Paul Robeson
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Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American actor, athlete, singer, writer, and political and civil rights activist.
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Birth and siblings
Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey and a graduate of Somerville, New Jersey High School where he excelled at singing, acting, and athletics. His mother, Maria Louisa Bustill (1853-1904) was burned to death when a coal from the stove set fire to her dress. Paul was then raised by his father, William Drew Robeson I (1845-1918), an escaped slave who became a preacher. His father impressed upon him the need for self-improvement through education. Paul's siblings include: William Drew Robeson, a physician who practiced in Washington, DC; Benjamin Reeve Robeson, a minister; and Marian Robeson who lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Education
Paul graduated with honors from Somerville High School in 1915. He won a scholarship to Rutgers University where he excelled in academics and was a four-letter man in sports. He was only the third African-American accepted at Rutgers. He wanted to attend Princeton University, but Princeton had not yet accepted an African-American. Paul was one of only three classmates at Rutgers accepted into Phi Beta Kappa. He was the class valedictorian, and became an All-American in American Football, had fifteen varsity letters, and was selected to Cap and Skull. He moved to Harlem and went on to earn a law degree at Columbia. He was in the same law school class as William O. Douglas.
After he graduated in 1923 he became the first African-American hired at Stotesbury and Miner, one of New York's most prestigious law firms. He quit after a secretary refused to take dictation from him because of his color. Robeson also studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, where he said he was alerted to the power and strength of his heritage, by learning about the history of Africa.
Marriage and children
He married Essie Cardozo Goode (1896-1965) in August of 1921. She worked as a pathology technician at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. Essie was related to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo. Together they had a single child: Paul Robeson II, born in 1927.
Actor and singer
Robeson found fame as an actor and singer with his fine bass voice. In addition to his stage performances, his renditions of old Negro spirituals were acclaimed. His first roles were in 1922 playing Simon in Simon the Cyrenian at the Harlem YMCA and Jim in Taboo at the Sam Harris Theater in Harlem. Taboo was later re-named Vodoo. He was acclaimed in his 1924 performances in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones where he originated the title role on the stage. Next he played Crown in DuBose Heyward's Porgy and Bess and, in 1930, he played Othello in England, when no US company would employ him for the role. He reprised the role in New York in 1943-1945. At the time the Broadway run of Othello was the longest Broadway run of any Shakespeare play. He won the Spingarn Medal in 1945 for his performance. Uta Hagen played Desdemona, and José Ferrer played Iago. Robeson's repertoire of African-American folk songs helped bring these to much wider attention both inside the US and abroad — in particular his stunning rendition of "Go Down Moses".
Rumored Affairs
He was rumored to have had dalliances with such (now deceased) British noblewomen as Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley (Earl Mountbatten's wife), and the acclaimed stage and film actress, Dame Peggy Ashcroft.
Movies
Between 1925 and 1942 Robeson appeared in eleven films, all but four of them British productions, after he and his wife moved to England in the late 1920s. He remained there, with long periods away on singing tours, until the outbreak of World War Two. At the height of his popularity in the 1930s, Robeson became a major box office attraction in British films such as Song of Freedom and The Proud Valley. Briefly returning to the USA he reprised his title role in the film version of The Emperor Jones in 1933. He was also cast as Joe in the 1936 film version of Show Boat. In this film his performance of "Ol' Man River" has been regarded as definitive and arguably never been bettered. He also was Umbopa in the 1937 version of King Solomon's Mines. He would eventually be blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses for his political beliefs.
Critic of the United States
On his frequent trips to Western Europe and the Soviet Union he was highly critical of the conditions experienced by black Americans, especially in the segregated southern states. Robeson was an activist against lynching. He pressed President Truman aggressively on the issue in a tense 1946, making remarks that implied black people would fight back to defend themselves if the government would not, and in the same year founded the American Crusade Against Lynching. This outspokenness, together with sympathies expressed towards the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin in particular, his membership in the Communist Party of the United States of America and his frequent trips to the Soviet Union led to his being investigated by the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. Robeson was under surveillance by the FBI from 1941 to 1974, when the Bureau decided that "no further investigation [of Robeson] was warranted." [1]
He still occasionally sang overseas, including a performance at the Welsh National Eisteddfod conducted over the telephone. In 1940, Robeson had appeared in The Proud Valley, in which he played a black labourer arriving in south Wales and winning the hearts of the local population; he continues to be thought of as having particular links with Wales, where his political views were not seen as controversial. Indeed, Robeson remains a popular figure in the nation, and he once said, "South Wales is my favourite place on Earth." Robeson also toured the Soviet Union in the summer of 1949 where during a rendition of "People's Battle Song," Robeson was applauded for over fifteen minutes by the Moscow audience.
In 1949, Robeson performed a concert in Peekskill, New York. After the concert, organized anti-Communist and racist vigilantes attacked departing concertgoers, while local police stood by and did nothing. The local newspaper was accused of encouraging the attacks, dubbed the Peekskill Riots.
Communism and the McCarthy era
He was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that attempted to cite him for refusal to sign the non-communist declaration. In complicity with the HUAC the US State Department denied him a passport which effectively confined him to the United States. During a 1952 tour of the United States a concert was organized at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington State and British Columbia. This was done as an act of defiance against the authorities who refused to allow him to cross the border. The concert took place on May 18, 1952. Paul Robeson stood on the back of a flat bed truck on the American side of the Canada-US border and performed a concert for a large crowd on the Canadian side, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people.
He was brought before the HUAC in 1956 after refusing to sign an affidavit affirming that he was not a communist. In the terse exchanges that followed, Robeson invoked the Fifth Amendment for several questions regarding his political affiliations, and lectured Committee members on civils rights issues concerning African-Americans. At one point he remarked: "you are the nonpatriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves." Robeson’s passport was returned to him after a 1958 Supreme Court decision that a US citizen's right to travel abroad could not be encroached upon without due process.
Prior to his passport's return in 1958, Robeson wrote a book, Here I Stand, which made a case for concerted action to right the inequities of the Jim Crow system. After he got back his passport he moved to England. He spent five years touring the world, playing Othello again in 1959 in Tony Richardson's production at Stratford-upon-Avon, and singing throughout Europe and in Australia and New Zealand. It was on his visit to England that he befriended English actor Andrew Faulds and inspired him to take up a career in politics. His health broke down and he spent time in Russian and East German hospitals.
Some critics have stated that Robeson’s status as a "victim" of the HUAC’s investigation is unwarranted due to the extensive ties Robeson had with both the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the United States of America, which was known to be actively involved in espionage against the United States.
The story of Itzik Feffer is cited by some as an example of the lengths to which Paul Robeson would go to avoid criticism of the Soviet Union.
In 1948 Robeson was on one of his periodic visits to the Soviet Union when he asked to meet with Yiddish poet Itzik Feffer. Feffer, along with the actor Solomon Mikhoels and other prominent Jews were victims of the latest anti-Semitic purge by Stalin. They had been hosted by Robeson during a World War II visit to the U.S. as part of Stalin's Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and Robeson had been urged to intervene on their behalf. Though he had been cleaned up and dressed in a suit, Feffer's fingernails had been torn out.
Though he couldn't speak openly, Robeson later told his son that the poet indicated by gestures and a few handwritten words that Mikhoels had been murdered on the orders of Stalin and that the other Jewish prisoners were being prepared for the same fate. After the two friends said goodbye, Feffer was taken back to the Lubyanka and would never be seen alive again.
However, when Robeson returned home he condemned as anti-Soviet propaganda reports that Feffer and other Jews had been killed. Not once did Robeson denounce Feffer's murder. Later on Robeson confided in his son, Paul Robeson Jr., the details of his meeting with Feffer. He made his son vow not to make the story public until well after his death, "because he had promised himself that he would never publicly criticize the USSR."
It was in appreciation of his support that in 1952 he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. Robeson’s actions at a concert broadcast live across the Soviet Union, is seen by some as a defiance of Stalin's campaign against Jewish "cosmopolitism" by ending his set with a song sung in Yiddish, Dos Partizanenlied (also known as Song of the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion). The Yiddish song was cut from rebroadcasts of the concert. (This is recounted in Mary M. Leder's book My Life in Stalinist Russia). Robeson also wrote a tribute to Joseph Stalin in April, 1953 shortly after Stalin's death entitled To You Beloved Comrade.
At a Bill of Rights Conference in New York City in July 1949, a resolution was introduced calling for the freeing all 19 Trotskyists convicted in 1941 under the provisions of the Smith Act being used at that time against the leaders of the CPUSA. Robeson gave a speech denouncing this idea, equating "Trotskyites" with fascists and Ku Klux Klansmen. The resolution was defeated and Robeson's speech is credited with its defeat. Robeson biographer Martin Duberman wrote "It was not Robeson's finest hour." (p. 382)
In 1961, Robeson slashed his wrists with a razor blade in a Moscow hotel room. His son claimed this was perpetrated by CIA agent who placed some synthetic hallucinogens into his drink at a state-sponsored party he was attending. Many thought Robeson's disillusion with the Soviet Union was a more likely explanation.
Paul Robeson returned to live in the United States in 1963. For the remainder of his life was plagued by ill health and depression, and his appearances were relatively few. His 75th birthday was celebrated in Carnegie Hall where a taped message from him was played.
Death and burial
Paul Robeson died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1976 at the age of 77 where he had been living with his sister. He was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
His obituary appeared in The New York Times on page 1 on January 24, 1976.
Epilogue
Although Robeson is one of the Great Forerunners in Black equality, the Joseph McCarthy era virtually erased his memory from the consciousness of younger Americans.
He was conversant in over 20 languages, and at one time carried enough clout to be considered for a vice presidential spot on Henry A. Wallace's 1948 ticket. His singing voice was a sonorous bass-baritone once described thus: "If God should come to earth and sing, He would sound something like Paul Robeson."
In 2004, the United States Postal Service honored Robeson with a stamp in the Black Heritage Series. Robeson was also portrayed by the East German Government with a postage stamp in 1983.
In 2001, the Welsh rock group Manic Street Preachers honoured Robeson's links with Wales in a tribute song, "Let Robeson Sing". Two years later, he was honored with an exhibit at the National Museum of Wales in Aberystwyth, focusing on his life and his links with Wales and working-class movements.
Robeson was a prominent member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.
The main student union at Penn State University is the HUB-Robeson Center, which contains the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.
Quotes
- If the United States and the United Nations truly want peace and security let them fulfill the hopes of the common people everywhere -- let them work together to accomplish on a worldwide scale, precisely the kind of democratic association of free people which characterizes the Soviet Union today.- Daily Worker; November 15, 1945
References
- Paul Robeson - Here I Stand. DVD. Director: St. Claire Bourne. Winstar Home Entertainment. DVD Release Date: August 24, 1999. Run Time: 117 minutes.
- Duberman, Martin. Paul Robeson: A Biography. 804 pages. New Press; Reissue edition (May 1, 1995). ISBN 156584288X.
- Foner, Philip S. Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, and Interviews, a Centennial Celebration. Citadel Press; Reprint edition (September 1, 1982). 644 pages. ISBN 0806508159.
- Robeson, Paul. Here I Stand. Beacon Press (January 1, 1998). 160 pages. ISBN 0807064459.
- Whitman, Alden. Paul Robeson Dead at 77. New York Times. Page 57, Column 2. January 24, 1976.
- The Manic Street Preachers have released a single entitled Let Robeson Sing.
External links
Archives
- Paul Robeson digital archive at Rutgers University
- Rutgers Celebrates the Paul Robeson Stamp
- To You Beloved Comrade by Paul Robeson
- Paul Robeson Awards
- The Paul Robeson Collection
- Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956
Articles
- American Masters: Paul Robeson
- Did the CIA Drug Paul Robeson? - a Look at the Secret Program Mk Ultra Part 1. 23:16 minutes. Amy Goodman interviews Paul Robeson, Jr., Dr. Eric Olson, Martin Lee. Democracy Now!. Thursday, July 1st, 1999. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
- Did the U.S. Government Drug Paul Robeson? - a Look at the Secret Program Mk Ultra Part 2.. 46:52 minutes. Amy Goodman interviews Paul Robeson, Jr., Mike Minnicino. Democracy Now!. Tuesday, July 6th, 1999. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
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