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Paul Robeson birthday tribute: Remembering a cultural warrior

Published Apr 23, 2012 7:34 PM

Paul Robeson was one of the most popular entertainers in the United States, admired by Langston Hughes, Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt. He was also one of the most extraordinary scholars and athletes of his era. Yet Robeson was unfortunate enough to become a persona non grata, a victim of McCarthyism.

Paul Leroy Robeson was born in Princeton, N.J., on April 9, 1898. He had four siblings. His father, William Robeson, whose family was of royal Bantu descent, was sold into slavery in North Carolina. In 1860, he escaped from bondage. Robeson’s mother, Maria Louisa Bustill, a teacher, died in a fire when he was six years old and his father and aunt raised him. His father became a pastor and instilled in him the desire to succeed scholastically.

One of only two Black people at Rutgers University and a scholarship winner, Robeson was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society in his junior year and was the first Black member of an All-American football team in 1917 and 1918. He also excelled in track and baseball. He was elected valedictorian for the 1919 graduating class. Robeson then moved to Harlem and, in 1921, married Eslanda “Essie” Goode, who was then a chemist, but later became his agent.

He worked as a redcap in Grand Central Station while studying law at Columbia University. In 1923, he received his law degree. After graduation, he supported himself by singing at the Cotton Club in Harlem. He joined a New York law firm, but due to blatant racism in that profession, he decided to pursue a career as a performer.

During the Harlem Renaissance era, Robeson emerged as a singer and stage and screen actor. He was one of the first to sing Negro spirituals on the concert stage. He also advanced multilingual folk music to an art form. His first musical album was released in 1927.

His 1924 performance in” All God’s Children Got Wings” was the first time a Black performer had a main role alongside a white actress. Robeson performed “The Emperor Jones” both on stage and in film. He fought against stereotyped film roles and cherished his role in the 1939 film, “Proud Valley,” about the struggle of Welsh coal miners

In the 1940s, Robeson’s “Othello” performances set an all-time record for Shakespeare’s plays on the Broadway stage, with a run of 296 performances. It brought him international fame. He was the first African American to interpret the role on a U.S. stage.

Robeson advocated for equal rights for African Americans. His activism in the 1930s and during World War II centered on U.S. racial apartheid, the lynching of Blacks, and racist discrimination in major league baseball and elsewhere. He joined other activists on workers’ picket lines and protests at the White House. He was also elected vice president of the Civil Rights Congress.

As an “artivist,” Robeson was a spokesperson for freedom, equality, anti-fascism, colonial liberation and peace on behalf of those struggling for a better life. He sang at many concerts for the anti-fascist, Spanish Republican cause. As early as 1934, he began visiting the Soviet Union because of its stated rejection of racial prejudice. Like many artists during the Great Depression, he was attracted to socialism. The Soviet Union awarded him a top international peace prize in 1952.

Robeson was the first to integrate USO shows for troops in Europe. Yet, while he was receiving tributes to his artistry and contributions to the war effort, the U.S. government began secret surveillance of him.

The government persecuted Robeson for many years. The FBI fabricated evidence of his membership in the Communist Party, while searching for proof of subversion. The agency also hired confidential informants to identify him as a secret member of the CP. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover placed “Communist Paul Robeson” on the custodial detention list as a threat to national security, citing his admiration for the Soviet Union.

By 1949, the red baiting incited violent, racist mobs to disrupt two Robeson concerts in Peekskill, N.Y.

In 1950, the U.S. State Department cancelled his passport because of his political activism for the independence of colonized African peoples and because he criticized the condition of Blacks in the U.S. during his concert tours.

That same year, NBC barred Robeson from appearing on a TV special with Eleanor Roosevelt. However, despite the years of intense government harassment and a media campaign that smeared his image, Robeson never stopped his political activities.

The entertainment industry boycotted him and did not hire him for concerts, public speaking engagements, theatre performances or audio recordings. Though he had an incredible voice, beloved by many, his records were even banned and removed from store shelves. The FBI saw to it that the ban was enforced.

Once, in the 1940s, the highest paid U.S. concert performer, Robeson’s income dropped drastically. He even had to get his autobiography independently printed and distributed because no mainstream press would publish it.

From the late 1940s, when Robeson was called before a Senate Judiciary Committee, to the mid-1950s, when he was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, he refused to answer questions regarding his party affiliation. He stated that it was an invasion of the constitutional right to a secret ballot, and he cited the First Amendment as the basis of the struggle for civil liberties in the U.S. This response seriously damaged his career.

In 1955, Robeson refused to sign a noncommunist oath in exchange for a new passport. He did not get his passport back until 1958, at which time he continued his international touring. After his five-year trip abroad, he returned to the U.S. to continue his civil rights work. In 1966, a year after his spouse died, he retired to Philadelphia and withdrew from public life.

Showing great respect and admiration for him, supporters packed Carnegie Hall in a “Salute to Paul Robeson,” to celebrate his 75th birthday in 1973.

Paul Robeson, citizen of the world, died in 1976 at age 77. More than 5,000 people attended his funeral in Harlem. Robeson’s belief in the oneness of humankind is shown in his statement that “there truly is a kinship among us all, a basis for mutual respect and brotherly love.”

It is said that more than any other African-American artist of the 20th century, Robeson broke the racial stereotypes that dominated U.S. popular culture before the 1960s Civil Rights movement. The struggle continues.