Robeson, Paul (1898–1976), influential African American singer, actor, and social activist. Paul Robson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and was the child of a clergyman who had been born a slave. After winning a scholarship competition, Robeson attended Rutgers University, distinguishing himself as both scholar and athlete. While at Rutgers he augmented his scholarship income by offering concerts and dramatic performances. After graduating from Columbia Law School in 1923, Robeson turned to dramatic and musical theater where he became internationally celebrated. His roles in Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings (1924) and Emperor Jones (1924 in New York and 1925 in London) catapulted him to prominence as a serious actor when opportunities for African Americans on stage were generally limited to the comic or to racist stereotypes. Robeson's performances in productions of Shakespeare, particularly Othello, were enormously popular and won him enthusiastic critical acclaim.

Robeson was always acutely conscious of the complex racial politics of the American scene (even as early as his Rutgers years). From the mid-1930s on Robeson became increasingly interested in Communism, particularly as it seemed to speak to the plight of African Americans. In this respect, the trajectory of Robeson's life mirrors that of many African American artists and intellectuals, such as Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison. Robeson's interest in radical politics deepened over the years, even as it limited his opportunities to perform. This limitation became especially pronounced in the early 1950s, given the advent of explicit conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. Unlike Wright, who renounced Communism in favor of a more generalized anticolonialism, Robeson continued his interest in the politics of Communism, bringing him into conflict with the government of the United States, which revoked his passport (in 1950), though it was restored in 1958. Robeson spent the latter years of his life in ill health, living in Europe and later in the United States.

Bibliography

• Paul Robeson, Here I Stand, 1958.
• Martin Duberman, Paul Robeson, 1988

Theodore O. Mason, Jr.

Robeson, Paul (1898–1976), actor and singer. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, and educated at Rutgers (where he was a champion athlete) and Columbia (where he received a law degree), the dynamic African‐American performer made a number of noteworthy appearances on Broadway, including the roles of lawyer Jim Harris in All God's Chillun Got Wings (1924) and the tormented Brutus Jones in a 1925 revival of The Emperor Jones. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein are said to have written the role of Joe in Show Boat with him in mind, but he did not sing it until the London premiere and played it in America only in the 1932 revival. Robeson's greatest success came when he played Othello to José Ferrer's Iago in 1943; the production became the longest‐running Shakespearean revival in history. Robeson was a powerful, athletic figure with a deep, resounding voice in both speaking and singing. Always a controversial figure because of his outspoken views on discrimination, he was a Communist sympathizer in the 1950s and, consequently, shunned by many. After spending some years in Russia, Robeson returned to America and lived in seclusion the last decades of his life. Autobiography: Here I Stand, 1971; biography: Paul Robeson, Martin B. Duberman, 1988.

• Period: Modern (1870-)
• Country: USA

Biography

Paul Robeson was one of the leading American black artists and social activists of his time. Though he was accomplished in many areas including acting and athletics, he was primarily a singer and had a penchant for taking up controversial stands on an array of political and civil rights issues. He became an outcast in his homeland by the late 1940s, but near the end of the twentieth century, over 20 years after his death, his artistry drew new appreciation and his reputation has been somewhat rehabilitated.

Paul Robeson's parents were Rev. William Drew Robeson and his wife Maria Louisa Robeson. The youngest of five children, Paul had a difficult childhood: when he was three, his father was driven out as pastor of the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church and became a common laborer for several years to support his family; his mother, a school teacher, was burned to death in a freak accident three years later.

The family moved to Westfield, NJ, when he was nine, and Paul was enrolled in an integrated school. At the age of 17 Robeson entered Rutgers University under a four-year scholarship. There he broke records in baseball, track, and football, winning 15 letters and being named an All-American in the latter sport, as well as becoming class valedictorian. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923. By this time he had married Eslanda Cordoza Goode and had long divulged superior talents in both singing and acting.

After confronting racism and prejudice in the law profession, Robeson turned to acting in 1924, playing the lead in Eugene O'Neill's play All God's Chillun Got Wings in New York. He sang in his first concert in Boston that same year, receiving many kudos for his rich baritone voice and deep interpretive sense. In the mid-'20s he began focusing more on his vocal talents, giving concerts throughout the U.S., singing mainly so-called Negro spirituals. 1928 London theater audiences saw his first performance of "Ol' Man River" in a production of Show Boat. By 1930 he had appeared in London, Vienna, Prague, and elsewhere in Europe singing both Negro spirituals and gypsy folk songs. He starred in his first talkie film, The Emperor Jones, in 1933.

In 1935, Robeson traveled to the Soviet Union, finding its socialist way of life much to his liking. He even pondered emigrating there. He became increasingly controversial in the late 1930s, returning to the Soviet Union, as well as traveling to Spain to support the anti-Franco forces. Robeson also continued giving concerts throughout Europe and elsewhere during this time.

Throughout the 1940s Robeson's leftist tendencies grew, and he eventually came under suspicion by the FBI for being a member of the Communist Party. In 1949, 85 of Robeson's scheduled concerts were canceled by booking agents fearful to be associated with the controversial artist. In 1950, he was banned from American television, and by then even prominent black leaders, such as Roy Wilkins and Walter White, considered him an outcast. Moreover, once-eager record labels and other entertainment industries now blacklisted him.

In 1958 an apparent third attempt on his life was made when his car went out of control, the result of someone tampering with the wheel assembly. Robeson's last concert tour was of New Zealand and Australia in 1960. He made trips to the Soviet Union that same year, and on a visit there in 1961, Robeson suffered a collapse and was hospitalized in Moscow and again in London. He was later diagnosed with Paget's disease and spent the remainder of his life in poor health. ~ Robert Cummings, All Music Guide

Discography

Songs for Free Men: 1940-45 Buy this CD	Paul Robeson Sings Spirituals, Folksongs and Hymns Buy this CD	Great Voices of the Century: Paul Robeson Buy this CD	Shakespeare: Otello Buy this CD	Paul Robeson Buy this CD
A Lonesome Road Buy this CD	Live at Carnegie Hall Buy this CD	The Voice of the Mississippi: 20 Great Songs Buy this CD	Songs of Free Men Buy this CD	Paul Robeson - Legendary Moscow Concert Buy this CD

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• Born: Apr 09, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey
• Died: Jan 23, 1976 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '30s-'40s, 2000s
• Major Genres: Drama, Adventure
• Career Highlights: The Emperor Jones, Show Boat, King Solomon's Mines
• First Major Screen Credit: Body and Soul (1925)

Biography

His father was a Presbyterian minister who had escaped from slavery in his youth; his mother was a schoolteacher. An outstanding athlete, Robeson attended Rutgers on a scholarship and lettered in baseball, basketball, track, and football; later he played pro football while attending law school. Meanwhile, he performed in an amateur stage production at the Harlem YMCA. His acting was very successful and well received; playwright Eugene O'Neill requested that he star in his plays All God's Chillun Got Wings and The Emperor Jones. Thus he gave up law for the theater, and soon gained much critical praise. Robeson began singing in recitals and appearing in films, soon becoming known as one of the most talented performers of his generation; his fame spread to Europe, where he frequently performed onstage and in concerts. He became especially identified with the song Ole Man River, made famous by his vibrant baritone rendition. In 1934 he visited the Soviet Union, returning several times in subsequent years. Seeking remedies to American civil rights abuses and racism, he became an exponent of leftist politics. In the early '40s he performed on Broadway and in a national tour in Othello. Robeson quit making movies after appearing in Tales of Manhattan (1942), in which ridiculous portrayal of rural blacks made him disgusted with Hollywood stereotypes; he denounced the film and never acted onscreen again. He became increasingly controversial for his political views. In 1946 he denied under oath that he had been a member of the Communist party, but refused to repeat his denial in a later inquiry. In 1950 his passport was revoked by the State Department. In 1952 he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize, but not until 1958 was he permitted to leave the country to receive it. Although publicity about his political views led to a great reduction in his income, he continued touring Europe until the early '60s, when illness obliged him to return to the U.S. He was the subject of a documentary, Paul Robeson: Portrait of an Artist (1979). ~ All Movie Guide

Scandalize My Name: Stories From the Blacklist Buy this Movie	Tales of Manhattan Buy this Movie	The Proud Valley Buy this Movie	Jericho Buy this Movie
King Solomon's Mines Buy this Movie	Big Fella Buy this Movie	Show Boat Buy this Movie	Song of Freedom Buy this Movie

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(b Princeton, nj, 9 April 1898; d Philadelphia, 23 Jan 1976). American bass-baritone. Known at first as an actor, he gave his first concert in 1925, singing negro spirituals. He quickly became internationally known, and in the 1930s made films. His voice had great richness and earthy resonance.

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Paul Leroy Robeson (1898-1976) was an American singer, actor, and political activist. He crusaded for equality and justice for black people.

Paul Robeson made his career at a time when second-class citizenship was the norm for all African-Americans, who were either severely limited in, or totally excluded from, participation in the economic, political, and social institutions of America.

Robeson was born on April 9, 1898, in Princeton, New Jersey. His father was a runaway slave who fought for the North in the Civil War, put himself through Lincoln University, received a degree in divinity, and was pastor at a Presbyterian church in Princeton. Paul's mother was a member of the distinguished Bustill family of Philadelphia, which included patriots in the Revolutionary War, helped found the Free African Society, and maintained agents in the Underground Railroad.

At 17 Robeson won a scholarship to Rutgers University, where he was considered an athlete "without equal." He won an incomparable 12 major letters in 4 years. His academic record was also brilliant. He won first prize (for 4 consecutive years) in every speaking competition at college for which he was eligible, and he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He engaged in social work in the local black community. After he delivered the commencement class oration, Rutgers honored him as the "perfect type of college man."

Robeson graduated from the Columbia University Law School in 1923 and took a job with a New York law firm. In 1921 he married Eslanda Goode Cardozo; they had one child. Robeson's career as a lawyer ended abruptly when racial hostility in the firm mounted against him. He turned to acting as a career, playing the lead in All God's Chillun Got Wings (1924) and The Emperor Jones (1925). He augmented his acting by singing spirituals. He was the first to give an entire program of exclusively African-American songs in concert, and he was one of the most popular concert singers of his time.

Robeson starred in such stage presentations as Show Boat (1928), Othello, in London (1930), Toussaint L'Ouverture (1934), and Stevedore (1935). His Othello (1943-1944) ran for 296 performances - a remarkable run for a Shakespearean play on Broadway. While playing opposite white actress Mary Ure, he became the first black ever to do the role in England's Shakespeare Memorial Theater (Jet, Feb. 6, 1995).

His most significant films were Emperor Jones (1933), Show Boat, Song of Freedom (both 1936), and Proud Valley (1939). Charles Gilpin and Robeson, as the first black men to play serious roles on the American stage, opened up this aspect of the theater for blacks. Robeson used his talents not only to entertain but to foster appreciation for the cultural differences among men.

During the 1930s Robeson entertained throughout Europe and America. In 1934 he made the first of several trips to Russia. He spoke out against the Nazis, sang to Loyalist troops during the Spanish Civil War, raised money to fight the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, supported the Committee to Aid China, and became chairman of the Council on African Affairs (which he helped establish in 1937). The most ardent spokesman for cultural black nationalism, and militant against colonialism in Africa, Robeson also continued to fight racial discrimination in America. While World War II raged, he supported the American effort by entertaining soldiers in camps and laborers in war industries.

After the war, Robeson devoted full time to campaigning for the rights of blacks around the world. In the period of anti-Communist hysteria, the American government and many citizens felt threatened by Robeson's crusade for peace and on behalf of exploited peoples. The fact that for over 15 years he was America's most popular black man did not prevent Robeson's being barred from American concert and meeting halls and being denied a passport to travel abroad.

During the repressive 1950s Robeson performed in black churches and for trade unions. After 8 years of denial, he won his passport, gave a concert in Carnegie Hall, and published Here I Stand in 1958. He went abroad on concert, television, and theater engagements.. He received numerous honors and awards: the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, several honorary degrees from colleges, the Diction Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, numerous citations from labor unions and civic organizations, and the Stalin Peace Prize.

Robeson had used an "unshakable dignity and courage" learned from his father to break stereotypes, tradition and limitations throughout his life. He added 15 spoken languages, a law degree, an international career as singer and actor, and civil rights activist to his long list of accomplishments in his effort to be "the leader of the black race in America."

He returned to America in 1963 in poor health and soon retired from public life. Slowly detiorating and living in reclusiveness, Robeson died on January 23, 1976 in Philadelphia, after suffering a stroke.

However, it took him 77 years to win the respect of the college sports world. During his outstanding, four-year football career at Rutgers University, Robeson was named All-American consecutively in 1917 and 1918, the first African-American to do so. In 1995, after his color and politics were less of a detriment and the awards were based more on merit, he was inducted posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame at the new $14 million museum's grand opening in South Bend, Indiana. Sports Illustrated (Jan. 30, 1995) called it a "long-overdue step toward atonement."

In a report in Jet (February 6, 1995) magazine, Robeson's son, Paul, Jr., who accepted the honor, talked about his father's influence on other black men and his dedication to causes. "He felt it was a job he had to do for his people and the world as a whole," said the younger Robeson.

His songs, such as his trademark Ol' Man River, and acting have remained available in videos and new releases of his vintage recordings (Opera News, July 1995).

Further Reading

Robeson's autobiography, Here I Stand (1958), remains the best statement explaining his political activism. All of the works on Robeson are somewhat inadequate. The best comprehensive account of his life is Marie Seton, Paul Robeson (1958). His wife, Eslanda Goode Robeson, wrote a short, colorful biography, Paul Robeson, Negro (1930), a personal account of Robeson's early years which strongly reflects her own biases and sentiments. An erroneous and distorted study is Edwin P. Hoyt, Paul Robeson: The American Othello (1967). Further information on Robeson can be found in Opera News (July 1995); Jet (February 6, 1995); and Sports Illustrated (January 30, 1995).

actor; civil rights activist; singer

Personal Information

Born Paul Leroy Bustill Robeson, April 9, 1898, in Princeton, NJ; died January 23, 1976, in Philadelphia, PA; son of William Drew (a clergyman) and Maria Louisa (a schoolteacher; maiden name, Bustill) Robeson; married Eslanda Cardozo Goode, August 17, 1921; children: Paul Jr.
Education: Rutgers College (now University), A.B., 1919; Columbia University, LL.B., 1923.
Memberships: National Maritime Union (honorary member), Council on African Affairs (co-founder), Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, Committee to Aid China, Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Phi Alpha, Sigma Tau Delta.

Career

Admitted to the Bar of New York; employed in a law firm, 1923; actor in plays, including Simon the Cyrenian, 1921, All God's Chillun Got Wings, 1924, Othello, 1930 and 1943, and Toussaint L'Ouverture, 1936; actor in films, including Body and Soul, 1924, The Emperor Jones, 1933, Sanders of the River, 1935, and Show Boat, 1936; singer in concert performances, for recordings, and in musical productions, including Show Boat, 1928.

Life's Work

Paul Robeson--civil rights activist, singer, actor, law school graduate, athlete, scholar, author--was perhaps the best known and most widely respected black American of the 1930s and 1940s. Paul Robeson was also a Soviet apologist, and a man, later in his life, widely vilified and censored for his outspokenness and unyielding views on issues to which public opinion ran contrary. As a young man, Robeson was virile, charismatic, eloquent, and powerful. In his last two decades, he was defeated and unsure mentally, a remnant physically. He learned to speak more than 20 languages in order to break down the barriers of race and ignorance throughout the world, and yet, as Sterling Stuckey pointed out in the New York Times Book Review, for the last 25 years of his life his name had "been a great whisper and a greater silence in black America." Martin Baulm Duberman, in his 1989 biography Paul Robeson, asserted that Robeson ultimately was a hero wrongly accused, that his story was an "American tragedy." Barry Gewen, writing in the New Leader, felt instead that Robeson was a great man tragically flawed, "an artist of unassailable gifts and achievement who was brought low through his own political obtuseness." Such divergent views of Robeson can only be reconciled by understanding the complexity of his life from the beginning. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1898, Robeson wasn't subjected to the brutalities of daily life common for black Americans after the turn of the century. But his family was not totally free from hardship. Robeson's mother died from a stove-fire accident when he was six. His father, a runaway slave who became a pastor, was removed from an early ministerial position. Nonetheless, from his father Robeson learned diligence and an "unshakable dignity and courage in spite of the press of racism and poverty." These characteristics, Stuckey noted, defined Robeson's approach in his beliefs and actions throughout his life. Having excelled in both scholastics and athletics as a youth, Robeson received a scholarship to Rutgers College (now University) where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year and chosen valedictorian in his senior year. He earned varsity letters in four sports, and was named Rutgers' first All-American in football. Fueled by his class prophesy to be "the leader of the colored race in America," Robeson went on to earn a law degree from Columbia University, supporting himself by playing professional football on the weekends. After graduation he obtained a position with a New York law firm, only to have his career halted when a stenographer, as Duberman related the incident, refused to take down a memorandum: "I never take dictation from a nigger."

Sensing this one episode as indicative of the climate of the law, Robeson left the bar. (Duberman noted that upon reflection, "Robeson concluded that he could never have entered 'any profession where the highest prizes were from the start denied to me.'") While in law school, he had married a fellow Columbia student, Eslanda Cardozo Goode, who encouraged him to act in a few amateur theatrical productions. Subsequently convinced by his wife and friends to return to the theater, Robeson joined the Provincetown Players, a group associated with playwright Eugene O'Neill. Two productions in which he starred, The Emperor Jones and All God's Chillun Got Wings, brought Robeson critical acclaim. Contemporary drama critic George Jean Nathan, quoted by Newsweek 's Hubert Saal, called Robeson "thoroughly eloquent, impressive, and convincing." But others have since noted that Robeson's talent, albeit prodigious, did not alone account for his stature. "The stage," Harvey Klehr wrote in Commentary, "was an arena where his race, far from impeding his career, actually enabled him to capitalize on his talents much more quickly than would ordinarily have been the case." And a Nation critic, reflecting on the traditional, stereotyped role for blacks then, posed this question and answer: "What if Paul Robeson had wanted to use his proven mental abilities to become a great lawyer instead of employing his magnificent voice and physical presence to become a brilliant performer? A comparable career would have been unlikely."

Thus Robeson continued on the stage, winning plaudits from the critics and audiences, gaining an international reputation for his performances on the London stage, and even extending his acting repertoire by appearing in films, including adaptations of a few of his theatrical credits. His stage presence was undeniable, and with the musical Show Boat and Shakespeare's Othello, Robeson's reputation grew even larger. In Show Boat he sang the immensely popular song "Ol' Man River," displaying a powerful, warm, soothing voice; his Shakespearean performance, though applauded by many critics, had a few detractors. Joseph Sobran, writing in the National Review, observed that "as Othello, {Robeson} completely failed to convey the Moor's smashed self-esteem at Desdemona's supposed infidelity. Where {British actor Laurence} Olivier displayed shocking, writhing rage beyond all shame or dignity, Robeson could only work up disapproval." Even Duberman noted his "awkward body movement" and his "tendency to declaim." Robeson, realizing his acting range was limited both by the choice of roles available to him as a black performer and by his own acting abilities, turned to singing full time as an outlet for his creative energies and his growing social convictions.

Robeson had been giving solo singing performances since 1925, but it wasn't until he traveled to Britain that his singing became for him a moral cause. Robeson related years later in his autobiography, Here I Stand, that there he "learned that the essential character of a nation is determined not by the upper classes, but by the common people, and that the common people of all nations are truly brothers in the great family of mankind." Consequently he began singing spirituals and work songs to audiences of common men, and learning the languages and folk songs of other cultures, for "they, too, were close to my heart and expressed the same soulful quality that I knew in Negro music." Nathan Irvin Huggins, writing in the Nation, defined this pivotal moment: "He found the finest expression of his talent. His genuine awe of and love for the common people and their music flourished throughout his life and became his emotional and spiritual center."

This focus in Robeson's life was not unwarranted. In the New York Times Book Review John Patrick Diggins described how Robeson was "forced to use freight elevators, denied entrance to hotels and restaurants even at the height of his fame, {had} a white woman companion spat upon, {and read} of the hundreds of black youths killed in racial violence." He was aware of the indignities of a forced social class structure, and "his patience in the face of the continual slights and insults was little short of heroic," Gewen observed, a testament to the elder Robeson's teachings.

Continued travels throughout Europe in the 1930s brought Robeson in contact with members of politically leftist-leaning organizations, including socialists and African nationalists. Singing to and moving among the disadvantaged, the underprivileged, the working classes, Robeson began viewing "himself and his art as serving the struggle for racial justice for nonwhites and economic justice for workers of the world," Huggins noted.

A pivotal journey at that time, one that changed the course of his life, was to the Soviet Union. Duberman depicted Robeson's time there: "Nights at the theater and opera, long walks with {film director Sergei} Eisenstein, gala banquets, private screenings, trips to hospitals, children's centers, factories ... all in the context of a warm embrace." Robeson was ecstatic with this new-found society, concluding, Diggins explained, "that the country was entirely free of racial prejudice and that Afro-American spiritual music resonated to Russian folk traditions. 'Here, for the first time in my life ... I walk in full human dignity.'" Diggins went on to point out that Robeson's "attraction to Communism seemed at first more anthropological than ideological, more of a desire to discover old, lost cultures than to impose new political systems.... Robeson convinced himself that American blacks as descendants of slaves had a common culture with Russian workers as descendants of serfs."

Regardless of his desire to believe in a cultural genealogy, Robeson soon become a vocal advocate of communism and other politically left-wing causes. He returned to the United States in the late 1930s, Saal observed, becoming "a vigorous opponent of racism, picketing the White House, refusing to sing before segregated audiences, starting a crusade against lynching, and urging Congress to outlaw racial bars in baseball." After World War II, when relations between the United States and the Soviet Union dissolved into Cold War hysteria, many former advocates of communism backed away. When the many crimes of Soviet leader Josef Stalin became public--forced famine, genocide, political purges--still more advocates left the ranks. Robeson, however, was not among them. Sobran explained why: "It didn't matter: he believed in the idea, regardless of how it might be abused. In 1946 the former All-American explained his loyalty to an investigating committee: 'The coach tells you what to do and you do it.' It was incidental that the coach was Stalin." Robeson couldn't publicly decry the Soviet Union even after he, most probably, learned of Stalin's atrocities, for "the cause, to his mind," Huggins emphasized, "was much larger than the Soviet Union, and he would do nothing to sustain the feeding frenzy of the American right."

Robeson's popularity soon plummeted in response to his increasing rhetoric. A violent riot prevented his appearing at a concert in Peekskill, New York, after he had urged black youths not to fight if the United States went to war against the Soviet Union. But his desire was never to leave the United States, just to change, as he believed, the racist attitude of its people. In his autobiography Robeson recounted how during the infamous McCarthy hearings, when questioned by a Congressional committee member about why he didn't stay in the Soviet Union, he replied, "Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay right here and have a part of it just like you. And no fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear?" "It was, and he paid a fearful price for that clarity," Geoffrey C. Ward pointed out in American Heritage.

The State Department revoked Robeson's passport in 1950, insuring that he would stay in the United States. "He was black-listed by concert managers--his income, which had been $104,000 in 1947, fell to $2,000--and he was removed from the list of All-Americans," Saal observed. America's highest prize, its honor, was removed from him. His career died.

Robeson's passport was restored in 1958 after a Supreme Court ruling on a similar case, but it was of little consequence. By then he had become a nonentity. When Robeson's autobiography was published in that same year, leading literary journals, including the New York Times and the New York Herald-Tribune refused to review it; indeed, "they refused to include its name on their lists of 'books out today,'" Lloyd L. Brown lamented in the preface to the 1971 edition of Here I Stand. Robeson traveled again to the Soviet Union, but his health began to fail. He tried twice to commit suicide. "Pariah status was utterly alien to the gregarious Robeson. He became depressed at the loss of contact with audiences and friends, and suffered a series of breakdowns that left him withdrawn and dependent on psychotropic drugs," Dennis Drabble explained in Smithsonian. Slowly deteriorating and virtually unheard from in the 1960s and 1970s, Robeson died after suffering a stroke in 1976.

During his life, Paul Robeson had thrilled thousands with his athletic achievements on the football field, had entertained thousands with his artistic presence on the stage and screen, and had inspired thousands with his voice raised in speech and song. But because of his singular support for communism and Stalin, because his life in retrospect became "a pathetic tale of talent sacrificed, loyalty misplaced, and idealism betrayed," according to Jim Miller in Newsweek, Robeson went out in sadness and loneliness, "forced in the end to retreat into the wilderness with his ghosts," Huggins asserted. Robeson's life, full of desire and achievement, passion and conviction, "the story of a man who did so much to break down the barriers of a racist society, only to be brought down by the controversies sparked by his own radical politics," Diggins explained, "is at once an American triumph and an American tragedy."

Awards

Badge of Veterans of Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 1939; Donaldson Award for outstanding lead performance, 1944, for Othello; American Academy of Arts and Letters medal, 1944; Spingarn Medal from National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1945; Champion of African Freedom Award from National Church of Nigeria, 1950; Afro-American Newspapers Award, 1950; Stalin Peace Prize from U.S.S.R., 1952; German Peace Medal from East Germany, 1960; Ira Aldridge Award from Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, 1970; Civil Liberties Award, 1970; Duke Ellington Medal from Yale University, 1972; Whitney M. Young, Jr., National Memorial Award from Urban League of Greater New York, 1972. Honorary degrees from Rutgers University, Morehouse College, Howard University, Moscow State Conservatory, and Humboldt University.

Works

Selective Discography

• American Balladeer--Golden Classics, Volume 1, Collectables.
• Collector's Paul Robeson, Monitor.
• Essential Paul Robeson, Vanguard.
• Favorite Songs, Volume 1, Monitor.
• Favorite Songs, Volume 2, Monitor.
• Historic Paul Robeson--Golden Classics, Volume 3, Collectables.
• Live at Carnegie Hall, Vanguard.
• Man & His Beliefs--Golden Classics, Volume 2, Collectables.
• Paul Robeson, Pearl.
• Paul Robeson Sings "Ol' Man River" & Other Favorites, Angel.

Writings

• Here I Stand, Othello Associates, 1958, reprinted with a preface by Lloyd L. Brown, Beacon Press, 1971.
• (Contributor) Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner, Freedomways, 1971, new edition, Dodd, 1978, enlarged, 1985.
• Paul Robeson: Tributes, Selected Writings, compiled and edited by Roberta Yancy Dent with the assistance of Marilyn Robeson and Paul Robeson, Jr., The Archives, 1976.
• Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918-1974, edited with an introduction by Philip S. Foner, Brunner, 1978.
• Columnist for People's Voice during 1940s; editor and columnist for Freedom , c. 1951-55. Contributor to periodicals.

Further Reading

Books

• Duberman, Martin Baulm, Paul Robeson, Knopf, 1988.
• Robeson, Paul, Here I Stand, Beacon Press, 1971.

Periodicals

• American Heritage, April 1989.
• Commentary, May 1989.
• Nation, February 7, 1976; March 20, 1989.
• National Review, May 19, 1989.
• New Leader, February 20, 1989.
• New York Review of Books, April 27, 1989.
• New York Times Book Review, October 21, 1973; February 12, 1989.
• Newsweek, February 2, 1976; February 13, 1989.
• Smithsonian, October 1989.
• Time, February 2, 1976; March 13, 1989.
• Times Literary Supplement, September 5, 1958.

— Rob Nagel

For more information on Paul Bustill Robeson, visit Britannica.com.

(1898-1976), actor, singer, and political radical. A man of remarkable talents, Paul Robeson achieved a string of successes, unprecedented for a black American, in sports, on the stage, and as a concert artist. By the early 1940s he was one of the country's most beloved figures. But during the McCarthy era he paid a heavy price for his outspoken criticism of racial injustice in the United States and his close ties to the Communist party and the Soviet Union.

Born in Princeton, Robeson was only the third black student to attend Rutgers, New Jersey's state university. He became an all-American football player, excelled at other sports, and was class valedictorian. After graduation, he enrolled in Columbia Law School and married Eslanda Goode, a descendant of a South Carolina free black family. Partly at her urging, he launched a career as an actor and singer in which he achieved spectacular success. On Broadway and in films, Robeson appeared in roles previously off limits to black actors, including the leads in works by Eugene O'Neill, America's foremost playwright. During World War II, he gave a memorable performance as Othello in the longest-running Shakespeare production ever to appear on Broadway, and his recording of Ballad for Americans reached the top of the popular music charts. Robeson was perhaps best known for his concerts of Negro spirituals, in which his magnificent bass voice electrified audiences.

Yet Robeson could not escape the realities of American race relations. Even at the height of his fame, he was denied service at hotels and restaurants throughout the North. The praise lavished upon him often stressed his supposed "instinctive state of emotion" rather than the disciplined work underlying his stage triumphs.

His father, a Presbyterian minister born a slave, taught Robeson to endure affronts without surrendering his dignity. But racism produced within him a deep anger. Increasingly, he turned to politics for a definition of black identity and an understanding of the sources of racism. His political involvement began with his discovery of Africa, via Jomo Kenyatta, C. L. R. James, and other pan-Africanists in London, where Robeson lived for much of the 1930s. Then, after a series of visits to the Soviet Union, where for the first time he felt free from the burden of racism, Robeson formed close ties with American Communists. Although he never actually joined the party, he established friendships with many of its leaders and threw himself into its campaign for equal rights for black Americans.

Robeson's outspoken criticism of the Truman administration's cold war policies--especially a widely publicized prediction that black Americans would not fight in a war against the Soviet Union--brought down upon him the full weight of McCarthy-era repression. He was driven from radio, television, and the concert stage, and the State Department, branding him "one of the most dangerous men in the world," revoked his passport. The black establishment joined in the assault (the naacp even excising Robeson's name from a published list of recipients of its Springarn Medal).

Separated from the audiences, at home and abroad, on whose adulation he thrived, Robeson suffered a series of mental breakdowns. By the time he died, he had been all but forgotten. Although he is now recognized as one of the greatest figures in Afro-American history, Robeson's life remains, as a black newspaper put it shortly after his death, "a challenge and a reproach to white and black America."

Bibliography:

Martin Bauml Duberman, Paul Robeson (1989).

Author:

Eric Foner

See also Expatriates and Exiles; Radicalism; Segregation.

(rōb'sən) , 1898–1976, American actor and bass singer, b. Princeton, N.J. The son of a runaway slave who became a minister, Robeson graduated first from Rutgers (1919), where he was an All-American football player, and then from Columbia Univ. law school (1923). He began his acting career in 1924 with the Provincetown Players. With a resonant voice and the ability to project a humane spirit, he won wide acclaim with his creation of the title role in Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones (1925; film, 1933). Other outstanding dramatic performances include Crown in DuBose Heyward's Porgy (1928) and Othello (in London, 1930, and New York, 1943–45). In 1925 he made his debut as a concert singer. Possessed of a magnificent bass voice, he became known especially for his rendition of “Ol' Man River” in Jerome Kern's musical Show Boat (1928; film, 1936) and for his interpretations of spirituals. He lived mainly in Europe from 1928 to 1939, traveling to the Soviet Union for the first time in 1934. Robeson's association with Communist causes and his winning of the International Stalin Peace Prize (1952) made him a controversial figure in the United States. He moved to England in 1958, and continued to appear in concerts in Europe and the Soviet Union. He returned to live in the United States in 1963.

Bibliography

See his Here I Stand (1958); biographies by his wife (1930), his son (2001), and M. B. Duberman (1988).

A twentieth-century African-American actor and singer, best known for his roles in Porgy and Bess and in the movie version of Show Boat, in which he sang “Ol' Man River.”

Robeson was politically controversial because he compared the treatment of black people in the United States unfavorably with their treatment in the Soviet Union. He lived outside the United States for many years.