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Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (April 9,
1898–January 23, 1976) was an United
States|American actor, athlete, singer, writer,
and political and civil rights activist.

==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 caught her dress on fire.  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 reverend; 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 Law School|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 Medical Center in New York
City. Essie was related to Supreme Court Justice
Benjamin Cardozo). Together they had a single
child: Paul Robeson II (1927- ).

==Actor and singer==
Robeson found fame as an actor and singer with his
fine basso|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".

==Hollywood==
Between 1925 and 1942 Robeson appeared in over a
dozen Hollywood films.  He reprised his title role
in the film version of The Emperor Jones in 1933. 
He was cast as Joe in the 1936 film version of
Show Boat (movie)|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 (movie)|King Solomon's Mines. He
would eventually be Hollywood
blacklist|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 in the
United States|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 CPUSA and his
frequent trips to the Soviet Union led to his
being investigated by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation|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."
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/infosrv/Micro
Collections/fbirobeson.htm

He still occasionally sang overseas, including a
performance at the Wales|Welsh Eisteddfod|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. 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-Communism|anti-Communist and racism|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.

==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 Canada|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 affadavit 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 eloquently 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."
Robesons' 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 eloquently makes
an impassioned 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 CPUSA, 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 Great
Purge|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 Soviet
Union|USSR."   

It was in appreciation of his support that in 1952
he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. However, in
a concert broadcast live across the Soviet Union,
Robeson subtly defied Stalin's campaign against
rootless cosmopolitan|Jewish "cosmopolitism" by
ending his set with a song sung in Yiddish
language|Yiddish, Dos Partizanenlied (also known
as Song of the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion), an act
that was interpreted by many Jews listening to the
broadcast as a sign of solidarity and sympathy.
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.  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. Paul Robeson, Jr.,
his son, claimed that this was perpetrated by CIA
agent who placed some synthetic hallucinogens into
his drink at a state sponsored party he was
attending. Many thought that Robeson's disillusion
with the Soviet Union is 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 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|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.

In 2001, the Welsh rock group Manic Street
Preachers honoured Robeson's links with Wales in a
tribute song, Let Robeson Sing.

Robeson was a prominent member of Alpha Phi Alpha
Fraternity Inc., the first intercollegiate
Greek-letter fraternity established for African
Americans.

==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.

==External links==

Archives
*
http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/njh/PaulRobeson/index.h
tm Paul Robeson digital archive at Rutgers
University
*
http://www.alumni.rutgers.edu/alumnews/robeson_nb.
html Rutgers Celebrates the Paul Robeson Stamp
*
http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc9804/robeson.ht
m To You Beloved Comrade by Paul Robeson
* http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/robeson/about.htm
Paul Robeson Awards
*
http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/guides/african_
american/manusc_coll_schomburg/robeson.asp The
Paul Robeson Collection
* http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6440/ Testimony
of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on
Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956

Articles
*
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/r
obeson_p.html American Masters: Paul Robeson
*
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/0
7/044254&mode=thread&tid=5 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.
*
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/0
7/045212&mode=thread&tid=5 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.

Other
*
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&G
Sln=robeson&GSfn=paul&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob
=n&GRid=878&pt=Paul%20Bustill%20Robeson&
Findagrave: Paul Robeson