Paul Robeson

This article is about the singer and activist. For his son, see Paul Robeson, Jr..

Paul Robeson
Born	Paul Leroy Robeson (1898-04-09)April 9, 1898 Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	January 23, 1976(1976-01-23) (aged 77) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater	Rutgers University (1919) Columbia Law School (1922)
Occupation	Singer (spirituals, international folk, musicals, classical), actor, social activist, lawyer, athlete
Spouse(s)	Eslanda Robeson (1921–1965) (her death) 1 son
Children	Paul Robeson, Jr.

Paul Leroy Robeson (/ˈroʊbsən/ ROHB-sən April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an African-American singer and actor who became involved with the Civil Rights Movement. At Rutgers University, he was an outstanding football player, then had an international career in singing, as well as acting in theater and movies. He became politically involved in response to the Spanish Civil War, Fascism, and social injustices. His advocacy of anti-imperialism, affiliation with Communism, and his criticism of the US government caused him to be blacklisted during McCarthyism. Ill health forced him into retirement from his career. He remained an advocate of the unpopular political stances he took until his death.

Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers University, where he became a football All-American and the class valedictorian. He received his LL.B. from Columbia Law School, while playing in the National Football League (NFL). At Columbia, he sang and acted in off-campus productions and, after graduating, he became a participant in the Harlem Renaissance with performances in The Emperor Jones and All God's Chillun Got Wings. Robeson initiated his international artistic résumé with a theatrical role in Great Britain, settling in London for the next several years with his wife Essie.

Robeson next appeared as Othello at the Savoy Theatre before becoming an international cinematic star through roles in Show Boat and Sanders of the River. He became increasingly attuned towards the sufferings of all cultures and peoples. Acting against advice, which warned of his economic ruin if he became politically active, he set aside his theatrical career to advocate the cause of the Republican forces of the Spanish Civil War. He then became active in the Council on African Affairs (CAA).

During World War II, he supported America's war efforts and won accolades for his portrayal of Othello on Broadway. However, his history of supporting pro-Soviet policies brought scrutiny from the FBI. After the war ended, the CAA was placed on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO) and Robeson was investigated during the age of McCarthyism. Due to his decision not to recant his public advocacy of pro-Soviet policies, he was denied a passport by the U.S. State Department, and his income, consequently, plummeted. He moved to Harlem and published a periodical critical of US policies. His right to travel was eventually restored by Kent v. Dulles, but his health broke down. He retired and he lived out the remaining years of his life privately in Philadelphia.

Early life

Childhood (1898–1915)

Birthplace in Princeton

Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1898, to Reverend William Drew Robeson and Maria Louisa Bustill. His mother was from a prominent Quaker family of mixed ancestry: African, Anglo-American, and Lenape. His father, William, escaped from a plantation in his teens and eventually became the minister of Princeton's Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in 1881. Robeson had three brothers: William Drew, Jr. (born 1881), Reeve (born c. 1887), and Ben (born c. 1893); and one sister, Marian (born c. 1895).

In 1900, a disagreement between William and white financial supporters of Witherspoon arose with apparent racial undertones, which were prevalent in Princeton. William, who had the support of his entirely black congregation, resigned in 1901. The loss of his position forced him to work menial jobs. Three years later when Robeson was six, his mother, who was nearly blind, tragically died in a house fire. Eventually, William became financially incapable of providing a house for himself and his children still living at home, Ben and Paul, so they moved into the attic of a store in Westfield, New Jersey.

William found a stable parsonage at the St. Thomas A. M. E. Zion in 1910, where Robeson would fill in for his father during sermons when he was called away. In 1912, Robeson attended Somerville High School, Somerville, New Jersey, where he performed in Julius Caesar, Othello, sang in the chorus, and excelled in football, basketball, baseball and track. His athletic dominance elicited racial taunts which he ignored. Prior to his graduation, he won a statewide academic contest for a scholarship to Rutgers. He took a summer job as a waiter in Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island, where he befriended Fritz Pollard, later to be the first African-American coach in the National Football League.

Rutgers University (1915–1919)

Robeson (far left) was Rutgers Class of 1919 and one of four students selected into Cap and Skull

In late 1915, Robeson became the third African-American student ever enrolled at Rutgers, and the only one at the time. He tried out for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team, and his resolve to make the squad was tested as his teammates engaged in unwarranted and excessive play, arguably precipitated by racism. The coach, Foster Sanford, decided he had overcome the provocation and announced that he had made the team.

Robeson joined the debate team and sang off-campus for spending money, and on-campus with the Glee Club informally, as membership required attending all-white mixers. He also joined the other collegiate athletic teams. As a sophomore, amidst Rutgers' sesquicentennial celebration, he was benched when a Southern team refused to take the field because the Scarlet Knights had fielded a Negro, Robeson.

After a standout junior year of football, he was recognized in The Crisis for his athletic, academic, and singing talents. At what should have been a high point of his life, his father fell grievously ill. Robeson took the sole responsibility in caring for him, shuttling between Rutgers and Somerville. His father, who was the "glory of his boyhood years" soon died, and at Rutgers, Robeson expounded on the incongruity of African-Americans fighting to protect America in World War I then, contemporaneously, being bereft of the same opportunities in the US as Whites.

He finished university with four annual oratorical triumphs and varsity letters in multiple sports. His play at end won him first-team All-American selection, in both his junior and senior years. Walter Camp considered him the greatest end ever. Academically, he was accepted into Phi Beta Kappa and Cap and Skull. His classmates recognized him by electing him class valedictorian. The Daily Targum published a poem featuring his achievements. In his valedictorian speech, he exhorted his classmates to work for equality for all Americans.

Columbia Law School (1919–1923)

Robeson's Football Career

End
Personal information
Height: 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Weight: 219 lb (99 kg)
Career information
College: Rutgers
Debuted in 1921 for the Akron Pros
Last played in 1922 for the Milwaukee Badgers
Career history
Akron Pros (1921) Milwaukee Badgers (1922)
Career highlights and awards
First team All-American (1917, 1918)
Career NFL statistics as of 1922
Games played 15 Games started 15 TD 2 Stats at NFL.com
College Football Hall of Fame

Robeson entered New York University School of Law in the fall of 1919. To support himself, he became an assistant football coach at Lincoln, where he joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. However, Robeson felt uncomfortable at NYU and moved to Harlem and transferred to Columbia Law School in February 1920. Already known in the black community for his singing, he was selected to perform at the dedication of the Harlem YWCA. He began dating Eslanda "Essie" Goode and after her coaxing, he gave his theatrical debut as Simon in Ridgely Torrence's Simon of Cyrene. After a year of courtship, they were married in August 1921.

He was recruited by Pollard to play for the NFL's Akron Pros while Robeson continued his law studies. In the spring, Robeson postponed school to portray Jim in Mary Hoyt Wiborg's Taboo. He then sang in a chorus in an Off-Broadway production of Shuffle Along before he joined Taboo in Britain. The play was adapted by Mrs. Patrick Campbell to highlight his singing. After the play ended, he befriended Lawrence Brown, a classically trained musician, before returning to Columbia while playing for the NFL's Milwaukee Badgers. He ended his football career after 1922, and months later, he graduated from law school.

Theatrical ascension and ideological transformation (1923–1939)

Harlem Renaissance (1923–1927)

Robeson worked briefly as a lawyer, but he renounced a career in law due to extant racism. Essie financially supported them and they frequented the social functions at the future Schomburg Center. In December, he landed the lead role of Jim in Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings, which culminated with Jim metaphorically consummating his marriage with his white wife by symbolically emasculating himself. Chillun's opening was postponed while a nationwide debate occurred over its plot.

Chillun's delay led to a revival of The Emperor Jones with Robeson as Brutus, a role pioneered by Charles Sidney Gilpin. The role terrified and galvanized Robeson as it was practically a 90-minute soliloquy. Reviews declared him an unequivocal success. Though arguably clouded by its controversial subject, his Jim in Chillun was less well received. He deflected criticism of its plot by writing that fate had drawn him to the "untrodden path" of drama and the true measure of a culture is in its artistic contributions, and the only true American culture was African-American.

The success of his acting placed him in elite social circles and his ascension to fame, which was forcefully aided by Essie, had occurred at a startling pace. Essie's ambition for Robeson was a startling dichotomy to his insouciance. She quit her job, became his agent, and negotiated his first movie role in a silent race film directed by Oscar Micheaux, Body and Soul. To support a charity for single mothers, he headlined a concert singing spirituals. He performed his repertoire of spirituals on the radio.

Brown, who had become renowned while touring with gospel singer Roland Hayes, stumbled on Robeson in Harlem. The two ad-libbed a set of spirituals, with Robeson as lead and Brown as accompanist. This so enthralled them that they booked Provincetown Playhouse for a concert. The pair's rendition of African-American folk songs and spirituals was captivating, and Victor Records signed Robeson to a contract.

The Robesons went to London for a revival of Jones, before spending the rest of the fall on holiday on the French Riviera socializing with Gertrude Stein and Claude McKay. Robeson and Brown performed a series of concert tours in America from January 1926 until May 1927. During a hiatus in New York, Robeson learned that Essie was several months pregnant. Paul Jr. was born while Robeson and Brown toured Europe. Essie experienced complications from the birth, and by mid-December, her health had deteriorated dramatically. Ignoring Essie's objections, her mother wired Robeson and he immediately returned to her bedside. Essie completely recovered after a few months.^{[citation needed]}

Show Boat, Othello, and marriage difficulties (1928–1932)

Robeson played "Joe" in the London production of the American musical Show Boat, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. His rendition of "Ol' Man River" became the benchmark for all future performers of the song. Some black critics were not pleased with the play due to its usage of the word nigger. It was, nonetheless, immensely popular with white audiences. He was summoned for a Royal Command Performance at Buckingham Palace as Robeson was befriended by MPs from the House of Commons. Show Boat continued for 350 performances and, as of 2001, it remained the Royal's most profitable venture. The Robesons bought a home in Hampstead. He reflected on his life in his diary and wrote that it was all part of a "higher plan" and "God watches over me and guides me. He's with me and lets me fight my own battles and hopes I'll win." However, an incident at the Savoy Grill, wherein he was refused to be seated, sparked him to issue a press release portraying the insult which subsequently became a matter of public debate.

Essie had learned early in their marriage that Robeson had been involved in extramarital affairs, but she tolerated them. However, when she discovered that he was having another affair, she unfavorably altered the characterization of him in his biography, and defamed him by describing him with "negative racial stereotypes". Despite her uncovering of this tryst, there was no public evidence that their relationship had soured. In early 1930, they both appeared in the experimental classic Borderline, and then returned to the West End for his starring role in Shakespeare's Othello, opposite Peggy Ashcroft as Desdemona.

Robeson became the first black actor cast as Othello in Britain since Ira Aldridge. The production received mixed reviews which pointed out Robeson's "highly civilized quality [but lacking the] grand style." Robeson stated the best way to diminish the oppression African Americans faced was for his artistic work to be an example of what "men of my colour" could accomplish rather than to "be a propagandist and make speeches and write articles about what they call the Colour Question."

After Essie's discovery of Robeson's affair with Ashcroft, she decided to seek a divorce and they split up. Robeson returned to Broadway as Joe in the 1932 revival of Show Boat, to critical and popular acclaim. Subsequently, he received, with immense pride, an honorary master's degree from Rutgers. Thereabout, his former football coach, Foster Sanford, advised him that divorcing Essie and marrying Ashcroft would do irreparable damage to his reputation. Ashcroft and Robeson's relationship ended in 1932, following which Robeson and Essie reconciled, although their relationship was permanently scarred.

Ideological awakening (1933–1937)

Robeson played a theatrical role, virtually gratis, as Joe in "Chillun" in 1933 for several weeks before returning to the US for a starring role in a motion picture, which was "a feat not repeated for more than two decades in the U.S." as Brutus in the film The Emperor Jones. His acting in "Jones" was well received and "Jones" became the first film starring an African American. On the film set, he rejected any slight to his dignity, despite the widespread Jim Crow atmosphere in the US. Post-production, he returned to England and publicly criticized African Americans' rejection of their own culture. The New York Amsterdam News retorted that his comments had made a "jolly well [ass of himself]," however, he afterwards declared that he would reject any offers to perform European opera because the music had no connection to his heritage.

In early 1934, Robeson enrolled in the School of Oriental and African Studies to study over 20 different languages. His "sudden interest" in African history and its impact on culture coincided with his essay "I Want to be African", wherein he wrote of his desire to embrace his ancestry. He undertook the role of Bosambo in the movie Sanders of the River, which he felt would render a realistic view of colonial African culture.^{[citation needed]} His friends in the anti-imperialism movement and association with British socialists led him to visit the USSR. Robeson, Essie, and Marie Seton embarked to the USSR on an invitation from Sergei Eisenstein in December 1934. During their trip, a stopover in Berlin enlightened Robeson to the racism in Nazi Germany, and on his arrival in the USSR, he expounded on the irrelevance of his race which he felt in Moscow, where he said "here I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life ... I walk in full human dignity."

When Sanders of the River was released in 1935, it made him an international movie star. However, his stereotypical portrayal of a colonial African was seen as embarrassing to his stature as an artist and damaging to his reputation. The Commissioner of Nigeria to London protested the film as slanderous to his country, and Robeson thereafter became more politically conscious of his roles. In early 1936 he considered himself primarily apolitical, however he decided to send his son to school in the Soviet Union in order to shield him from racist attitudes. He then played the role of Toussaint Louverture in the eponymous play by C. L. R. James at the Westminster Theatre and appeared in the films Song of Freedom, Show Boat, Big Fella, My Song Goes Forth, and King Solomon's Mines. He was internationally recognized as the 10th-most-popular star in British cinema.

Spanish Civil War and the Moscow Trials (1937–1939)

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. In 1937, he used his concert performances to advocate the Republican cause and the war's refugees. He permanently modified his renditions of Ol' Man River from a tragic "song of resignation with a hint of protest implied"^{[citation needed]} into a battle hymn of unwavering defiance. His business agent expressed concern about his political involvement, but Robeson overruled him and decided that contemporary events trumped commercialism. In Wales, he commemorated the Welsh killed while fighting for the Republicans, where he recorded a message which would become his epitaph: "The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.

After an invitation from J. B. S. Haldane, he traveled to Spain in 1938 because he believed in the International Brigades's cause. He visited the battlefront and provided a morale boost to the Republicans at a time when their victory was unlikely. Back in England, he hosted Jawaharlal Nehru to support Indian independence, whereat Nehru expounded on imperialism's affiliation with Fascism. Robeson reevaluated the direction of his career and decided to focus his attention on utilizing his talents to bring attention to the ordeals of "common people". and subsequently he appeared in the pro-labor play Plant in the Sun by Herbert Marshall. With Max Yergan, and the CAA, Robeson became an advocate in the aspirations of African colonialists for political independence.

World War II, the Broadway Othello, Political Activism, and McCarthyism (1939–1957)

World War II and the Broadway Othello (1939–1945)

Robeson leading Moore Shipyard Oakland, California workers in singing the Star Spangled Banner, September 1942. Robeson himself was a shipyard worker in World War I.

Paul Robeson with Uta Hagen in the Theatre Guild production of Othello (1943–4).

After the outbreak of World War II, Robeson returned to the US and became America's "no.1 entertainer" with a radio broadcast of Ballad for Americans, and a role in The Proud Valley. Nevertheless during an ensuing tour, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel was the only hotel willing to accommodate him due to his race,^{[citation needed]} and he therefore dedicated two hours every afternoon sitting in the lobby "...to ensure that the next time Black[s] come through, they'll have a place to stay."^{[citation needed]}

Furthermore, Native Land was labeled by the FBI as communist propaganda. After an appearance in Tales of Manhattan, a production that he felt was "very offensive to my people", he announced that he would no longer act in films because of the demeaning roles available to black[s].

Robeson participated in benefit concerts on behalf of the war effort and at a concert at the Polo Grounds, he met two emissaries from the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, Solomon Mikhoels and Itzik Feffer Subsequently, Robeson reprised his role of Othello at the Shubert Theatre in 1943, and became the first African American to play the role with a white supporting cast on Broadway. Contemperaneously, he addressed a meeting with Kenesaw Mountain Landis in a failed attempt to convince him to admit black players to Major League Baseball. He toured North America with Othello until 1945, and subsequently, his political efforts with the CAA to get colonial powers to discontinue their exploitation of Africa were short-circuited by the United Nations.

AGLOSO (1946–1949)

After the lynchings of four African Americans, Robeson met with President Truman and admonished Truman that if he did not enact legislation to end lynching, "the Negroes will" "defend themselves". Truman immediately terminated the meeting and declared the time was not right to propose anti-lynching legislation. Subsequently, Robeson publicly called upon all Americans to demand that Congress pass civil rights legislation.

About this time, Robeson's belief that trade unionism was crucial to civil rights became a mainstay of his political beliefs as he became proponent of the union activist Revels Cayton. Robeson was later called before the Tenney Committee where he responded to questions about his affiliation with Communist Party (CPUSA) by testifying that he was not a member of the CPUSA. Nevertheless, two organizations with which Robeson was intimately involved, the Civil Rights Congress (CRC)^{[citation needed]} and the CAA, were placed on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO). Subsequently, he was summoned before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and when questioned about his affiliation with the Communist Party, he refused to answer, stating: "Some of the most brilliant and distinguished Americans are about to go to jail for the failure to answer that question, and I am going to join them, if necessary."^{[citation needed]}

In 1948, Robeson was preeminent in Henry A. Wallace's bid for the President of the United States, during which Robeson traveled to the Deep South, at risk to his own life, to campaign for him. In the ensuing year, Robeson was forced to go overseas to work because his concert performances were canceled at the FBI's behest. While on tour, he spoke at the World Peace Council, whereat, his speech was publicly reported as equating America with a Fascist state—a depiction which he flatly denied. Nevertheless, the speech publicly attributed to him was a catalyst for his becoming an enemy of mainstream America. Robeson refused to subjugate himself to public criticism^{[citation needed]} when he advocated in favor of twelve defendants, including his long-time friend,^{[citation needed]} Benjamin J. Davis, Jr. charged during the Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders.^{[citation needed]}

Label of a record by Paul Robeson published by Soviet Ministry of Culture

Robeson traveled to Moscow in June, and was unable to find Itzik Feffer. He let Soviet authorities know that he wanted to see him. Reluctant to lose Robeson as a propagandist for the USSR, the Soviets brought Feffer from prison to him. Feffer told him that Mikhoels had been murdered, and he would be summarily executed. To protect the USSR's reputation, and to keep the right wing of the US from gaining the moral high ground, Robeson denied that any persecution existed in the USSR, and kept the meeting secret for the rest of his life, except from his son.

In order to isolate Robeson politically,^{[citation needed]} the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) subpoenad Jackie Robinson to comment on Robeson's Paris speech. Robinson testified that Robeson's statements, "'if accurately reported', were silly'".^{[citation needed]} Days later, the announcement of a concert headlined by Robeson in New York provoked the local press to decry the use of their community to support subversives and the Peekskill Riots ensued. Contemporaneously, criticism of Robeson became, even among liberals, de rigueur.

Blacklisted (1950–1955)

A book reviewed in early 1950 as "the most complete record on college football" failed to list Robeson as ever having played on the Rutgers team and as ever having been an All-American. Months later, NBC canceled Robeson's appearance on Eleanor Roosevelt's television program. Subsequently, the State Department (State) denied Robeson a passport to travel abroad and issued a "stop notice" at all ports because it believed that an isolated existence inside US borders would not only afford him less freedom of expression but also avenge his "extreme advocacy on behalf of the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa." However when Robeson met with State and asked why he was denied a passport, he was told that "his frequent criticism of the treatment of blacks in the United States should not be aired in foreign countries".

In 1951, an article titled "Paul Robeson – the Lost Shepherd" was published in The Crisis although Paul Jr. suspected it was authored by Earl Brown. J. Edgar Hoover and the United States State Department arranged for the article to be printed and distributed in Africa in order to defame Robeson's reputation and reduce his and Communists' popularity in colonial countries. Another article by Wilkins denounced Robeson as well as the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in terms consistent with the anti-Communist FBI propaganda.

On December 17, 1951, Robeson presented to the United Nations an anti-lynching petition, "We Charge Genocide". The document asserted that the US federal government, by its failure to act against lynching in the US, was "guilty of genocide" under Article II of the UN Genocide Convention.

In 1952, Robeson was awarded the International Stalin Prize by the USSR. Unable to travel to Moscow, he accepted the award in New York. In April 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, Robeson penned To You My Beloved Comrade, praising Stalin as dedicated to peace and a guide to the world: "Through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage." Robeson's opinion on the USSR kept his passport out of reach and stopped his return to the entertainment industry and the civil rights movement. In his opinion, the USSR was the guarantor of political balance in the world.

In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban, labor unions in the US and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and over the next two years, two further concerts were scheduled. In this period, with the encouragement of his friend the Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan, Robeson recorded a number of radio concerts for supporters in Wales.

End of McCarthyism (1956–1957)

Main article: Paul Robeson Congressional Hearings

In 1956, Robeson was called before HUAC after he refused to sign an affidavit affirming that he was not a Communist.^{[citation needed]} In his testimony, he invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to reveal his political affiliations.^{[citation needed]} When he was asked why he had not remained in the USSR because of his affinity with the political ideology of the USSR, he replied that "because my father was a slave and my people died to build [the United States and], I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you and no fascist-minded people will drive me from it!"^{[citation needed]} Robeson's passport was subsequently revoked.^{[citation needed]} Campaigns were launched to protest the passport ban and the restriction of his right to travel over the next four years,^{[citation needed]} but it was to no avail.^{[citation needed]} Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalinism at the 1956 Party Congress silenced Robeson on Stalin, though Robeson continued to praise the USSR. In 1956, after public pressure brought a one-time exemption to the travel ban, Robeson performed concerts in Canada in March.^{[citation needed]} That year Robeson, along with close friend W. E. B. Du Bois, compared the anti-Stalinist revolution in Hungary to the "same sort of people who overthrew the Spanish Republican Government" and supported the Soviet invasion and suppression of the revolt.

An appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States to reinstate his confiscated passport had been rejected, but over the telephone Robeson was able to sing to the 5,000 gathered there as he had earlier in the year to London. Due to the reaction to the promulgation of Robeson's political views,^{[citation needed]} his recordings and films were removed from public distribution,^{[citation needed]} and he was universally condemned in the U.S press.^{[citation needed]} During the height of the Cold War, it became increasingly difficult in the US to hear Robeson sing on commercial radio, buy his music or see his films.

Later years (1958–1976)

Comeback tours (1958–1960)

After^{[citation needed]} the publication of Robeson's "manifesto-autobiography", Here I Stand, his passport was restored in June 1958 via Kent v. Dulles, and he embarked on a world tour using London as his base.^{[citation needed]} In Moscow in August 1959, he received a tumultuous reception at the Lenin Stadium (Khabarovsk) where he sang classic Russian songs along with American standards. Robeson and Essie then flew to Yalta to rest and spend time with Nikita Khrushchev.^{[citation needed]}

On October 11, 1959, Robeson took part in a service at St.Paul's Cathedral, the first black performer to sing there. On a trip to Moscow, Robeson experienced bouts of dizziness and heart problems and was hospitalized for two months while Essie was diagnosed with operable cancer. He recovered and returned to the UK to visit the National Eisteddfod.

The State Department had circulated negative literature about him throughout the media in India

During his run at the Royal Shakespeare Company playing Othello in Tony Richardson's 1959 production at Stratford-upon-Avon, he befriended actor Andrew Faulds, whose family hosted him in the nearby village of Shottery. In 1960, in what would prove to be his final concert performance in Great Britain, Robeson sang to raise money for the Movement for Colonial Freedom at the Royal Festival Hall.^{[citation needed]}

Robeson embarked on a two-month concert tour of Australia and New Zealand in October 1960, with Essie, primarily to generate money, at the behest of Bill Morrow. While in Sydney, he became the first major artist to perform at the construction site of the future Sydney Opera House.^{[citation needed]} After appearing at the Brisbane Festival Hall, they went to Auckland where Robeson reaffirmed his support of Marxism, denounced the inequality faced by the Māori and efforts to denigrate their culture. Thereabout, Robeson publicly stated "...the people of the lands of Socialism want peace dearly". He was introduced to Faith Bandler who enlightened the Robesons to the deprivation of the Australian Aborigines. Robeson, consequently, became enraged and demanded the Australian government provide the Aborigines citizenship and equal rights. He attacked the view of the Aborigines as unsophisticated and uncultured,^{[citation needed]} and declared, "there's no such thing as a backward human being, there is only a society which says they are backward."^{[citation needed]}

Health breakdown (1961–1963)

Back in London, he planned his US return to participate in the Civil Rights Movement, stopping off in Africa, China and Cuba along the way. Essie argued to stay in London, fearing that he'd be "killed" if he returned and would be "unable to make any money" due to harassment by the US government. Robeson disagreed and made his own travel arrangements, stopping off in Moscow in March 1961.

During an uncharacteristically wild party in his Moscow hotel room, he locked himself in his bedroom and attempted suicide by cutting his wrists. Three days later, under Soviet medical care, he told his son that he felt extreme paranoia, thought that the walls of the room were moving and, overcome by a powerful sense of emptiness and depression, tried to take his own life.

Paul Jr. believed that his father's health problems stemmed from attempts by CIA and MI5 to "neutralize" his father. He remembered that his father had had such fears prior to his prostate operation. He said that three doctors treating Robeson in London and New York had been CIA contractors, and that his father's symptoms resulted from being "subjected to mind depatterning under MKULTRA", a secret CIA programme. Martin Duberman claimed that Robeson's health breakdown was probably brought on by a combination of factors including extreme emotional and physical stress, bipolar depression, exhaustion and the beginning of circulatory and heart problems. "[E]ven without an organic predisposition and accumulated pressures of government harassment he might have been susceptible to a breakdown."

Robeson stayed at the Barvikha Sanatorium until September 1961, when he left for London. There his depression reemerged, and after another period of recuperation in Moscow, he returned to London. Three days after arriving back, he became suicidal and suffered a panic attack while passing the Soviet Embassy. He was admitted to The Priory hospital, where he underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and was given heavy doses of drugs for nearly two years, with no accompanying psychotherapy.

During his treatment at the Priory, Robeson was being monitored by the British MI5. Both intelligence services were well aware of Robeson's suicidal state of mind. An FBI memo described Robeson's debilitated condition, remarking that his "death would be much publicized" and would be used for Communist propaganda, necessitating continued surveillance. Numerous memos advised that Robeson should be denied a passport renewal which would ostensibly jeopardize his fragile health and his recovery process.

In August 1963, disturbed about his treatment, friends had him transferred to the Buch Clinic in East Berlin. Given psychotherapy and less medication, his physicians found him still "completely without initiative" and they expressed "doubt and anger" about the "high level of barbiturates and ECT" that had been administered in London. He rapidly improved, though his doctor stressed that "what little is left of Paul's health must be quietly conserved."

Retirement (1963–1976)

The Robeson House, Philadelphia

In 1963, Robeson returned to the US and for the remainder of his life lived in seclusion. He momentarily assumed a role in the civil rights movement, making a few major public appearances before falling seriously ill during a tour. Double pneumonia and a kidney blockage in 1965 nearly killed him.

Robeson was contacted by both Bayard Rustin and James L. Farmer, Jr. about the possibility of becoming involved with the mainstream of the Civil Rights movement. Because of Rustin's past anti-Communist stances, Robeson declined to meet with him. Robeson eventually met with Farmer, but because he was asked to denounce Communism and the USSR in order to assume a place in the mainstream, Robeson adamantly declined.

After Essie died in December 1965, Robeson moved in with his son's family in New York City and in 1968 he settled at his sister's home in Philadelphia. Numerous celebrations were held in honor of Robeson over the next several years, including at public arenas that had previously shunned him, but he saw few visitors aside from close friends and gave few statements apart from messages to support current civil rights and international movements, feeling that his record "spoke for itself". At a Carnegie Hall tribute to mark his 75th birthday in 1973, he was unable to attend, but a taped message from him was played that said: "Though I have not been able to be active for several years, I want you to know that I am the same Paul, dedicated as ever to the worldwide cause of humanity for freedom, peace and brotherhood."^{[citation needed]}

Death, funeral, and public response

On January 23, 1976, following complications of a stroke, Robeson died in Philadelphia at the age of 77. He lay in state in Harlem and his funeral was held at his brother Ben's former parsonage, Mother AME Zion Church, where Bishop J. Clinton Hoggard performed the eulogy. His pall bearers included Harry Belafonte,^{[citation needed]} Pollard, and others.^{[citation needed]} He was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.^{[citation needed]} According to biographer, Martin Duberman, contemporary post-mortem reflections on Robeson's life in "[t]he white [American] press...ignored the continuing inability of white America to tolerate a black maverick who refused to bend, ...downplayed the racist component central to his persecution [during his life]", as they "paid him gingerly respect and tipped their hat to him as a 'great American,'" while the black American press, "which had never, overall, been as hostile to Robeson [as the white American press had], opined that his life would '...would always be a challenge to white and Black America.'"

Legacy and honors

The Robeson holdings in the archive of the Academy of the Arts of the German Democratic Republic, 1981

Early in his life, he was one of the most influential participants in the Harlem Renaissance. Few people have ever achieved his level of excellence in athletics and academics.^{[citation needed]} His achievements were all the more incredible given the barriers of racism that he had to surmount. Robeson brought Negro spirituals into the center of the American songbook. His theatrical performances have been recognized as the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage, and he was the first artist to refuse to play to live, segregated audiences.^{[citation needed]}

"After McCarthyism, [Robeson's stand] on anti-colonialism in the 1940s would never again have a voice in American politics, but the [African independence movements] of the late 1950s and 1960s would vindicate his anti-colonial [agenda]." Robeson's failure to act to prevent Feffer's extermination by the government of the USSR, however, "was not his finest hour".

His portrayal of Othello in London has been considered the high point in English Shakespearean theatre in the 20th century.

Several public and private establishments he was associated with have been landmarked, or named after him. In 1978, his films were shown on American television for the first time,^{[citation needed]} and his efforts to end Apartheid in South Africa were posthumously rewarded by the United Nations General Assembly. Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist won an Academy Award for best short documentary in 1980.^{[citation needed]} In 1995, he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame. In the centenary of his birth, which was commemorated around the world,^{[citation needed]} he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Beginning in 1978, Robeson's films were finally shown on American television, with Show Boat debuting on cable television in 1983.^{[citation needed]}

As of 2011, the run of Othello starring Robeson was the longest-running production of a Shakespeare play ever staged on Broadway. He received a Donaldson Award for his performance. Subsequently, he received the Spingarn medal from the NAACP. His starring role as an African American in the film "was a feat not repeated for more than two decades in the U.S. Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist won an Academy Award for best short documentary in 1980.^{[citation needed]}

Robeson left Australia as a respected, albeit controversial, figure and his support for Aboriginal rights had a profound effect in Australia over the next decade.

Robeson archives exist at the Academy of Arts; Howard University, and the Schomburg Center.^{[citation needed]} In 2010, Susan Robeson launched a project by Swansea University and the Welsh Assembly to create an online learning resource in her grandfather's memory.^{[citation needed]} "Robeson connected his own life and history not only to his fellow Americans and to his people in the South but to all the people of Africa and its diaspora whose lives had been fundamentally shaped by the same processes that had brought his foremothers and forefathers to America." While a consensus definition of his legacy remains controversial, to deny his courage in the face of public and governmental pressure would be to defame his courage.

In 2002, a blue plaque was unveiled by English Heritage on the house in Hampstead where Robeson lived in 1929–30.

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 37 cent stamp honoring Robeson in 2004.

The Criterion Collection, a company that specializes in releasing special edition versions of classic and contemporary films, released a DVD boxed set of Robeson films in 2007.

Filmography

Main article: Paul Robeson filmography

• Body and Soul (1924)
• Camille (1926)
• Borderline (1930)
• The Emperor Jones (1933)
• Sanders of the River (1935)           

• Show Boat (1936)
• Song of Freedom (1936)
• Big Fella (1937)
• My Song Goes Forth (1937)
• King Solomon's Mines (1937)

• Jericho/Dark Sands (1937)
• The Proud Valley (1940)
• Native Land (1942)
• Tales of Manhattan (1942)
• The Song of the Rivers (1954)

References

Primary materials

• Dent, Roberta Yancy, with Marilyn Robeson and Paul Robeson, Jr. eds. Paul Robeson, Tributes, Selected Writings. New York: The Archives, 1976. OCLC 2507933.
• Foner, Philip S., ed. Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918–1974. Larchmont: Brunner/Mazel, 1978. ISBN 0-87630-179-0
• Robeson, Paul Leroy (1919-06-10). "The New Idealism". The Targum 50, 1918–1919: 570–1.
• Robeson, Paul; with Brown, Lloyd L. (1998). Here I Stand. (2 ed.). Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-6445-9
• Robeson, Paul (2000). "An Actor's Wanderings and Hopes". In Sondra Kathryn Wilson. The Messenger Reader. New York: The Modern Library. pp. 292–293. ISBN 0-375-75539-X. 

Biographies

• Boyle, Sheila Tully, and Andrew Bunie (2001). Paul Robeson: The Years of Promise and Achievement. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 1-55849-149-X
• Brown, Lloyd L. (1997). The Young Paul Robeson: On My Journey Now. Boulder: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3178-1
• Duberman, Martin Bauml (1988). Paul Robeson. New York: New Press. ISBN 1-56584-288-X.
• Ehrlic, Scott (1988). Paul Robeson. New York. Chelsea House. ISBN 0-87067-552-4.
• Gilliam, Dorothy Butler (1976). Paul Robeson, All-American. Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books ISBN 0-915220-39-3
• Hoyt, Edwin P. (1968). Paul Robeson: The American Othello. Cleveland: The World Publishing Company.
• Ramdin, Ron (1987). Paul Robeson, The Man and His Mission. London: Peter Owen. ISBN 0-7206-0684-5
• Robeson, Eslanda (1930).Paul Robeson, Negro, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.; 1st edition (1930) ASIN: B0006E8ML4
• Robeson Paul, Jr. (2001). The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, An Artist's Journey, 1898–1939. Wiley. eISBN 9780471151050
• Robeson Paul, Jr. (2010). The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, Quest for Freedom, 1939–1976. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-40973-1
• Seton, Marie (1958). Paul Robeson. London: Dennis Dobson.

Secondary materials

• Balaji, Murali (2007). The Professor and the Pupil: The Politics and Friendship of W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson. New York: Nation Books ISBN 1-56858-355-9
• Beevor, Antony (2007). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. London: Phoenix. ISBN 9780753821657
• Bell, Charlotte Turner (1986). Paul Robeson's Last Days in Philadelphia Bryn Mawr: Dorrance Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 0-8059-3026-4
• Bogle, Donald (2001). Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films (4 ed.). New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-1267-X
• Cameron, Kenneth M. (1990-10-01). "Paul Robeson, Eddie Murphy, and the Film Text of 'Africa'". Text & Performance Quarterly 10 (4): 282–293. doi:10.1080/10462939009365979. 
• Carroll, John M. (1992). Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01814-1
• Curthoys, Ann (2010). "Paul Robeson’s visit to Australia and Aboriginal activism, 1960" In Frances Peters-Little, Ann Curthoys and John Docker. Passionate Histories: Myth, Memory and Indigenous Australia Canberra, Australia: ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-921666-65-0
• Dorinson, Joseph (2002). "Something to Cheer About: Paul Robeson, Athlete" in Dorinson, Joseph; with Pencak, William, eds. (2002). Paul Robeson: Essays on His Life and Legacy. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-1153-8
• Eby, Cecil D. (2007). Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 9780271029108
• Farmer, James (1985). Lay Bare The Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Arbor House. ISBN 0-87795-624-3
• Finkelman, Paul (2007). "Paul Robeson" in Wintz, Cary D. ed. (2007). Harlem Speaks: A Living History of the Harlem Renaissance. Naperville: Sourcebooks. ISBN 978-1-4022-0436-4
• Foner, Henry (2001). Paul Robeson: A Century of Greatness. Paul Robeson Foundation.
• Foner, Henry (2002). "Foreword" in Dorinson, Joseph; with Pencak, William, eds. (2002). Paul Robeson: Essays on His Life and Legacy. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-1153-8
• Glazer, Peter (2007). "The lifted fist: performing the Spanish Civil War, New York City, 1936–1939" in Fernandez, James D., and Carroll, Peter N. (eds), Facing Fascism:New York and the Spanish Civil War. New York: Museum of the City of New York and NYU Press. ISBN 9780814716816
• Goldstein, Robert Justin (2009). American Blacklist: The Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1604-6
• Harris, Francis C. (1998). "Paul Robeson: An Athlete's Legacy" in Stewart, Jeffrey C. (ed.), Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen. Rutgers University Press and The Paul Robeson Cultural Center. ISBN 0-8135-2511-X
• Hopkins, James K. (1999). Into the heart of the fire: the British in the Spanish Civil War. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3127-6
• James, C,L,R, (2013 [1934]) Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History; A Play in Three Acts. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN. 978-0-8223-5314-0
• Landis, Arthur H. (1967). The Abraham Lincoln Brigade. New York: Citadel Press.
• Low, Rachel (1985). Film Making in 1930s Britain. London: George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-791042-9.
• Lustiger, Arno (2003). Stalin and the Jews, The Red Book: the Tragedy of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and the Soviet Jews. New York: Enigma. ISBN 1-929631-10-3
• Marable, Manning (2005), W. E. B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat, Paradigm Publishers, ISBN 978-1-59451-018-2
• McConnell, Lauren (2010). "Understanding Paul Robeson’s Soviet Experience" Theatre History Studies 30: 138–153.
• Morrison, Michael A. (May 2011). "Paul Robeson's Othello at the Savoy Theatre, 1930". New Theatre Quarterly 27 (2): 114–140. doi:10.1017/S0266464X11000261. 
• Naison, Mark (1998). "Paul Robeson and the American Labor Movement" in Stewart, Jeffrey C. (ed.), Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen. Rutgers University Press and The Paul Robeson Cultural Center. ISBN 0-8135-2511-X
• Nollen, Scott Allen (2010). Paul Robeson: Film Pioneer. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3520-3
• Pellowski, Michael (2008). Rutgers Football: A Gridiron Tradition in Scarlet. New Brunswick: Rivergate Books. ISBN 9780813542836
• Peterson, Bernard L., Jr. (1997). The African American Theatre Directory, 1816–1960. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29537-9
• Pitt, Larry (1969) Football at Rutgers: A History, 1869–1969. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-0747-2
• Robeson, Paul Jr. (1978). "Paul Robeson: Black Warrior". In Freedomways. Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 3–16. ISBN 0-396-07545-2. 
• Richards, Jeffrey (1998). The Unknown 1930s: An Alternative History of the British Cinema 1929–39. New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-303-5
• Richards, Larry (1998). African American Films through 1959: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Filmography. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0307-1
• Robeson, Susan (1981). The Whole World in His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson. Secaucus: Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-0754-3
• Robinson, Eugene (1978). "A Distant Image: Paul Robeson and Rutgers' Students". In Freedomways. Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 178–188. ISBN 0-396-07545-2. 
• Robinson, Jackie and Duckett, Alfred (1972). I Never Had It Made. Hopewell: Ecco Press.
• Robinson, Robert (1988). Black on Red: A Black American's 44 Years inside the Soviet Union. Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books. ISBN 0-87491-885-5.
• Rogovin, Vadim Z. (1998). 1937: Stalin's Year of Terror. Oak Park, MI: Mehring Books, Inc. ISBN 0-929087-77-1
• Sampson, Henry T. (2005). Swingin' on the Ether Waves: A Chronological History of African Americans in Radio and Television Programming, 1925–1955. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-4087-1
• Seton, Marie (1978). "Paul Robeson on the English Stage". In Freedomways. Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 26–49. ISBN 0-396-07545-2. . A reprint of Seton 1958.
• Snyder, Timothy (2010). Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-00239-9.
• Stuckey, Sterling (1994). Going Through the Storm: The Influence of African American Art in History. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507677-X
• Swindall, Lindsay R. (2011). The Politics of Paul Robeson's Othello. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. eISBN 978-1-60473-825-4
• Tuner, Lorenzo Dow (20070. Lorenzo Dow Turner: Father of Gullah Studies. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-628-6 p. 108
• Von Eschen, Penny M. (1994). Race Against Empire: African Americans and Anti-colonialism, 1937–1957. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3197-2
• Walsh, Christy (1949). College Football: and All America Review. Murray & Gee.
• Weisenfeld, Judith (1997). African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905–1945. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00778-6
• Wintz, Cary D. ed. (2007). Harlem Speaks: A Living History of the Harlem Renaissance. Naperville: Sourcebooks. ISBN 978-1-4022-0436-4
• Wright, Charles (1975). Paul Robeson: Labor's Forgotten Champion. Detroit: Balamp Publishing. ISBN 0-913642-06-1
• Wyden, Peter (1983). The Passionate War: A Narrative History of the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-25330-1

Film documentaries about Robeson

• The Tallest Tree in Our Forest (1977)
• Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979)
• Paul Robeson: Speak of Me As I Am (1998)
• Paul Robeson: Here I Stand (1999) PBS American Masters, directed by St. Clair Bourne
• Paul Robeson: Portraits of an Artist (2007) Irvington: Criterion Collection. ISBN 1-934121-19-3

Further reading

• Fordin, Hugh (1977). Getting to Know Him

External links

• Paul Robeson at the FBI
• Paul Robeson at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Robeson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Paul Robeson at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Works by or about Paul Robeson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Historic 1944 footage of Paul Robeson speaking in New York at celebration honoring his 46th birthday and the anniversary of the Council on African Affairs