Who was Paul Robeson?
“The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.” – Paul Robeson, 1937. The African-American Paul Robeson, a large man with a deep voice, achieved great distinction as an athlete, singer, actor, scholar, and supporter of social justice. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Robeson graduated from Rutgers University with honors. He excelled in sports (All-American in football). He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923 and married Eslanda Cordozo Goode. He won fame as an actor on stage and screen. In the popular musical Showboat, Robeson sang “Ol’ Man River.” The rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s awakened Robeson’s political activism. He sang benefit concerts to assist Jewish refugees from Hitler’s Germany and to support Spain’s democracy during the Spanish Civil War. His mounting concern over fascist Germany’s and Italy’s direct support of the Spanish insurgents, and the western democracies’ refusal to assist the legitimate gove
” In this era of rising poverty and violence, of racial and ethnic separatism, and of few well-rounded positive role-models for young people, the query, “Who was Paul Robeson,” is a pertinent question to solicit and develop resources to provide answers for and stimulate further exploration. Finding these answers will open access to information about decades of US and world movement histories. Of equal importance, by examining the life of Paul Robeson, young people can learn about how social movements of the early and mid twentieth century influenced and helped shape the later parts of this century. Paul Robeson lived his life believing culture and liberation would be indivisible, and he embodied this principle in action throughout all his activities. Unlike other, better remembered black leaders, such as Marcus Garvey, Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr., Robeson was not only an organizational and movement leader, but an artist who used his talents to embrace a wide spectrum of working
Paul Robeson was the epitome of the 20th-century Renaissance man. He was an exceptional athlete, actor, singer, cultural scholar, author, and political activist. His talents made him a revered man of his time, yet his radical political beliefs all but erased him from popular history. Today, more than one hundred years after his birth, Robeson is just beginning to receive the credit he is due. Born in 1898, Paul Robeson grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. His father had escaped slavery and become a Presbyterian minister, while his mother was from a distinguished Philadelphia family. At seventeen, he was given a scholarship to Rutgers University, where he received an unprecedented twelve major letters in four years and was his class valedictorian. After graduating he went on to Columbia University Law School, and, in the early 1920s, took a job with a New York law firm. Racial strife at the firm ended Robeson’s career as a lawyer early, but he was soon to find an appreciative home for his
