Paul Robeson

For son, see Paul Robeson, Jr.

Paul Robeson
Background information
Birth name	Paul Leroy Robeson
Genres	Spirituals International folk Musicals
Occupation(s)	Actor, concert singer, athlete, lawyer, social activist
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1917–63

Paul "Robey" Robeson

Personal information
Born:	(1898-04-09)April 9, 1898
Career information
College:	Rutgers
Position:	End
Career history
Akron Pros (1921) Milwaukee Badgers (1922)
Career highlights and awards
First team All-American (1917, 1918)
Career NFL statistics as of 1922
Games played: 15 Games started: 15 TD: 2
College Football Hall of Fame

Paul Leroy Robeson (/ˈroʊbsən/ ROHB-sən; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American concert singer (bass), recording artist, actor, athlete, and scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the 20th century. 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 friendship with the Soviet Union and the Soviet peoples plus criticism of the lack of progress in civil rights in the United States 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 extended singing tours of the United States and Europe, made nine films, 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 was the first black actor to portray Shakespeare's Othello with an otherwise all-white cast. 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 United States.

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 United States foreign policy.

In 1950, his passport was revoked under the McCarran Act over his work in the anti-imperialism movement, his criticism of United States civil rights policies, and his affiliation with members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Though internationally acclaimed, he was blacklisted in the United States 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.

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, Louisa, 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)

Robeson (far left) was Rutgers Class of 1919 and one of four students selected into Cap and Skull

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 Sommerville. 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 Simon the Cyrenian. 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

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 it's plot.

Chillun's delay effectuated a revival of The Emperor Jones with Robeson as Brutus, which was a role made famous by Charles Sidney Gilpin. The portrayal terrified and galvanized the novice Robeson, as it was tantamount to a 90 minute soliloquy. Reviews of Robeson at the Provincetown Playhouse of Brutus declared him an unequivocal success. Weeks later in his portrayal of Jim, critical reviews, arguably clouded by the controversial topic, were neutral to less favorable. 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.

To support a charity for single, African American mothers, Robeson headlined a concert singing spirituals. Robeson took his spirituals from the concert stage and performed them on the radio stage. Brown, whom had become a renown 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 accompanist, 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 savants Gertrude Stein, 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 Joe in the London production of the American musical Show Boat, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, His rendition of "Ol' Man River", while playing Joe, 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 frequent and flippant usage of the word nigger. It was, nonetheless, immensely popular with audiences, and it provoked a royal audience, principally King George and 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. Robeson reflected on his life in his diary and wrote that it was all part of a "'higher plan'" and that "God watches over me and guides me. 'He's with me and let's me fight my own battles and hopes I'll win.'"

Marriage Difficulties (1930-1932)

Essie had known that Robeson had been involved in extramarital affairs but she tolerated them. However, Essie's psyche was devastated when she came across a letter from a white woman, Yolande Jackson, that unequivocally revealed that she and Robeson were having an affair. Although not mentioning the letter to Robeson, she consequently altered the biography she was writing about him to defame and belittle his character. However, there was no ostensible appearance of their relationship being altered as Robeson and Essie went on a concert tour of Europe. In early 1930, Essie and Robeson both starred in the the experimental Borderline produced by a trio of avant garde artists known as the Pool Group.

They returned to the West End for Robeson's starring role in William Shakespeare's Othello, opposite Peggy Ashcroft, as Desdemona, at the Savoy Theatre. He became the first black actor to play the role in Britain since Ira Aldridge. The production, however, met with mixed reviews which pointed out Robeson's "highly civilized quality [but him lacking the] grand style." During the play's run, Essie's Paul Robeson, Negro was published and she effectively used it as a vindictive weapon. Particularly appalling to Robeson was him being associated with "negative racial stereotypes", and it forever altered his feelings for her although he did not confront her about it. After Essie's discovery of a love letter to Robeson from Jackson, they split up and decided to seek a divorce. Robeson's and Jackson's relationship became more concrete as the idea of their marrying was present. However, he was advised that divorcing Essie and marrying a white woman would hurt his stature in the black community. Jackson's and Robeson's relationship abruptly ended in 1932, and Essie and Robeson, subsequently, and permanently reconciled.

Nevertheless, in an interview with W. R. Titterton in 1930, Robeson believed he should be apolitical and "ultimately accountable only to himself and his art; the prophet and the warrior are by definition at odds with the artist."

World stage (1933–1939)

Paul Robeson House, a School of Oriental and African Studies hall of residence opened in 1998.

Enrolled in phonetics and Swahili at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 1934, Robeson also studied other languages there and independently while in London, including Igbo, Yoruba, Zulu, Chinese, Russian and Hindi.

Living in London, Robeson became increasingly cognizant of African history and culture in England. During the 1930s he met with African students in London, who urged him to travel to the Soviet Union. Paul and Essie were named honorary members of the West African Students' Union in London, where they became good friends with future national presidents Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta. In essays such as "I want to be African", Robeson wrote of his desire to embrace his heritage. His African studies, contacts in the anti-imperialism movement, and half-decade association with British socialists led him to visit the Soviet Union. He did not make any public declaration of support for socialism, saying: "In England they call me a 'Communist' because of my views, but I'm certainly not a member of the Communist Party."

Robeson and his wife visited the Soviet Union in December 1934 on an invitation from Sergei Eisenstein. At a stopover in Nazi Germany, they felt, depending on sources, at the very least a palpable sense of physical danger because of racism. In the Soviet Union, Robeson was welcomed by members of the artistic community, including Eisenstein, who became a close friend. Robeson met with African Americans who had migrated to the USSR. He found the USSR free of racism and racial segregation. He spoke of the transparency of his race he felt there and the "joy and happiness and friendliness, this utter absence of any embarrassment over a 'race question' is all the more keenly felt by me because of the day I spent in Berlin on the way here, and that was a day of horror—in an atmosphere of hatred, fear and suspicion." Robeson declared that African American spiritual music resonated to Russian folk traditions.

He first became an international box office movie star with a British film, Sanders of the River (1935). However, he was so disappointed by the final cut of the movie, a stereotypical portrayal of Africa under imperialist rule, that he became more politically conscious of his roles. He played the role of Toussaint L'Ouverture in the 1936 play Black Majesty by C.L.R. James, alongside the actor Robert Adams.He had long wanted to play the role, but the production closed after two weeks. Robeson was one of the first actors of any race to demand (and receive) final cut approval on a film Song of Freedom (1936).

In films such as Jericho and Proud Valley, he portrayed strong black American male leading roles without the subservience typical of roles for blacks at the time.

Commenting in 1935 on the execution of several counter-revolutionaries, Robeson said: "From what I have already seen of the workings of the Soviet Government, I can only say that anybody who lifts his hand against it ought to be shot!" Robeson admired the 1936 Soviet Constitution, which banned, de jure, racial discrimination.

Spanish Civil War (1937-1939)

Robeson believed the Spanish Civil War was a struggle between a popularly elected government that sought peace and freedom, the Republicans, and the fascists that sought to enslave the masses through tyranny, the Nationalists. Robeson's view of the Soviet Union 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 denounced fascist Italy's attack on Ethiopia. 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.

Artistic response to Spanish Civil War

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, permanently altered Ol' Man River's by changing the lyrics 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'.'"

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 to obtain Indian independence 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, which ran for two months. 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.

World War II (1939–1945)

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 with lyrics by John La Touche and music by Earl Robinson. Originally titled The Ballad for Uncle Sam, it was written for a Works Progress Administration theatre project called Sing for Your Supper. In 1940, Robeson appeared in The Proud Valley, playing a black laborer who arrives in the Rhondda and wins the hearts of the local people. The film won good reviews. It was the film he was most proud of. 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 United States 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.

Paul Robeson as painted by Betsy Graves Reyneau, in the collection of the National Archives and Records Administration

In 1942 Robeson performed in the Frontier Films production of Native Land. A combination of a documentary format and staged reenactments, the film depicted the struggle of trade unions against anti-union corporations. It was based on the La Follette Committee's investigation of the repression of labor organizing. 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. During this period, Robeson also turned down roles in Moby Dick, Gone With The Wind, Song of the South and Porgy and Bess.

Robeson performed "Ballad" on the CBS radio network in 1943, accompanied by chorus and orchestra. Bing Crosby made a commercially successful recording of the piece, but the song is closely associated with Robeson, standing at the pinnacle of his music and radio career prior to the Cold War.

In December, 1943, Robeson addressed an annual meeting of Major League Baseball club owners, demanding they admit black players to major league baseball, helping to pave the way for the color barrier to be broken.

The Broadway Othello

Paul Robeson with Uta Hagen in the Theatre Guild production of Othello (1943-4).

Robeson reprised the role of Othello in New York in 1943 under the direction of Margaret Webster. The play had its Broadway run at the Shubert Theatre, and he was the first African American to play the role with a white supporting cast on the Broadway stage. He toured North America with it until 1945. As of 2011, his run of Othello is the longest of any Shakespeare play on Broadway, running for 296 performances. Uta Hagen played Desdemona, and José Ferrer played Iago. For his portrayal, Robeson received a Donaldson Award (forerunner of the Tony 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 theatre and concert stage as well as his active concern for the rights of the common man for every race, color, religion and nationality."

Political activism (1946–1958)

Events (1946–1948)

During World War II, Robeson's support for the Allied War effort had made him the world's most famous African-American and his previous statements and advocacy for socialism had been ignored by both the media and the white establishment.

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.

The CRC and the CAA was placed on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO).

Robeson sang and spoke in 1948 at an event organized by the Los Angeles Civil Rights Congress 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 very active as co-chairman of 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 in June of that year, Robeson went to the deep south, including Georgia, where he sang before "overflow audiences... in Negro churches in Atlanta and Macon." At the party's convention in Philadelphia, Robeson joined forces with the delegates from the Nisei for Wallace. The Progressive Party went on record in favor of evacuation claims for former camp residents, repeal of discriminatory laws against Japanese aliens, plus equal immigration and naturalization rights. During the campaign, Robeson organized a fund-raising concert tour in Hawaii under the auspices of the Longshoreman's Union.

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. Many unions during the 1940s and 1950s were still characterized by segregation. Robeson's close friend, the union activist Revels Cayton, pressed for "black caucuses" in each union, with Robeson's encouragement and involvement. Historian Mark Naison described Robeson's involvement with the labor movement as being "One of the least known, but most significant dimensions of his political activism.

Robeson also supported "Camp Wo-Chi-Ca" (Workers' Children's Camp) in New Jersey, an interracial summer camp for working class children established by the International Workers Order. Robeson would visit the camp every summer from 1940 to 1949, singing playing baseball with the children and developing an extensive musical program. In summer of 1949, Robeson also visited the largely Jewish Camp Kinderland in New York.

Robeson opposed anti-communist legislation. In 1948, he opposed a bill calling for registration of Communist Party members and appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Questioned about his affiliation with the Communist Party, he refused to answer, stating "Some of the most brilliant and distinguished Americans are about to go to jail for the failure to answer that question, and I am going to join them, if necessary." (The bill was ultimately defeated in the Senate.) In 1949, he spoke in favor of the liberty of twelve Communists (including his long-time friend Benjamin Davis, Jr.) convicted under the Smith Act, which criminalized various left- and right-wing activities as seditious.

Controversies and international travels (1949)

Following a successful US and Caribbean tour during late 1948, Robeson took a Christmas break at the family home in Enfield, Connecticut, planning to join accompanist Lawrence Brown in the spring of 1949 for scheduled US concert dates. He soon was learned that the performances were canceled by booking agents at the behest of the FBI. For the first time in his professional life, Robeson was without a US concert audience and his recordings were banned from radio and stores. Robeson had also become the target of conservative journalists Walter Winchell and Hedda Hopper. With the United States government, and media, pressuring the entertainment industry into blacklisting him, in 1949 Robeson had to go overseas to work. 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 CIA, he traveled to several European coutries and the Soviet Union.

Under heavy and daily surveillance by both the FBI and the CIA and publicly condemned for his beliefs.

The Paris Peace Congress of 1949

As an authorized speaker for the Coordinating Committee of the Colonial Peoples of London, in April 1949, Robeson attended the Paris congress of the World Peace Council, sponsored by the Soviet Union. There he sang Joe Hill and spoke extemporaneously about why he thought the progressives in America did not want war. The widely publicized speech caused extreme controversy in the United States when it was misquoted by the Associated Press. Numerous biographers and historians concur that this one single event signaled the start of Robeson's status as an "enemy" of the United States government and the end of his popularity with mainstream America during the Cold War. A direct translation from the French transcripts of the live audio is as follows,

"We in America do not forget that it was the backs of white workers from Europe and on the backs of millions of Blacks that the wealth of America was built. And we are resolved to share it equally. We reject any hysterical raving that urges us to make war on anyone. Our will to fight for peace is strong. We shall not make war upon the Soviet Union. We oppose those who wish to support imperialism Germany and to establish fascism in Greece. We wish peace with Franco's Spain despite her fascism. We shall support peace and friendship among all nations, with Soviet Russia and the People's Republics. "

What came over the wires to news agencies via the AP in the United States was as follows,

"We colonial peoples have contributed to the building of the United States and are determined to share its wealth. We denounce the policy of the United States government which is similar to Hitler and Goebbels. We want peace and liberty and will combat for them along with the Soviet Union and the Democracies of Eastern Europe, China and Indonesia. It is unthinkable that American Negros would go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against the Soviet Union which in one generation has lifted our people to full human dignity. "

The AP had prefabricated Robeson's speech and put it on the wires just as he was starting his speech. The misquote was very similar in structure to previous Robeson speeches and his questioning at the Mundt-Nixon Bill hearings with the difference being that at the hearing Robeson had claimed to be only speaking for himself. The reaction by the press in the United States was nearly universal, and sometimes vitriolic, condemnation.

At the urging of the State Department to make a formal statement, NAACP leaders dissociated themselves from Robeson. Roy Wilkins stated that regardless of the number of lynchings that were occurring or would occur, Black America would always serve in the armed forces. The black-owned Chicago Defender was one of the few American newspapers willing to question accuracy of the AP bulletin, while the progressive National Guardian and the Communist Daily Worker printed quotes of Robeson's speech verbatim.

Robeson is often criticized for accepting the Stalin Peace Prize, eulogizing Stalin, and continuing to support the Soviet Union and not formally denouncing the regime, despite conflicting accounts that show his awareness of state-sponsored intimidation and murder.

USSR and Itzik Feffer of 1949

In June, he arrived in the Soviet Union, where he participated in celebrating Alexander Pushkin's 150th anniversary. Robeson was disturbed as to why he could not find his Jewish friends, including Solomon Mikhoels, an actor and director, and Itzik Feffer, a Yiddish poet. As Robeson persisted, Feffer was brought to Robeson. Feffer told him that the room was bugged and that Solomon Mikhoels had been murdered. Feffer also communicated that his own life was in danger. At an ensuing concert in Tchaikovsky Hall on June 14, Robeson publicly paid tribute to Feffer and the late Mikhoels, singing the Vilna Partisan song "Zog Nit Keynmol" in Yiddish.

Back in the United States, Robeson stated that he did not encounter any persecution of Jews and other political prisoners, stating that he "met Jewish people all over the place... I heard no word about it". Robeson's rationale for ignoring their plight was to deny the right wing of the United States any moral high ground. Herbert Hill, former labor director of the NAACP, commented on the reputed event fifty years later stating "just think what it would have meant if he had denounced this evil while in the Soviet Union and instead he comes back and he lies, he lies again and again and he knows better."

Congressional statement by Jackie Robinson in 1949

Main article: Paul Robeson Congressional Hearings

This subsequent controversy over Robeson's remarks in Paris caused the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to investigate Robeson. HUAC sought Jackie Robinson's testimony on the subject. Robinson was reluctant to testify to HUAC on these matters, in part because of Robeson's prior advocacy on behalf of integration in professional baseball. In July 1949, Robinson eventually agreed to testify before HUAC, fearing that declining to do so might negatively and permanently damage his career. His testimony was a major media event, with Robinson's carefully worded statement appearing on the front page of The New York Times the following day. While Robeson declined to comment on Robinson personally: "I am not going to permit the issue to boil down to a personal feud between me and Jackie. To do that, would be to do exactly what the other group wants us to do." Not long after, depending on sources, College Football: and All America Review, labeled "the most complete record on college football", omits Robeson, identifying only a ten-man team. and possibly Robeson's name was struck from the roster of the 1917 and 1918 college All-America football teams a

Peekskill Riots of 1949

Main article: Peekskill Riots

In 1949, a popular concert by Robeson in Peekskill, New York, to benefit the Civil Rights Congress resulted in the Peekskill Riots caused by anti-Communist and anti-civil rights members of local Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion chapters and also by local residents. The concert, organized as a benefit for the Civil Rights Congress, was scheduled to take place on August 27 in Lakeland Acres, just north of Peekskill. Before Robeson arrived, a mob of locals attacked concert-goers with baseball bats and rocks. Thirteen people were seriously injured before the police intervened. The concert was postponed until September 4.

The rescheduled event, on September 4, 1949, was attended by 20,000 people and went off without incident but, after the concert, a violent mob, caught on film by the press, chanting "Go back to Russia you white Niggers" and "Dirty Kikes", threw rocks through the windshields of cars and buses. Standing off the angry mob of rioters, some of the concertgoers, and union members, along with writer Howard Fast and others assembled a non-violent line of resistance, locked arms, and sang the song "We Shall Not Be Moved." Some people were reportedly dragged from their vehicles and beaten. Over 140 people were injured and numerous vehicles were severely damaged as police stood by. Following the riots, more than 300 Robeson supporters went to Albany to voice their indignation to Governor Thomas Dewey, who refused to meet with them, blaming "Communists for provoking the violence." Twenty-seven plaintiffs filed a civil suit against Westchester County and two veterans groups. The charges were dismissed three years later. Paul Robeson called the actions of the New York state troopers, who were caught on film beating concert goers, including World War I veteran and first decorated Black aviator, Eugene Bullard, as "Fascist stormtroopers who will knock down and club anyone who disagrees with them"

Blacklisted (1950–1958)

Main article: Political views of Paul Robeson

See also: The Communist Party USA and African-Americans

In March 1950, NBC canceled Robeson's scheduled appearance on former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's television program, Today with Mrs. Roosevelt. 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.

Passport confiscated

In 1950, the State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports, effectively confining him within the United States. 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 United States 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 on August 23, 1950 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 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 on May 18, 1952. Paul Robeson stood on the back of a flat bed truck on the American side of the U.S.-Canada border and performed a concert for a crowd on the Canadian side, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people. 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. In 1956, Robeson left the United States for the first time since the travel ban was imposed, performing concerts in two Canadian cities, Sudbury and Toronto, in March of that year. The travel ban ended in 1958 when Robeson's passport was returned to him after eight years of protracted legal struggles and defeats.

Although unable to travel outside the United States, Robeson continued to be politically active. He presented to the United Nations in New York on December 17, 1951 an anti-lynching petition, "We Charge Genocide". It was also presented to a UN delegation in Paris. The document asserted that the US federal government, by its failure to act against lynching in the United States, was "guilty of genocide" under Article II of the UN Genocide Convention.

"The Lost Shepherd"

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. which included the following instructions in countering Robeson's reputation:

"[USIS, i.e. Unites States Information Services] 'in the Gold Coast, and I suspect everywhere else in Africa, badly needs a thorough-going, sympathetic and regretful but straight talking treatment of the whole Robeson episode...there's no way the Communists score on us more easily and more effectively out here, than on the US. Negro problem in general, and on the Robeson case in particular. And, answering the latter, we go a long way toward answering the former.'"

Another article by Wilkins, called "Stalin's Greatest Defeat", denounced Robeson as well as the Communist Party of the US in terms consistent with the FBI's information. Wilkins threatened to cancel a charter of an NAACP youth group in 1952 if they did not cancel their planned Robeson concert.

Stalin Peace Prize

In 1952, Robeson was awarded the International Stalin Prize by the Soviet Union. 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." After Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalinism at the 1956 Party Congress, Robeson became silent on Stalin, though he continued to praise the Soviet Union. He felt that criticism by him of the Soviet Union would only serve to shore up reactionary elements in the U.S. Robeson opinion on the Soviet Union prevented an easing of his passport restrictions and allowing him back into the mainstream of both, 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.

Congressional hearings of 1956

Main article: Paul Robeson Congressional Hearings

In 1956, Robeson was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities 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 Joseph 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 Soviet Union, 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.

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 restitute 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 United States to hear Robeson sing on commercial radio, buy his music or to see any of his films, including Show Boat.

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 United States 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.

Due to his blacklisting within the mainstream media, the concert stage, theater, radio, film and the civil rights movement, Robeson became an outcast, very nearly a 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'".

Later years (1958–1976)

Comeback

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.

Tours of Britain and the USSR

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. His numerous appearances included a formal concert at the Albert Hall and a book autographing party at Selfridges.

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. Robeson had then planned to leave for India as a guest of Nehru but was prevented by the weather. The US 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 started to develop bouts of dizziness and the beginning of heart problems. His trip to India was definitively canceled, 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.

He received an honorary doctorate from Humboldt University in 1960 among other awards.

Tour of Australia and New Zealand

Robeson engaged in a tour of Australia, and New Zealand in October to November 1960. He appeared at the Sydney Opera House and sang Ol Man River and 'Joe Hill. and sang to, and advocated, striking workers in Wellington and accepted membership in their union. Visiting rural community centers and presented with indigenous art including a painting by Australian artist Albert Namatjira,

He used the tour to speak in defense of the Māori and Australian Aborigines peoples. Through the aboriginal activist Faith Bandler, Robeson viewed a film made in the 1950s about the aborigines in Warburton, Western Australia. Bandler remembered, "The tears started streaming down his face; but when the film showed thirsty children waiting for water, sorrow turned to anger." At a press conference in Sydney the next day he lambasted the Australian government proclaiming, 'There's no such thing as a 'backward' human being, there is only a society which says they are backward. The indigenous people of Australia are my brothers and sisters.'" Robeson also met Lloyd L. Davis, a longtime aboriginal activist and lawyer. Davis felt Robeson's presence greatly assisted the aboriginal struggle for equality and recalled his arrival in Perth on the last leg of his tour,

"...when he spotted a group of local aborigines shyly hanging back, he instantly headed for them, moving through the crowd like a full back. When he reached them, he literally gathered the nearest half dozen in his great arms, and when he moved toward his waiting transport, the aborigines moved with him. Davies heard one of the little girls say, almost in wonder, 'Mum, he likes us.'"

"[W]riter and broadcaster Phillip Adams recalled, Robeson's tour was like 'a second coming' to 'aspiring young lefties' in Australia." During this tour for the first time news-sources of diverse political views reported that he was responding to questions at press conferences with "anger and bitterness." Some headlines included The Herald printing, "Would Back Russia in a War" and "Robeson Bitterly Critical of the U.S.", with the Telegraph stating "I Wish He Was Still Bosambo." In Auckland he told the press he was only "here to sing" and then declared himself a "rigid Marxist.". He expressed concern about the mistreatment of the Māoris and said, "I want to learn Māori songs and as much as I can of the Māori language." and "...the people of the lands of Socialism want peace dearly," The nine week tour would prove to be the final concert tour of his forty year career.

Health breakdown (1961–1965)

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 Soviet Union, 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.

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

The Robeson House, Philadelphia

In 1963, Robeson eventually returned to the United States 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. 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 finally settled at his sister's home in Philadelphia.

In these years Robeson was honored by accolades and celebrations, both in the US and internationally, including public arenas that had previously shunned him.

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 Soviet Union in order to assume a place in the mainstream, Robeson adamantly declined.

Living at his sister Marian's home Robeson 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". Though due to his ailing health, he withdrew from the public to lead a quiet life, close friends and family have disputed the rumors in the mainstream press that he was "broken" and "disillusioned". By 1965, he was forced into permanent retirement. He spent his final years in Philadelphia, unapologetic about his political views and career.

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.

Reevaluation

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 at Benta's Funeral Home in Harlem for two days as a "parade of humanity ...from the numbers runner on the corner to Gustaf VI Adolf, King of Sweden." paid their respect. On January 27, 1976, 2,500 people attended his funeral at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem, where Robeson's brother Ben had been pastor for 27 years. Thousands more, mostly African Americans, stood outside in the rain throughout the service, listening on the public address system as speakers, including Harry Belafonte, paid tribute. 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 Amsterdam News eulogized him as "Gulliver among the Lilliputians [and his life would] always be a challenge and a reproach to white and Black America."

"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)."

The black press universally celebrated Robeson.

Controversy surrounding his death

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".

Posthumous honors

Throughout 1976 memorials were held at Rutgers; The World Peace Council in Athens, Greece; Columbia University, New York City; Toronto; Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.; and by Actor's Equity in Los Angeles. On October 8, 1976, Artist's Tribute to the Life of Paul Robeson, was held at Carnegie Hall, as a benefit for the Paul Robeson Archive. Sidney Poitier proclaimed, "When Paul Robeson died, it marked the passing of a magnificent giant whose presence among us conferred nobility upon us all..." Beginning in 1978, Robeson's films were finally shown on American television, with Show Boat making its cable television debut in 1983. Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist won an Academy Award for best short documentary in 1980. In recent years, all of Robeson's films have appeared on Turner Classic Movies and American Movie Classics channels.

Rutgers University has named several of its facilities (at all three of its campuses) after Robeson. Pennsylvania State University named its cultural center after Robeson. In 1995, he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame. 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, a street in Princeton was named in his honor, 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 Paul Robeson Residence in Manhattan was declared a National Historic Landmark on December 8, 1976. He was awarded honorary memberships in over half a dozen trade unions.

Legacy

The Robeson holdings in the archive of the Academy of the Arts of the German Democratic Republic, 1981

Robeson was one of the first African American artist and activists. He was also one of the forerunners of the civil rights movement and the first black artist to refuse segregated audiences. On the international political scene, Robeson's legacy included influences on the African Independence movements and his work was cited by Nobel Peace Prize winner 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. Robeson's rendition of the spirituals versus Hayes', Carl Sandburg described, was a triumph in the revelation of the embodiment of the spirtuals as compared to a methodological triumph. His popularizing of Negro Spirituals has been cited and paid tribute to by singers including Sir Willard White. While film industry figures and historians have written of his groundbreaking work in cinema as the first major black actor unwilling to play stereotypes. When asked how many languages Robeson spoke, historian Sterling Stuckey answered, "Some claim twelve, others claim twenty; he certainly sang in a great many." An unknown number of American Jews continue to celebrate his memory as an ally. The Welsh have maintained their loyalty to Robeson's support and in Cardiff in 2001, the exhibition Let Paul Robeson Sing! was unveiled.

He has spent much of his life safeguarding his father's legacy by founding The Robeson Family Archives and The Paul Robeson Foundation. Robeson was "not a religious man in any formalistic sense ... nonetheless an intensely spiritual one, convinced that some higher force watched over him."

Advocates of Robeson's legacy have restored his name to history books and sports records, honoring his memory with posthumous recognitions.

Robeson is one of only three people to have been given honorary membership in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War for the International Brigades.

Robeson had a long association with the International Brigades, which served in the Spanish Civil War.

In 1967, The New York Times also incorrectly said that during the 1950s (when he was without his passport), Robeson had chosen a "long exile in the Soviet Union...."

The first Paul Robeson Archive was established in East Berlin by a journalist for GDR radio in 1965 and are now located at the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin. The Robeson Family Archives existed, at least as late as 1995, 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.

While a precise definition of Robeson's legacy has been debated about, Robeson personfied 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

Main article: Paul Robeson filmography

• Body and Soul (1924)
• Camille (1926)
• Borderline (1930)
• The Emperor Jones (1933)
• Sanders of the River (1935) Template:Nb10
• 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)

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: BrunnerMazel, 1978. ISBN 0-87630-179-0
• Robeson, Paul Leroy (1919-06-10). "The New Idealism". The Targum 50, 1918-1918: 570-1. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
• 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.
• 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". Passionate histories : Myth, Memory and Indigenous Australia (PDF). Canberra, Australia: ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated. pp. 163–184. ISBN 9781921666650. Retrieved 2011-11-10. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• 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, Calif. : Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3126-7
• Marable, Manning (2005), W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat, Paradigm Publishers, ISBN 9781594510182
• 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
• Robeson, Paul Jr. (1978). "Paul Robeson: Black Warrior". Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 3–16. ISBN 0-396-07545-2. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• Robeson, Susan (1981). The Whole World in His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson Secaucus: Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-0754-3
• Robinson, Eugene (1978). "A Distant Image: Paul Robeson and Rutgers' Students". Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 178–188. ISBN 0-396-07545-2. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• Robinson, Jackie and Duckett, Alfred (1995). I Never Had It Made. Hopewell: Ecco Press. ISBN 0880014199
• 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
• Seton, Marie (1978). "Paul Robeson on the English Stage". Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 26–49. ISBN 0-396-07545-2. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help). A reprint of Seton 1958.
• Smethurst, James Edward (2005). The Black Arts Movement: literary nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2934-X
• 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
• 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

Further reading

• 9,000 in London Ask Help for Loyalists 1937-12-20
• Paul Robeson in Spain 1938-02-15
• Old Play in Manhattan, Nov. 1, 1943
• The Paul Robeson Show
• March 1, 2006, "Welcome initiative for migrants"
• Paul Robeson Dead at 77; Singer, Actor and Activist; Paul Robeson, the Singer, Actor and Activist, Is Dead 1976-01-24
• "Othello". New York Theatre Critics' Reviews. 4 (25): 256–258. 1944. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Beeching, Barbara J. (2002). "Paul Robeson and the black press: the 1950 passport controversy". The Journal of African American History: 339+. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
• Biondi, Martha (2007). "How New York changes the story of the civil rights movement". Afro-Americans in New York Life and History. 31 (2): 15. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
• Cameron, Kenneth M. (1990-10-01). "Paul Robeson, Eddie Murphy, and the Film Text of 'Africa'". Text & Performance Quarterly. 10 (4): 282–293. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Halpern, Martin (1997). "I'm fighting for freedom': Coleman Young, HUAC and the Detroit African American community". Journal of American Ethnic History. 17 (1): 19+. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
• McConnell, Lauren (2010-06-01). "Understanding Paul Robeson’s Soviet Experience" Theatre History Studies 30: 138-153. Retrieved 2011-11-05.
• Rocksborough-Smith, Ian (2007). "'Filling the Gap'". Afro-Americans in New York Life and History. 31 (1): 7+. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
• Smith, Jessie Carney (1999). "Paul Robeson" (2007) Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale. pp. 1013–1016. ISBN 0787607630 Retrieved 2011-11-25.
• Spivey, Donald (1988, Winter). "'End Jim Crow in Sports': The Protest at New York University, 1940-1941" (PDF). Journal of Sport History. 15 (3): 282–303. Retrieved 2011-11-25. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Brent, Jonathan; with Naumov, Vladimir P. (2004) Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953. New York: Perennial. eISBN 9780062013675
• Dyer, Richard (2004) "Paul Robeson: Crossing Over" In Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society (2 ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-31026-1 pp. 67–139
• Gates, Henry Louis Jr. and Jarret, Gene Andrew. ed. (2007). The New Negro: Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892-1938. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12651-7
• Hopkins, James J. (1998). Into the Heart of the Fire: The British in the Spanish Civil War. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804731268
• Horne, Gerald (2009). Mau Mau in Harlem? The U.S. and the Liberation of Kenya. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-61563-2
• Horne, Gerald (2008). The End of Empires: African Americans and India. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 9781592138999
• Lynch, Hollis Ralph (1978). Black American Radicals and the Liberation of Africa: The Council on African Affairs 1937-1955. Ithaca: Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University.
• Mantle, Burns (1944). The Best Plays of 1943-44: and the year book of the drama in America. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company
• Naison, Mark (2005). Communists in Harlem during the Depression. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252072715
• Nesbitt, Francis Njubi (2004). Race for Sanctions: African Americans against Apartheid, 1946-1994. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34232-5
• Pellowski, Michael (2008). Rutgers Football: A Gridiron Tradition in Scarlet. New Brunswick: Rivergate Books. ISBN 9780813542836
• Walsh, Christy (1949). College Football: and All America Review. Murray and Gee.
• Woods, Jeff (2003). Black Struggle, Red Scare: Segregation and Anti-communism in the South, 1948-1968. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-2875-9

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
• Paul Robeson at Find a Grave
• Paul Robeson at the FBI
• Paul Robeson at IMDb
• Paul Robeson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Paul Robeson at the BFI's Screenonline
• Template:Worldcat id
• Paul Robeson, 1898 to 1976, Actor, Singer and Political Activist written by Dr. Hakim Adi

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