Paul Robeson was a concert singer, recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar, and advocate for the Civil Rights Movement. Paul Leroy Robeson was born on April 9, 1898, in Princeton, New Jersey, and was the youngest of five children. Paul’s father, William Drew Robeson, was born a slave in Martin County, North Carolina. He fled to the North and, with the outbreak of the Civil War joined the Union army. After the war, William Robeson attended Lincoln University and received a divinity degree. Robeson was exposed to the Negro spiritual at his father’s church, and he sang them with his father and brothers at home. His family also encouraged his interests in cultural history, education, and sports. Motivated by his demanding father, young Paul excelled at Somerville High School, where he was among a handful of Black students. He excelled in his studies, as well as drama, singing, football, athletics and other sports.
At the age of 17, he earned a scholarship to Rutgers College in 1915 and became the third Black student to enter Rutgers University. Robeson was a gifted brilliant student and athlete while attending Rutgers University in New Jersey. He won 15 letters in four varsity sports, was elected Phi Beta Kappa and became his class valedictorian. He was twice named a consensus All-American football player (1917-1918), and won honors in debating and oratory. Many of these achievements were nonetheless overshadowed by racism: his teammates often harassed him, and he sings in the glee club though he is not permitted to accompany them to out of town concerts. At commencement, he delivered the class oration, and afterward Rutgers honored him as the “perfect type of college man.” Robeson moved to the Harlem section of New York after his graduation and worked various odd jobs to save money for school.
After a short stint at the New York University School of Law, Robeson enrolled at the Columbia Law School in 1920. At Columbia, he sang and acted in off-campus productions. In 1921, he wed fellow Columbia student, journalist Eslanda Goode. The two would be married for more than 40 years and have a son together in 1927, Paul Robeson Jr. Paul Robeson was recruited by Fritz Pollard to play for the National Football League's (NFL) Akron Pros in 1921, while he continued his law studies. He ended his football career after the 1922 season, and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923, receiving his LL.B. He found employment as the only Black attorney in the law office of a Rutgers alumnus in New York. While working at the law firm, a White secretary refused to copy a memo, telling him, "I never take diction from a ni***r.", so Paul Robeson quit. During his brief employment at the law firm, Paul had taken various roles at Harlem’s storefront theaters, learning the fundamentals of acting. With encouragement from Eslanda, he turned fully to the stage.
Afterwards, he went to acting school and got started in the filming and music industry. Robeson became a figure in the Harlem Renaissance. In 1922 he appeared on Broadway, playing Jim in Jim H. Harris' "Taboo". He sailed to London to appear in Mrs. Patrick Campbell's adaptation of the play "Voodoo", where he revised his role as Jim. His welcome to the arts scene of London marked a turning point in his life. The year 1924 was a big boom for Paul Robeson. He first starred in the Broadway productions of "The Emperor Jones". During the same year, he played the lead role in “All God’s Chillun Got Wings”, which attracted a lot of public attention with its controversial interracial themes -both by playwright Eugene O'Neill. His performances in both plays are widely praised. In that same year he made his first film, "Body and Soul", a silent race film which was directed and produced by Oscar Micheaux.
After meeting pianist Lawrence Brown, who had become renowned while touring as a pianist with singer Roland Hayes, the pair gave what is considered to be the first Black folk songs and spirituals program at Provincetown Playhouse in Manhattan in 1925. The first of these were the spirituals “Steal Away” backed with “Were You There”. He does this for 5 years. Robeson’s recorded repertoire spanned many styles, including Americana, popular standards, classical music, European folk songs, political songs, poetry and spoken excerpts from plays. Robeson’s highly successful performances –in addition to his stage and film appearances–led to several tours of Europe and to a life-long interest in European and African languages and folk songs. Robeson toured England and the United States over the next three years, singing Black spirituals. Robeson came back to London in 1925 for a stage performance of "The Emperor Jones".
Workers in the United Kingdom launch a nine-day strike, seeking to force better conditions for coal miners. The strike is unsuccessful. Later, while in London, Robeson meets Welsh miners who had been blacklisted by employers due to the strike. This launches a deep connection in which Robeson will repeatedly raise money for, and attention to, the miners’ cause. Later, his popularity rose when he starred after portraying the role of “Joe” in a production of Showboat at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London in 1928. It was there that he first earned renown for singing "Ol' Man River," a song destined to become his signature tune.The show was a huge success and a financial boon for Paul and Essie. The Prince of Wales invited Paul to give a command performance of “Ol’ Man River” at Buckingham Palace. Robeson settled in London for several years with his wife Eslanda Goode after that performance.
By 1930 his concerts, records and radio appearances have made Paul Robeson a star on both sides of the Atlantic. During the year, the couple appeared in the experimental Swiss film Borderline, which was produced in Switzerland. Given the sensitivity of its subject matter it had only a limited art house distribution. For many years the film was believed to have been lost, but now Borderline is viewed as a classic example of avant-garde/experimental filmmaking. The film boldly depicts a depressed village and a married white man’s affair with Essie’s character, Adah, the sweetheart of Paul’s character, Pete. In 1930 Robeson performed as the eponymous lead in Shakespeare’s Othello—the first Black man in this role on the English stage since Ira Aldridge performed it in the mid-1800s. Robeson read all of Shakespeare’s plays, researched the historical contexts of the playwright’s works, and studied Shakespeare’s English language. He had been concerned about the reactions to him as a Black man playing opposite a White female, Peggy Ashcroft.
Although Robeson’s relative inexperience as a Shakespearean actor was apparent in his performance, his dynamic personae captured the favor of the British audience and initially drew critical praise. Robeson’s first film to target a wide audience was "Emperor Jones" in 1933. Filmed in New York, it was popular with Black audiences impressed with Robeson’s commanding performance, but was only a modest financial success. Back in London, he starred in the movie remake of "The Emperor Jones" and would be featured in six British films over the next few years. In 1933, Robeson enrolled in London University School of Oriental and African Studies, where he studied African languages, history, art, and folk music. He was involved politically as an honorary member of the West African Students Union. And during his extended time in London, he became friends with Kwame Nkrumah, leader of Ghana’s independence movement.
In late 1934, Robeson and his wife, Eslanda, made their first of several trips to the Soviet Union, beginning for him an association that would later have serious repercussions on his life and career. He spoke out against the fascist politics of the Nazis, thus began Robeson’s commitment to anti-fascist resistance. The Soviet Union visit began for him an association that would later have serious repercussions on his life and career. He was impressed by its political philosophy racial tolerance and lifestyle, which seemed to lack the discriminatory practices he had experienced in the United States. Before and during the war, these sympathies were not so radical, but as World War II turned into the Cold War, the Soviet Union quickly went from allies to enemies in the eyes of the United States and Britain. Ever the autodidact and gifted linguist, Robeson would master the Russian language and classical Russian music, prose, and poetry.
In 1936, the movie Sanders of the River, its background scenes filmed in Africa, premiered in London, with Paul Robeson cast as the well-educated African chief Bosambo, who was allied with British colonialists. The film skewed heavily toward glorifying British imperialism following the director’s retakes, which would haunt Robeson. Yet the popularity of the film in England led Hollywood to cast him in the 1936 film version of Show Boat as Joe the Riverman, which this time allowed the power of his artistry to reach a national audience of Depression-era filmgoers. Robeson’s performance of “Ol’ Man River” had already become his signature piece and a regular additional to his recitals, but the film’s release solidified the connection between the song and its interpreter. Over the years, however, Robeson subsequently changed the racially derogatory words of the song to more accurately reflect his activist views.
A beloved international figure with a huge following in Europe, Robeson regularly spoke out against racial injustice and was involved in world politics. On September 30, 1939, with Britain and France now at war with Germany, Paul and Essie departed London on a dangerous voyage to the U.S. Robeson had just completed filming of The Proud Valley, a Welsh production that featured denizens of the Rhondda mining valley of South Wales as actors. With America's entry into World War II, Robeson supported the American and Allied war efforts. He strengthened his popularity with American audiences through his radio broadcasts of “Ballad for America,” a paean song to democracy written for a Works Progress Administration (WPA) theater project. However, his history of supporting civil rights causes and pro-Soviet policies brought scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
During this period, Robeson became increasingly attuned to the sufferings of people of other cultures, notably the British working class and the colonized peoples of the British Empire. He supported Pan-Africanism, and sang to Loyalist troops during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), when battles erupted between Spain's traditionalists and reigning Second Spanish Republic. Sometimes under artillery and machine-gun fire, Robeson visited the shifting battlefronts to bolster the fighting spirit of the Republicans and their communist allies with his songs, at a time when their victory was unlikely. In addition he raised money to fight the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, and became chairman of the Council on African Affairs (CAA), which promoted decolonization in Africa and the freedom of the world’s people of color. He befriended African American volunteers in the International Brigade's cause.
By the 1940's Robeson was the most famous Black man in the world. His achievements in sport and culture were all the more impressive given the barriers of racism he had to surmount. Robeson brought Negro spirituals into the American mainstream. He was among the first artists to refuse to perform to segregated audiences. Robeson was somebody who behaved with great decorum and dignity. He was somebody who dutifully went out and sold war bonds thereby declaring that he believed in the country's purposes and in the country's values. His previous statements about socialism and his commitment to the Soviet Union were conveniently ignored. Robeson was always there speaking, raising money for liberty bonds and for war bonds. He pointed out to Black people that we had a responsibility to be part of that struggle even if we had to make alliances with those who were traditionally our enemy.
The FBI, whose director, J. Edgar Hoover, was an obsessive anticommunist placed Robeson under surveillance as early as 1941 and compiled a massive dossier on his activities. Over the years thousands of documents would be compiled through surveillance activities and illegal wiretaps of Robeson, his family, friends, and associates. Despite his contributions as an entertainer to the Allied forces during World War II, Robeson was singled out as a major threat to American democracy. As the Cold War intensified, Robeson was blacklisted for political activism that saw him speak out against what he described as the U.S. government's racialized and imperialist policies. He lost concert engagements and recording contracts. After the war ended, the CAA was placed on the Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations and Robeson was investigated during the age of McCarthyism.
Fueled by the misrepresentation of a speech the actor made at the U.S.S.R-backed World Peace Conference in Paris, Robeson was labeled a communist and was staunchly criticized by government officials as well as some African American leaders, such as NAACP executive director Walter White. In that speech Robeson was widely reported in asserting that the Black people in America would never fight against the Soviets because the civil liberties there were so far beyond those at home. Unfortunately this statement backfired in a big way as both Black and White commentators labelled him unpatriotic. In his remarks he unconscionably reported, among other details, that he had compared the U.S. government to the Hitler regime. Robeson was to be henceforth branded a traitor by both the media and the federal government—and ultimately abandoned by the mainstream Civil Rights Movement.
Shortly after, at a concert in Peekskill, New York, attended by thousands, with Pete Seeger, one of the worst riots in American history broke out, fueled by both anti-communist and racist sentiments. At the entrance to the concert site, the cars in which Paul Robeson, Essie Robeson, and their entourage rode were attacked by a violent mob. A thousand enraged locals, including aggrieved members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, pelted their cars with rocks. The police offered no protection, so the Robeson entourage had no choice but to flee to safety. Paul and Essie Robeson took refuge with Jewish friends in nearby Ossining. That afternoon, the anti-Robeson mob bludgeoned the left-wing concertgoers, putting twelve of them into the hospital. Undaunted, Robeson rescheduled his concert, this time with support from a large contingent of trade unionists who were prepared to protect him.
Robeson was blacklisted as an entertainer from domestic concert venues, recording labels and film studios. Later, he was called as a witness before the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee in 1949. The Committee asked him why he didn't relocate to Russia. 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." Robeson spoke before the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) against a bill that would ultimately form part of the McCarran Act of 1950, which provided the government’s rationale to hunt down “subversives,” defined as either avowed or suspected Communists. Over the banging of a furious HJC chairman’s gavel, Robeson spoke without restraint, “I stand here struggling for the rights my people to be full citizens in this country. They are not—in Mississippi. They are not—in Montgomery. That is why I am here to today. . . . You want to shut up every colored person who wants to fight for the rights of his people".
In December 1949, Robeson further agitated government watchdogs by joining W.E.B. Du Bois and other leftists in cabling salutations to Joseph Stalin on his 70th birthday. Outlets for airing Robeson’s views were rapidly diminishing, and world events in 1950 augured badly for someone so outspoken for the Soviet Union. And his uncompromising, sustained attack on Jim Crow and White supremacy put him in the crosshairs of southern Democrats. He was ultimately barred by the State Department from renewing his passport in 1950 to travel abroad for engagements, and his income, consequently, plummeted. By the 1950’s, his politically unpopular support of the Soviet Union and his stances for racial equality and international human rights caused United States officials to revoke his passport, restricting his travel. After Stalin’s death in 1953, Paul Robeson continued his advocacy for the Soviet Union, believing that for all its flaws it rightfully stood among the world’s powers as the only formidable deterrent to anti-Black racism and colonialism.
W.E.B. Du Bois supported Robeson in his struggle to have his U.S. passport restored. Du Bois remarked, “He is without doubt today, as a person, the best known American on earth, to the largest number of human beings. Only in his native land is he without honor and rights.” His right to travel was eventually restored as a result of the 1958 United States Supreme Court decision, Kent v. Dulles. That same year, Robeson published his autobiography, "Here I Stand". He again traveled internationally and received a number of accolades for his work, but damage had been done, as he experienced debilitating depression and related health problems. Paul Robeson’s final decade (1966–1976) was spent in the care of his older sister, Marian Forsythe, at her home Philadelphia.
He was deeply angered at being ignored by the current generation of civil rights activists and the lack of recognition accorded his role as a pioneer of the civil rights movement from the 1920s–1940s. During the Civil Rights protests of the 1960’s, he was too ill to be physically active, but he spoke out often in its support. Robeson's final public appearance was at a 1966 benefit dinner for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Paul Robeson was hospitalized in Philadelphia upon suffering a minor stroke in December 1975. He died a month later, January 23rd, 1976. Paul Robeson remains a symbol of pride and consciousness to many African Americans. During his life, Paul Robeson received numerous awards for his accomplishments as an entertainer and activist, which included the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, the International Peace Prize for his Songs of Peace, and a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Robeson is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.