Remembering Paul Robeson on His 124th Birthday: American Renaissance Man & Social Activist

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- The incomparable Paul Robeson exhibited extraordinary courage and vision, only to be persecuted by the US government for advocating world piece and an end to racial injustice.
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- Daily Kos, April 9, 2022. (This article was written last year to celebrate Robeson’s birthday.) -Ed.

Persecuted by the U.S. government for his political activism and internationalism, Robeson was a legendary athlete, scholar, actor and singer, who fought tirelessly for civil and human rights.

To borrow from Walt Whitman’s 1855 poem, Paul Robeson contained multitudes. Before Jackie Robinson, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Harry Belafonte, Muhammad Ali, LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe, Billie Jean King, there was Paul Robeson. Robeson believed it was his duty, as a famous person, to speak out against injustice and for peace. One of America’s earliest and greatest athletes of color (along with the boxer Jack Johnson, and Jim Thorpe), Robeson was harshly punished when he spoke out against racism, and in support of world peace.

According to several accounts, Robeson believed that the struggle against fascism during the Spanish Civil War was a turning point in his life and transformed him into a political activist. Prior to the Second World War he was living in London and was included in the Sonderfahndungsliste G.B as a target for arrest in the event Germany occupied Britain. Shortly after World War began, he moved back to the U.S. At that point with an uptick in his political activism, he became a target of the FBI. In 1949, as the Cold War against the Soviet Union was beginning to heat up, Robeson travelled to France & gave a speech about the living conditions of black people in the U.S., and his hopes for avoiding World War III.

His remarks were misquoted, and members of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and some in the press labeled him anti-American. One HUAC member called him “the Kremlin’s voice of America.” As the Smithsonian Magazine’s Gilbert King wrote in September 2011, “Not even the leading black spokesmen of the day, whose causes Robeson had championed at great personal cost, felt safe enough to stand by the man dubbed as the ‘Black Stalin’ during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and ’50s.” The U.S. government revoked his passport and dozens of planned concerts across the country were cancelled.

Robeson was born on April 9, 1898, in Princeton, NJ, the son of a runaway slave, William Drew Robeson. In 1915, he was one of the first 3 African Americans to be admitted to Rutgers University. He became an All-American football player- winning numerous letters in other sports as well- was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, & served as his class valedictorian. He played professional football in the American Professional Football League; with Hammond in 1920, Akron in 1921, & Milwaukee in 1922. As Smithsonian Magazine’s Gilbert King pointed out, Robeson worked his way through Columbia Law School while playing professional football. Although he had a brief stint at a NY law firm after graduating, Robeson’s voice brought him public acclaim. Soon he was starring on Broadway, as well as on the greatest stages around the world, in plays such as Shakespeare’s Othello & the Gershwin brothers’ Porgy and Bess...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/9/2091010/-Remembering-Paul-Robeson-on-his-124th-Birthday-American-Renaissance-man-Social-Activist

[Kid Berwyn]

1. A patriot, Robeson stood up to HUAC

“You Are the Un-Americans, and You Ought to be Ashamed of Yourselves.” — Paul Robeson

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2. A remarkable American. An updated film on Robeson is needed, the

last bio was in the mid 1970s. Danny Glover, the excellent actor and activist could portray his amazing life story.

[Kid Berwyn]

3. "The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery." -- Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson — Here I Stand

Paul Robeson's immense talents made him a revered man of his time, yet his radical political beliefs all but erased him from popular history.

PBS American Masters

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 talents.

Returning to his love of public speaking, Robeson began to find work as an actor. In the mid-1920s he played the lead in Eugene O’Neill’s “All God’s Chillun Got Wings” (1924) and “The Emperor Jones” (1925). Throughout the late 1920s and 1930s, he was a widely acclaimed actor and singer. With songs such as his trademark “Ol’ Man River,” he became one of the most popular concert singers of his time. His “Othello” was the longest-running Shakespeare play in Broadway history, running for nearly three hundred performances. It is still considered one of the great-American Shakespeare productions. While his fame grew in the United States, he became equally well-loved internationally. He spoke fifteen languages, and performed benefits throughout the world for causes of social justice. More than any other performer of his time, he believed that the famous have a responsibility to fight for justice and peace.

As an actor, Robeson was one of the first black men to play serious roles in the primarily white American theater. He performed in a number of films as well, including a re-make of “The Emperor Jones” (1933) and “Song of Freedom” (1936). In a time of deeply entrenched racism, he continually struggled for further understanding of cultural difference. At the height of his popularity, Robeson was a national symbol and a cultural leader in the war against fascism abroad and racism at home. He was admired and befriended by both the general public and prominent personalities, including Eleanor Roosevelt, W.E.B. Du Bois, Joe Louis, Pablo Neruda, Lena Horne, and Harry Truman. While his varied talents and his outspoken defense of civil liberties brought him many admirers, it also made him enemies among conservatives trying to maintain the status quo.

During the 1940s, Robeson’s black nationalist and anti-colonialist activities brought him to the attention of Senator Joseph McCarthy. 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. Every attempt was made to silence and discredit him, and in 1950 the persecution reached a climax when his passport was revoked. He could no longer travel abroad to perform, and his career was stifled. Of this time, Lloyd Brown, a writer and long-time colleague of Robeson, states: “Paul Robeson was the most persecuted, the most ostracized, the most condemned black man in America, then or ever.”

It was eight years before his passport was reinstated. A weary and triumphant Robeson began again to travel and give concerts in England and Australia. But the years of hardship had taken their toll. After several bouts of depression, he was admitted to a hospital in London, where he was administered continued shock treatments. When Robeson returned to the United States in 1963, he was misdiagnosed several times and treated for a variety of physical and psychological problems. Realizing that he was no longer the powerful singer or agile orator of his prime, he decided to step out of the public eye. He retired to Philadelphia and lived in self-imposed seclusion until his death in 1976.

To this day, Paul Robeson’s many accomplishments remain obscured by the propaganda of those who tirelessly dogged him throughout his life. His role in the history of civil rights and as a spokesperson for the oppressed of other nations remains relatively unknown. In 1995, more than seventy-five years after graduating from Rutgers, his athletic achievements were finally recognized with his posthumous entry into the College Football Hall of Fame. Though a handful of movies and recordings are still available, they are a sad testament to one of the greatest Americans of the twentieth century. If we are to remember Paul Robeson for anything, it should be for the courage and the dignity with which he struggled for his own personal voice and for the rights of all people.

Source: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/paul-robeson-about-the-actor/66/

Danny Glover would be great! He could be the great man looking back at his life. There are lots of great actors who could portray Robeson from spring to winter. We the People certainly need the lesson — it is not taught much in the nation’s schools or during BHM.

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4. Thanks for the PBS Bio. I thought the same, Glover could

depict Robeson in maturity with younger actors filling in earlier life. A film maybe one day...

[BeckyDem]

5. K&R!