As the debate carried out in the media, critique of Robeson reached an abiding consensus, even among liberals, that Robeson's pronouncements were anathema to America.
Blacklisted and passport confiscation (1950-1955)
The new decade began with a review of ''College Football: and All America Review'' defining it as "the most complete record on college football". It however identified only a ten-man team for the 1917 college All-American football team by omitting Robeson's name. Months later,
NBC canceled Robeson's scheduled appearance on former First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt's television program. A spokesman for NBC declared that, depending on sources, Robeson's appearance had not been approved by NBC headquarters, or Robeson would "never appear on NBC." Press releases of the Civil Rights Congress objected that "censorship of Mr. Robeson's appearance on TV is a crude attempt to silence the outstanding spokesman for the Negro people in their fight for civil and human rights
[and that our] basic democratic rights are under attack under the
smoke-screen of
anti-Communism." Protesters picketed NBC offices and protests arrived from numerous public figures, organizations and others.
In 1950, the State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports, effectively confining him within the US. Robeson was not allowed to travel to Canada or Mexico, countries that US citizens could visit without a passport. Far from seeking to revoke his US citizenship and deport him, the FBI and state department records indicate that the US government believed that a blacklisted existence inside the US borders would offer Robeson less freedom of expression than his presence internationally would. When Robeson and his lawyers met with officials at the State Department and asked why it was "detrimental to the interests of the United States Government" for him to travel abroad, they were told that "his frequent criticism of the treatment of blacks in the United States should not be aired in foreign countries"—it was a `family affair'." When Robeson inquired about being re-issued a passport, the State Department declined, citing Robeson's refusal to sign a statement guaranteeing "not to give any speeches while outside the U.S."
In 1951 an article titled "Paul Robeson - the Lost Shepherd" was published in ''The Crisis'', the official magazine of the NAACP, under the pseudonym "Robert Alan", described as "a well known New York journalist", although Paul Jr. suspected it was authored by Earl Brown. J. Edgar Hoover and the United States State Department arranged for the article to be printed and distributed in Africa in order to defame Robeson's reputation and negate his specific, and the Communists in general, popularity in colonial countries. Another article by Wilkins denounced Robeson as well as the CPUSA in terms consistent with the anti-Communist FBI propaganda.
He presented to the United Nations in New York on December 17, 1951 an anti-lynching petition, "We Charge Genocide". The document asserted that the US federal government, by its failure to act against lynching in the US, was "guilty of genocide" under Article II of the UN Genocide Convention.
In 1952, Robeson was awarded the International Stalin Prize by the USSR. Being unable to travel to Moscow, Robeson received the award in New York. In April 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, Robeson penned ''To You Beloved Comrade'', praising Stalin as being dedicated to peace and a guidance to the world: "Through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage." Robeson's opinion on the USSR prevented both his passport restrictions being eased and his return to the mainstream of the entertainment industry and the civil rights movement. In his opinion, the existence of the USSR was the guarantee of political balance in the world.
The famed African-American singer and his wife were thus associated with the Communist Party and Communist Party front groups, and Robeson was publicly condemned for his beliefs.
In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban, labor unions in the US and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and over the next two years two further concerts were scheduled. In this period, with the encouragement of his friend the Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan, Robeson recorded a number of radio concerts for supporters in Wales.
End of McCarthyism (1956-1957)
In 1956, Robeson was called before the HUAC after he refused to sign an affidavit affirming that he was not a Communist. In response to questions concerning his alleged party membership, Robeson insisted that the Communist Party was a legal party and invited its members to join him in the voting booth before he invoked the
Fifth Amendment and refused to respond. Robeson refused to discuss Stalin, calling it "a question for the Soviet Union", instead lambasting committee members on civil rights issues and the enslavement and exploitation of blacks throughout American history. Asked why he had not remained in the USSR, he replied that "because my father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you and no fascist minded people will drive me from it! Is that clear?"
Campaigns were simultaneously launched in the US and UK to protest the passport ban. In the UK, ''The National Paul Robeson Committee'' was formed, sponsored by Members of Parliament as well as writers, scholars, actors, lawyers, trade union leaders and others. The Committee began a "Let Paul Robeson Sing" mass petition, which gathered signatures from tens of thousands of supporters. Over the next four years, many prominent figures in Britain argued for the restoration of Robeson's right to travel. The group held a conference and concert at St Pancras Town Hall, London headed by Cedric Belfrage, on May 26, 1957 with Robeson singing direct from New York over a telephone connection.
After Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalinism at the 1956 Party Congress, Robeson became silent on Stalin, though he continued to praise the USSR and in so doing imitating the defendants sent to their death in the Trial of Sixteen in 1936.
In 1956, Robeson left the US for the first time since the travel ban was imposed, performing concerts in two Canadian cities, in March of that year.
In 1956, Robeson, along with close friend W. E. B. Du Bois, compared the anti-Stalinist revolution in Hungary to the "same sort of people who overthrew the Spanish Republican Government" and supported the Soviet invasion and suppression of the revolt.
In 1957, Robeson was invited by Welsh miners to be the honored guest at the annual Eisteddfod Music Festival. An appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States to reinstate his confiscated passport had been rejected, but through the newly completed trans-Atlantic telephone hook-up between New York and Porthcawl, Wales, Robeson was able to sing to the 5,000 gathered there as he had earlier in the year to London. Journalist Gil Noble called the concert "perhaps the most emotional and moving in Robeson's long concert career."
Because of the controversy surrounding him, Paul Robeson's recordings and films lost mainstream distribution and he was universally condemned in the mainstream U.S press. During the height of the Cold War it became increasingly difficult in the US to hear Robeson sing on commercial radio, buy his music or to see any of his films.
Due to his blacklisting within the mainstream media, the concert stage, theater, radio, film and the civil rights movement, Robeson became a virtual nonperson."
Later when his left-wing activism became controversial, accusations that he was a "'godless' Communist" were not accepted by his black churchgoing audiences, who felt he "personified the spirituals in his music". He never expressed "even the remotest allegiance to 'materialistic atheism'".
Passport restored (1958–1963)
Tours of Europe Australia and New Zealand (1958-1960)
Robeson's autobiography, ''
Here I Stand'', was published by a British publishing company in 1958. As part of his "comeback", he gave two sold-out recitals that month in
Carnegie Hall, which were released on
LP and later on
CD. Also that year, Robeson's 60th birthday was celebrated in several US cities and twenty-seven countries across the world. After the
US Supreme Court ruled, in
Kent v. Dulles, that the Secretary of State could not consider a person's political beliefs when responding to passport request, Robeson's passport was restored in May 1958 and Robeson left for London not long after.
Robeson and Essie began traveling extensively, using London as their base of operations. During this period Robeson was under constant surveillance by the CIA, MI6 and the State Department. In the United Kingdom, Robeson found himself deluged with professional offers.
In August 1959 he left for Moscow where he received a tumultuous reception and needed a police escort at the airport. A crowd of eighteen thousand people filled the Lenin Stadium (Khabarovsk) to capacity on August 17, 1959 where Robeson sang classic Russian songs along with his standards. Robeson and Essie then flew to Crimea to spend time at Yalta resting, working with a documentary film crew and spending time with Nikita Khrushchev. Robeson also visited Young Pioneer camp Artek before returning to the UK.
On October 11, 1959 Robeson took part in a historic service at St.Paul's Cathedral, being the first black performer to sing there. Four thousand people attended the evensong performance with hundreds overflowing onto the streets. The State Department had circulated negative literature about him through the media in India; one censored CIA memo suggested that Robeson's appearance could be used to thwart the desegregation of a swimming pool.
On a trip to Moscow, Robeson developed bouts of dizziness and heart problems, and he was hospitalized for two months while Essie was diagnosed with operable cancer.
Robeson recovered and returned to the UK to fulfill his engagements. In 1958, he visited the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale as the guest of the local MP Aneurin Bevan, revisited his ties to the black community in Cardiff's Butetown and gave performances throughout Europe. During his run at the Royal Shakespeare Company playing Othello in Tony Richardson's 1959 production at Stratford-upon-Avon, he befriended actor Andrew Faulds whose family he was staying with in the nearby village of Shottery while performing. Robeson inspired him to take up a career in politics after admonishing him for being apolitical. The production of Othello was geared towards Robeson's health concerns but gave him a lucrative seven month run and chance to participate in an updated version of the play directed by Tony Richardson. In 1960, in what would prove to be Paul Robeson's final concert performance in Great Britain, he sang with the Welsh Male Voice Choir, Côr Meibion Cwmbach, to raise money for the ''Movement for Colonial Freedom'' at the Royal Festival Hall.
Robeson embarked on a a two month concert tour of Australia and New Zealand in October 1960, with Essie, with the primary purpose of generating money and at the behest of Bill Morrow. After appearing at the Brisbane Festival Hall, they went to Auckland where Robeson affirmed his primary purpose on tour was to sing and entertain. However, he then affirmed his support of Marxism, denounced the inequality faced by the Māori and efforts to denigrate their culture.
In a message sent to the Melbourne Peace Conference some time around December 1960 and January 1961, Robeson said "...the people of the lands of Socialism want peace dearly".
Back in Australia, he was introduced to Faith Bandler who enlightened the Robesons to the deep deprivation the Australian Aborigines endured. Robeson became indignant and enraged and demanded the Australian government provide the Aborigines citizenship and equal rights. He remonstrated the extant view of the Aborigines as unsophisticated and uncultured, and he expounded on this by declaring: "'there's no such thing as a ''backward'' human being, there is only a society which says they are backward.'" Robeson advocated striking trade unions and reinvigorated their cause with impromptu singing performances, e.g. "Joe Hill", and he was given arts and artifacts from Aborigine culture to signify the trade unions support for Aboriginal rights. The Robesons sought out the Aborigines in their travels, as much as possible, and they became further enlightened to their treatment. Robeson, at the age of 62, won adulation in all artistic phases of his concert tour, which would be the last major one in his life. Whether an Australian was a proponent or detractor of Robeson's politics, Robeson left Australia as a respected figure and his support for Aboriginal rights had a profound affect in Australia for the next decade.
Health breakdown (1961–1963)
Back in London, he began to plan his return to the US to participate in the
Civil Rights Movement, stopping off in Africa, China and Cuba along the way. Essie argued to stay in London, fearing that he'd be "killed" if he returned to the US and "unable to make any money" due to harassment by the US government. Robeson disagreed and made his own travel arrangements, stopping off in Moscow in March 1961.
In spring of 1961, Robeson again traveled to the USSR, his last visit there. During an uncharacteristically wild party in his Moscow hotel room, he locked himself in his bedroom and attempted suicide by cutting his wrists. Three days later, while under Soviet medical care, he told his son that he felt extreme paranoia, thought that the walls of the room were moving and, overcome by a powerful sense of emptiness and depression, tried to take his own life.
Paul Jr. believed that his father's health problems stemmed from attempts by CIA and MI5 to "neutralize" his father. He remembered that his father had such fears prior to his prostate operation. He said that three doctors treating Robeson in London and New York had been CIA contractors, and that his father's symptoms resulted from being "subjected to mind depatterning under MKULTRA", a secret CIA programme. Martin Duberman posits that Robeson's health breakdown was probably brought on by a combination of factors including extreme emotional and physical stress, bipolar depression, exhaustion and the beginning of circulatory and heart problems. "[E]ven without an organic predisposition and accumulated pressures of government harassment he might have been susceptible to a breakdown".
Robeson stayed at the Barvikha Sanatorium until September 1961, when he left Moscow for London. There his depression re-emerged, and after another period of recuperation in Moscow, he returned to London. Three days after arriving back he became suicidal and suffered a panic attack while passing the Soviet Embassy. He was admitted to The Priory hospital, where he underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and was given heavy doses of drugs for nearly two years, with no accompanying psychotherapy.
During his treatment at the Priory, Robeson was being monitored by the British MI5. Both US and British intelligence services were well aware of Robeson's suicidal state of mind. An FBI memo described Robeson's debilitated condition, remarking that his "death would be much publicized" and would be used for Communist propaganda, making continued surveillance imperative. Numerous memos also advised that Robeson should be denied a passport renewal which would ostensibly jeopardize his fragile health and the recovery process he was engaged in overseas.
In August 1963, disturbed about his treatment, friends had him transferred to the Buch Clinic in East Berlin. Given psychotherapy and less medication, his physicians found him still "completely without initiative" and they expressed "doubt and anger" about the "high level of barbiturates and ECT" that had been administered in London. He rapidly improved, though his doctor stressed that "what little is left of Paul's health must be quietly conserved."
Withdrawal from public life (1963-1976)
In 1963, Robeson eventually returned to the US and for the remainder of his life lived in quiet seclusion. He had intended to assume a role in the
civil rights movement, making a few major public appearances before falling seriously ill during a tour, nearly dying from double pneumonia and a kidney blockage in 1965. He first lived in Harlem with his wife.
On January 15, 1965, Robeson gave the eulogy at the Harlem funeral of Lorraine Hansberry recalling her work at Freedomways and her contributions to civil rights. Following Hansberry's funeral, Robeson was also contacted by both Bayard Rustin and James L. Farmer, Jr. about the possibility of becoming involved with the mainstream of the Civil Rights movement. Due to Rustin's past anti-Communist stances, Robeson declined to meet with him. Robeson eventually met with Farmer but was asked to denounce Communism and the USSR in order to assume a place in the mainstream, Robeson adamantly declined.
After Essie died of cancer in December 1965, Robeson moved in with his son's family in an Upper West Side apartment in New York City and in 1968, he settled at his sister's home in Philadelphia.
Retirement
In 1968, in honor of Paul Robeson's 70th birthday, celebrations were held in in East Germany, at the
Royal Festival Hall in London, and in Moscow. The black commission of the CPUSA celebration remarked that "the white power structure has generated a conspiracy of silence around Paul Robeson. It wants to blot out all knowledge of this pioneering Black American warrior..."
Despite Robeson's lengthy theater career, Brooks Atkinson, ''The New York Times'' theater critic from 1925 to 1960, included just a one-sentence reference to Robeson in his 1970 book ''Broadway'', advertised as "an history of American theater". Atkinson chronicles African-American performers, ''Show Boat'' and Eugene O'Neill, but only mentions Robeson briefly in context with ''Othello''. In the early 1970s, ''The New York Times'' and ''The New York Daily News'' both ran extensive pieces on black actors who played Othello with no mention of Robeson.
In these years Robeson was honored by accolades and celebrations, both in the US and internationally, including public arenas that had previously shunned him.
He saw few visitors aside from very close friends and gave few statements apart from a few messages to support current civil rights and international movements, feeling that his record "spoke for itself".
In 1971, the Actor's Equity created the Paul Robeson award to recognize the principles by which he lived. A sold-out performance was held at Carnegie Hall to salute his 75th birthday in 1973. Birthday greetings arrived from several world-wide prominent officials or organizations. He was unable to attend because of illness, but a taped message from him was played which said in part, "Though I have not been able to be active for several years, I want you to know that I am the same Paul, dedicated as ever to the worldwide cause of humanity for freedom, peace and brotherhood."
Death
On January 23, 1976 in Philadelphia, following complications of a
stroke, Robeson died, at the age of 77. He lay in state in
Harlem for two days as a "parade of humanity paid their respects". His funeral was held at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem, where Robeson's brother Ben had been pastor for 27 years. Honorary pall bearers included
Harry Belafonte among others, with Pollard informally assisting. Bishop J. Clinton Hoggard performed the eulogy. Robeson was cremated and his ashes interred in the
Ferncliff Cemetery in
Hartsdale, New York.
Posthumous perspective
Public perspective of his death
Tributes occurred, and condolences came, from around the world. In an open session of Congress, the
US House of Representatives immediately paid tribute to his life. Coretta Scott King remarked that she "deplored 'America's inexcusable treatment' of a man who had had 'the courage to point out her injustices.'"
"The white [American] press [overwhelmingly], after decades of harassing Robeson, now tipped its hat to a 'great American,' paid its gingerly respect in editorials that ascribed the vituperation leveled at Robeson in his lifetime to the Bad Old Days of the Cold War, implied those days were forever gone, downplayed the racist component central to his persecution, and ignored the continuing inability of white America to tolerate a black maverick who refused to bend. The black [American] press made no such mistakes. It had never, overall, been as hostile to Robeson as the white [American] press, (though at some points in his career, nearly so)." Pennsylvania State University named its cultural center after Robeson.
In 1995, he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Paul Robeson Residence in Manhattan was declared a National Historic Landmark on December 8, 1976.
He was honored at the United Nations General Assembly for his efforts to end Apartheid in South Africa.
In 1978 an East Berlin street in the city district Prenzlauer Berg was renamed after him.
Centennial remembrance and beyond
The centenary of Robeson's birth was commemorated with scores of world-wide events, a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was honoured at SOAS through the Paul Robeson House. Years later, an English Heritage Blue Plaque was erected at his former home in Hampstead, and he was featured on a US postage stamp, the 27th stamp in the Black Heritage Series. In 2006 a tribute to Robeson was held at the SOAS.
The Welsh have maintained their loyalty to Robeson's support and in Cardiff in 2001, the exhibition ''Let Paul Robeson Sing!'' was unveiled.
American Jews continue to celebrate his memory as an ally.
Legacy
thumb|230px|The Robeson holdings in the archive of the Academy of the Arts of the German Democratic Republic, 1981
The first Paul Robeson Archive was established in 1965 at the Academy of Arts in East Berlin; five years previously, Robeson had also been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Humboldt University of Berlin.
The Robeson Family Archives are deposited at Howard University. In 2010 Susan Robeson launched a project by Swansea University and the Welsh Assembly, to create an online learning resource in her grandfather's memory.
Robeson's academic achievements for his time were extraordinary, but his propitious accomplishments in the meritocratic realm of collegiate sports, where African Americans had been denied an opportunity, resulted in accolades in the large dailies thus evincing, at the turn of the century, that African Americans could not only compete, but could excel, and furthermore, given such an equal opportunity in social, political, or education settings, an analogous outcome was accessible.
Robeson's rendition of the spirituals, Carl Sandburg described, was a triumph in its revelation of its feelings, as he unabashedly desired to put asunder the notion that African Americans should neglect their cultural heritage.
Due to Robeson's lengthy and extensive blacklisting during the 1950s, his long career and achievements are difficult to find in most American mainstream interpretations of history, including in-depth books on sports history, entertainment, civil rights and black history. In the US very little newsreel footage of Robeson now exists, even in the Library of Congress, as the majority of US newsreel footage has been either destroyed or has had the sound erased.
Robeson was one of the first African-American singer-activists. He was also one of the forerunners of the Civil Rights Movement and the first black artist to refuse to play to segregated audiences. On the international political scene, Robeson's legacy included influences on the African Independence movements and his work was cited by Nelson Mandela and other post-colonialist, world leaders. In the arts, James Earl Jones, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte have cited his lead film roles as being the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage. In films such as ''Jericho'' (1937) and ''The Proud Valley'' (1940), he portrayed strong black American male leading roles without the subservience typical of roles for blacks at the time., while film industry figures and historians have written of his groundbreaking work in cinema as the first major black actor unwilling to play stereotypes. Robeson was important in the labor movement, wherein he was awarded honorary memberships in trade unions.
While a consensus definition of Robeson's legacy has been debated, Robeson personified a defiant caveat: "The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative."
Filmography
''Body and Soul'' (1924)
''Camille'' (1926)
''Borderline'' (1930)
''The Emperor Jones'' (1933)
''Sanders of the River'' (1935)
''Show Boat'' (1936)
''Song of Freedom'' (1936)
''Big Fella'' (1937)
''My Song Goes Forth'' (1937)
''King Solomon's Mines'' (1937)
''Jericho/Dark Sands'' (1937)
''The Proud Valley'' (1940)
''Native Land'' (1942)
''Tales of Manhattan'' (1942)
''The Song of the Rivers'' (1954)
See also
The Communist Party USA and African-Americans
Notes
References
Primary materials
Dent, Roberta Yancy, with Marilyn Robeson and Paul Robeson, Jr. eds. ''Paul Robeson, Tributes, Selected Writings''. New York: The Archives, 1976. OCLC 2507933.
Foner, Philip S., ed. ''Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918–1974''. Larchmont: Brunner/Mazel, 1978. ISBN 0-87630-179-0
Robeson, Paul Leroy (1919-06-10). "The New Idealism". ''The Targum'' 50, 1918-1918: 570-1.
Robeson, Paul; with Brown, Lloyd L. (1998). ''Here I Stand''. (2 ed.). Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-6445-9
Biographies
Boyle, Sheila Tully, and Andrew Bunie (2001). ''Paul Robeson: The Years of Promise and Achievement''. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 1-55849-149-X
Brown, Lloyd L. (1997). ''The Young Paul Robeson: On My Journey Now''. Boulder: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3178-1
Duberman, Martin Bauml (1988). ''Paul Robeson''. New York: New Press. ISBN 1-56584-288-X.
Gilliam, Dorothy Butler (1976). ''Paul Robeson, All-American''. Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books ISBN 0-915220-39-3
Hoyt, Edwin P. (1968). ''Paul Robeson: The American Othello''. Cleveland: The World Publishing Company.
Ramdin, Ron (1987). ''Paul Robeson, The Man and His Mission''. London: Peter Owen. ISBN 0720606845
Robeson, Eslanda (1930).''Paul Robeson, Negro'', London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.; 1st edition (1930) ASIN: B0006E8ML4
Robeson Paul, Jr. (2001) ''The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, An Artist's Journey, 1898-1939''. Wiley. eISBN 9780471151050
Robeson Paul, Jr. (2010) ''The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, Quest for Freedom, 1939-1976''. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-40973-1
Seton, Marie (1958). ''Paul Robeson''. London: Dennis Dobson.
Secondary materials
Balaji, Murali (2007). ''The Professor and the Pupil: The Politics and Friendship of W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson''. New York: Nation Books ISBN 1-56858-355-9
Bogle, Donald (2001). ''Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films'' (4 ed.). New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-1267-X
Bell, Charlotte Turner (1986). ''Paul Robeson's Last Days in Philadelphia'' Bryn Mawr: Dorrance Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 0-8059-3026-4
Carroll, John M. (1992). ''Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252018141
Curthoys, Ann (2010). "Paul Robeson’s visit to Australia and Aboriginal activism, 1960" In Frances Peters-Little, Ann Curthoys and John Docker. ''Passionate histories : Myth, Memory and Indigenous Australia'' Canberra, Australia: ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated. ISBN 9781921666650
Dorinson, Joseph; with Pencak, William, eds. (2002). ''Paul Robeson: Essays on His Life and Legacy''. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-1153-8
Farmer, James (1985). ''Lay Bare The Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement''. New York: Arbor House. ISBN 0-87795-624-3
Foner, Henry (2001). ''Paul Robeson: A Century of Greatness''. Paul Robeson Foundation.
Goldstein, Robert Justin (2009). ''American Blacklist: The Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations''. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1604-6
Harris, Francis C. (1998) "Paul Robeson: An Athlete's Legacy" in Stewart, Jeffrey C. (ed.) ''Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen''. Rutgers University Press and The Paul Robeson Cultural Center. ISBN 0-8135-2511-X
Hopkins, James K. (1999). ''Into the heart of the fire : the British in the Spanish Civil War''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3126-7
Low, Rachel (1985). ''Film Making in 1930s Britain''. London: George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-791042-9.
Lustiger, Arno (2003). ''Stalin and the Jews, The Red Book : the Tragedy of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and the Soviet Jews''. New York: Enigma. ISBN 1-929631-10-3
Marable, Manning (2005), W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat, Paradigm Publishers, ISBN 9781594510182
McConnell, Lauren (2010). "Understanding Paul Robeson’s Soviet Experience" ''Theatre History Studies'' 30: 138-153.
| url = http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&pdftype;=1&fid;=8273757&jid;=NTQ&volumeId;=27&issueId;=02&aid;=8273756}}
Naison, Mark (1998). "Paul Robeson and the American Labor Movement" in Stewart, Jeffrey C. (ed.) ''Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen''. Rutgers University Press and The Paul Robeson Cultural Center. ISBN 0-8135-2511-X
Nollen, Scott Allen (2010). ''Paul Robeson: Film Pioneer''. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3520-3
Peterson, Bernard L. Jr. (1997). ''The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29537-9
Pitt, Larry (1969) ''Football at Rutgers: A History, 1869-1969''. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press ISBN 0-8135-0747-2
Richards, Jeffrey (1998). ''The Unknown 1930s: An Alternative History of the British Cinema 1929-39''. New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1860643035
Robeson, Susan (1981). ''The Whole World in His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson'' Secaucus: Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-0754-3
Robinson, Jackie and Duckett, Alfred (1972). ''I Never Had It Made''. Hopewell: Ecco Press.
Robinson, Robert (1988). ''Black on Red: A Black American's 44 Years inside the Soviet Union''. Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books. ISBN 0-87491-885-5.
Rogovin, Vadim Z. (1998). ''1937: Stalin's Year of Terror''. Oak Park, MI: Mehring Books, Inc. ISBN 0-929087-77-1
Sampson, Henry T. (2005). ''Swingin' on the Ether Waves: A Chronological History of African Americans in Radio and Television Programming, 1925-1955''. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-4087-1
. A reprint of Seton 1958.
Snyder, Timothy (2010). ''Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin''. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-00239-9.
Stuckey, Sterling (1994). ''Going Through the Storm: The Influence of African American Art in History''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507677-X
Swindall, Lindsay R. (2011). ''The Politics of Paul Robeson's Othello''. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. eISBN 978-1-60473-825-4
Von Eschen, Penny M. (1994). ''Race Against Empire: African Americans and Anti-colonialism, 1937-1957''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3197-2
Walsh, Christy (1949). ''College Football: and All America Review''. Murray & Gee.
Weisenfeld, Judith (1997). '' African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905-1945''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00778-6
Wintz, Cary D. ed. (2007). ''Harlem Speaks: A Living History of the Harlem Renaissance''. Naperville: Sourcebooks. ISBN 978-1-4022-0436-4
Wright, Charles (1975) ''Paul Robeson: Labor's Forgotten Champion''. Detroit: Balamp Publishing. ISBN 0-913642-06-1
Young adult materials
Du Bois, Shirley Graham (1995). ''Paul Robeson, Citizen of the World.'' Trenton: Africa World. ISBN 0-86543-468-9
Holmes, Burnham (1995). ''Paul Robeson: A Voice of Struggle''. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn ISBN 0-8114-2381-6
Larsen, Rebecca (1989). ''Paul Robeson: Hero Before His Time''. New York: Franklin Watts. ISBN 0-531-10779-5
McKissack, Pat; with McKissack, Fredrick (1992). ''Paul Robeson: A Voice to Remember''. Hillside: Enslow Publishers. ISBN 0-89490-310-1
Wright, David K. (1998). ''Paul Robeson: Actor, Singer, Political Activist''. Springfield: Enslow Publishers. ISBN 0-89490-944-4
Film documentaries about Robeson
''The Tallest Tree in Our Forest'' (1977)
''Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist'' (1979)
''Paul Robeson: Speak of Me As I Am'' (1998)
''Paul Robeson: Here I Stand'' (1999) PBS ''American Masters'', directed by St. Clair Bourne
''Paul Robeson: Portraits of an Artist'' (2007) Irvington: Criterion Collection. ISBN 1934121193
External links
Official Website of the Paul Robeson Foundation
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cs:Paul Robeson
cy:Paul Robeson
da:Paul Robeson
de:Paul Robeson
es:Paul Robeson
eo:Paul Robeson
eu:Paul Robeson
fr:Paul Robeson
ig:Paul Robeson
id:Paul Robeson
it:Paul Robeson
he:פול רובסון
nl:Paul Robeson
ja:ポール・ロブスン
no:Paul Robeson
pl:Paul Robeson
pt:Paul Robeson
ru:Робсон, Поль
sk:Paul Robeson
sh:Paul Robeson
fi:Paul Robeson
sv:Paul Robeson
tl:Paul Robeson
tr:Paul Robeson
uk:Поль Робсон
vi:Paul Robeson
yo:Paul Robeson
zh:保罗·罗伯逊
![The Tank, Infantry, Mk III, Valentine was an infantry tank produced in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. More than 8,000 of the type were produced in 11 different marks plus various purpose-built variants, accounting for approximately a quarter of wartime British tank production[1]. Over its lifetime it went from a riveted construction to entirely welded, and from a petrol powerplant to a safer, less ignitable, two stroke diesel engine produced by GMC. It was supplied to the USSR a](http://web.archive.org./web/20120522013703/http://cdn6.wn.com/pd/58/9c/9a5568fd34a67237305b8bd2bc54_medium.jpg "The Tank, Infantry, Mk III, Valentine was an infantry tank produced in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. More than 8,000 of the type were produced in 11 different marks plus various purpose-built variants, accounting for approximately a quarter of wartime British tank production[1]. Over its lifetime it went from a riveted construction to entirely welded, and from a petrol powerplant to a safer, less ignitable, two stroke diesel engine produced by GMC. It was supplied to the USSR a")
![The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined light turboprop military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the USSR from 12 March 1968.[1]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120522013703/http://cdn6.wn.com/pd/bf/0d/20a4249816d2516b2e705dec852b_medium.jpg "The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined light turboprop military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the USSR from 12 March 1968.[1]")
![Hrazdan Stadium (Armenian: Հրազդան մարզադաշտ) is a multi-use, all-seater stadium in Yerevan, Armenia, built in 1972 with the financial support of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation[2]. It is the largest stadium in Armenia, currently used for football matches. Hrazdan is the home stadium for the Armenia national team and Kilikia FC. The stadium is able to host 58,000[1], after the most recent reconstruction in 2008 which converted the stadium to an all-seater one. Before the reconstruction, the Hrazd](http://web.archive.org./web/20120522013703/http://cdn5.wn.com/pd/ea/6f/f919f69f8ba30b18af8a05374563_medium.jpg "Hrazdan Stadium (Armenian: Հրազդան մարզադաշտ) is a multi-use, all-seater stadium in Yerevan, Armenia, built in 1972 with the financial support of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation[2]. It is the largest stadium in Armenia, currently used for football matches. Hrazdan is the home stadium for the Armenia national team and Kilikia FC. The stadium is able to host 58,000[1], after the most recent reconstruction in 2008 which converted the stadium to an all-seater one. Before the reconstruction, the Hrazd")
