Paul Robeson

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

Paul Robeson
Background information
Birth name	Paul Leroy Robeson
Born	(1898-04-09)April 9, 1898 Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	January 23, 1976(1976-01-23) (aged 77) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres	Spirituals International folk Musicals
Occupation(s)	Actor, concert singer, athlete, lawyer, social activist
Instrument	Vocals
Years active	1917–63

Paul "Robey" Robeson

Personal information
Born:	(1898-04-09)April 9, 1898
Career information
College:	Rutgers
Position:	End
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 Pro Football Reference
College Football Hall of Fame

Paul Leroy Robeson (/ˈroʊbsən/ ROHB-sən April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an internationally acclaimed American singer and actor, who was also a political activist for the anti-imperialist and Civil Rights Movement.

Robeson won a scholarship to Rutgers University, where he was a football All-American and class valedictorian. He graduated from Columbia Law School while playing in the National Football League (NFL) and singing and acting in off-campus productions. After theatrical performances in The Emperor Jones and All God's Chillun Got Wings he became an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance.

Robeson's renditions of spirituals, broadcast in, and imported to, Great Britain, proved to be popular music in Great Britain in the 20th century. His portrayal of Shakespeare's Othello was the first occurrence of someone of African descent to take the role in Great Britain, in an otherwise all-white cast, since Ira Aldridge's 19th century portrayal.

However his perceived sympathy to Stalinism were deemed anti-thetical to US interests, bringing retribution from the executive branch of the US, scrutiny from the United States Congress, and various public condemnations. As a result, he was blacklisted and ultimately financially decimated. In defiance, he refused to rescind his stances or his beliefs and remained opposed to the policies of the US government until his death.

Early life

Childhood (1898–1915)

Paul Robeson was born in Princeton in 1898, to Reverend William Drew Robeson and Maria Louisa Bustill. His mother, Maria, was from a prominent Quaker family of mixed ancestry: African, Anglo-American, and Lenape. His father, William, had been born a slave but 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 Benjamin (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 Paul was six, Maria, 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, 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.

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, which was arguably precipitated by racism. The coach, Foster Sanford, recognized his perseverance and announced that he had made the team.

He joined the debate team, and he 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 insultingly benched when a Southern team refused to take the field because the Scarlet Knights 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 sole responsibility to care for him, shuttling between Rutgers and Somerville. His father soon died, and at Rutgers, he expounded on the incongruity of African-Americans fighting to protect America and not being afforded the same opportunities 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. They published a poem in The Daily Targum featuring his achievements. In his valedictorian speech, he exhorted his classmates to work for equality for all Americans.

Columbia Law School (1919–1923)

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. Harlem had recently changed its predominantly Jewish American population to an almost entirely African-American one, and Robeson was drawn to it. He transferred to Columbia Law School in February 1920 and moved to Harlem.

Already well-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, a histological chemist at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. After Essie's 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 he continued his law studies. In the spring, he 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 director 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 briefly worked as a lawyer, but he renounced a career in law due to extant racism. Essie, the chief histological chemist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, 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 him 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, the true measure of a culture is in its artistic contributions, and the only true American culture was African-American.

The popular 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 naked 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 renown 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. Nevertheless, he and Brown toured Europe, during which their son, Paul Jr., was born. Essie experienced complications from the birth, and by mid-December, her health had deteriorated dramatically. Over her objections, her mother wired Robeson and he immediately returned to her bedside. Essie completely recovered after a few months.

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

Robeson played the stevedore "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, and it gained the attendance of Queen Mary. He was summoned for a Royal Command Performance at Buckingham Palace in honor of the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII. He 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. Feeling comfortable in London, the Robesons' bought a home, at a later recipient of the English Heritage Blue Plaque, 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 an affair with a Ms. Jackson, she unfavorably altered the characterization of him in his biography. 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.

Essie's Paul Robeson, Negro was published, wherein she defamed him by describing him with "negative racial stereotypes", which he found appalling. He internalized his disgust and was 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." Drawn into an interview, he stated that 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. While Jackson and he broached marriage, he 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, Sanford advised him that divorcing Essie and marrying Jackson would do irreparable damage to his reputation. Jackson's and Robeson's relationship ended in 1932, following which Robeson and Essie reconciled, although their relation was permanently scarred.

Ideological awakening (1933–1937)

Robeson returned to the theatre as Joe in "Chillun" in 1933 because he found the character stimulating. He received no financial compensation for "Chillun", but he was a pleasure to work with. The play ran for several weeks and was panned by critics, except for his acting. He then returned to the US for a lucrative portrayal of Brutus in the film The Emperor Jones. "Jones" became the first feature sound film starring an African American, a feat not repeated for more than two decades in the U.S. His acting was well-received, but offensive language in the script caused controversy. On the film set he rejected any slight to his dignity, notwithstanding the widespread Jim Crow attitudes. Although, the winter of 1932–1933 was the worst economic period in American history, he was unappreciative of the unfurling disaster.

Post-production, he returned home to England and publicly criticized African-Americans' rejection of their own culture. His comments brought rebuke from the New York Amsterdam News, which retorted that his elitism had led him to "'jolly well [make an ass of himself].'" Robeson declared that he would reject any offers to perform European opera because the music had no connection to his cultural heritage. He enrolled in the School of Oriental and African Studies to study Swahili and Bantu, among other 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 heritage. He undertook Bosambo in the movie Sanders of the River set in Nigeria, which he felt would render a realistic view of colonial African culture.

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 sojourn, they encountered the racism that flourished in Nazi Germany. In Moscow, he found the USSR free of racism and spoke of the irrelevance of his race there.

Sanders of the River was released in 1935. The film was immensely popular and made Robeson 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 henceforth 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 (a.k.a. Africa Sings), and King Solomon's Mines. He was internationally acclaimed as the 10th-most popular star in British cinema.

Spanish Civil War (1937–1939)

Robeson would later write the struggle against fascism in Spain during the Spanish Civil War was "the turning point of my life", transforming him into a political activist and artist. In 1937, he used his concert performances to advocate the Republicans cause and the war's refugees. He permanently modified his renditions of Ol' Man River from a show tune into a battle hymn of unwavering defiance. His business agent expressed concern about his political involvement, but Robeson decided that contemporary events trumped commercialism. He performed in Wales to commemorate the Welsh killed while fighting for the Republicans, whereat he recorded a message to the Republicans, which would be 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. While there, he sang to the Republican troops, and appeared on the pro-Republican, propagandistic Radio Madrid. He was the most significant American entertainment figure to visit the battlefront,, and his visit provided a morale boost to the troops at a time when they felt victory was unlikely.

In his return to England, he hosted Jawaharlal Nehru to support Indian independence at Kingsway Hall, wherein Nehru expounded on imperialism's affiliation with Fascism. Robeson subsequently stated that he would no longer appear in "decadent Hollywood films", but instead would portray "the life, hopes and aspirations of the struggling people from which I come." Robeson appeared in Unity Theatre's Plant in the Sun by Herbert Marshall which dealt with labor activism.

Political activism (1939–1958)

Outbreak of World War II (1939–1943)

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.

Robeson returned from Europe after the outbreak of World War II, becoming a national celebrity once again when he performed Ballad for Americans, an American patriotic cantata. In 1940, Robeson appeared in The Proud Valley, playing a black laborer who arrives in the Rhondda Valley in Wales and wins the hearts of the local people. The film won good reviews. It was the film of which he was most proud.

He sang "Ballad for Americans" at The Hollywood Bowl to the largest crowd in its history. The Beverly Wilshire was the only hotel in Los Angeles willing to accommodate him, and he spent two hours every afternoon sitting in the lobby, where he could easily be recognized. When asked why, he responded, "To ensure that the next time Black singers and actors come through, they'll have a place to stay." During that period, Collier's magazine named him both "favorite male Negro singer" and "America's no.1 entertainer."

With Max Yergan Robeson co-founded the International Committee on African Affairs in 1937 (from 1941, the Council on African Affairs, CAA). The CAA provided information about Africa across the US, particularly to African-Americans. During World War II, it functioned as a coalition that included activists from varying leftist backgrounds. Its most successful campaign was for South African famine relief in 1946.

When Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor brought the US into the war, Robeson was among the first performers to give benefit concerts on behalf of the war effort, making him one of the top American actors and singers of that era.

In 1942 Robeson performed in the Frontier Films production of Native Land which was based on the La Follette Committee's investigation of the repression of labor organizations. The FBI labeled it "...obviously a Communist project."

In 1942, in Hollywood, Robeson participated in the anthology film Tales of Manhattan. His segment depicted black people's living conditions under the sharecropping system. Robeson was dissatisfied, calling it "very offensive to my people. It makes the Negro childlike and innocent and is in the old plantation hallelujah shouter tradition". He attempted to remove the film from distribution by buying up all its prints but this proved far too expensive. Robeson held a press conference, announcing that he would no longer act in Hollywood films because of the demeaning roles available to black actors and would gladly join others in picketing the film.

Robeson performed at the Polo Grounds to support the USSR in the war, where he met two emissaries from the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, Solomon Mikhoels and Itzik Feffer (NKVD informant.

The Broadway Othello (1943–1945)

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

Robeson reprised his role of Othello at the Shubert Theatre in 1943 under the direction of Margaret Webster. He became the first African-American to play the role with a white supporting cast on Broadway where it was immensely popular. He addressed a meeting of Major League Baseball (MLB) club owners and MLB Commissioner Landis in a failed attempt to have them admit black players. Stage actress Uta Hagen played Desdemona, and José Ferrer played Iago. He toured North America with the show until 1945 and received a Donaldson Award and was awarded the and a Spingarn medal by the NAACP for his distinguished achievements in the performing arts and his humanitarian endeavors.As of 2011, Robeson's run of Othello was the longest of any Shakespeare play on Broadway, running for 296 performances.

Onset of Cold War (1946–1948)

In 1946, he opposed a move by the Canadian government to deport thousands of Japanese Canadians. Robeson accepted honorary life membership of the Japanese Canadian Committee for Democracy and gave a concert in Salt Lake City.

In July 1946, as Chairman of the Council on African Affairs, he telegraphed President Truman on the lynching of four African Americans in Georgia, demanding that the federal government "take steps to apprehend and punish the perpetrators ... and to halt the rising tide of" lynchings."

Following the rally, he led a delegation to the White House to present a legislative and educational program aimed at ending mob violence; demanding that lynchers be prosecuted and calling on Congress to enact a federal anti-lynching law. He then warned Truman that if the government did not do something to end lynching, "the Negroes will". Truman refused his request to issue a formal public statement against lynching, stating that it was not "the right time". Robeson also gave a radio address, calling on all Americans of all races to demand that Congress pass civil rights legislation.

On October 7, 1946, Robeson testified before the Tenney Committee that he was not a Communist Party member. He was never identified as an official member of any Communist organization. The CRC and the CAA was placed on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO).

Robeson sang and spoke in 1948 at an event organized by the Los Angeles Civil Rights Congress (CRC) and labor unions to launch a campaign against job discrimination, for passage of the federal Fair Employment Practices Act also known as Executive Order 8802, anti-lynching and anti-poll tax legislation, and citizens’ action to defeat the county loyalty oath climate.

In 1948, Robeson was preeminent in the campaign to elect Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace, who had served as Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wallace was running on an anti-lynching, pro-civil rights platform and had attracted a diverse group of voters including Communists, liberals and trade unionists. On the campaign trail, Robeson went to the Deep South, where he performed for "overflow audiences... in Negro churches in Atlanta and Macon."

Robeson's belief that the labor movement and trade unionism were crucial to the civil rights of oppressed people of all races became central to his political beliefs. Robeson's close friend, the union activist Revels Cayton, pressed for "black caucuses" in each union, with Robeson's encouragement and involvement.

In 1948, he opposed a bill calling for registration of Communist Party members and appeared before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. 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." In 1949, he spoke in favor of the liberty of twelve Communists (including his long-time friend Benjamin Davis, Jr.) convicted under the Smith Act, which criminalized various left- and right-wing activities as seditious.

He was the first black artist to refuse to play to segregated audiences.

Controversies and international travels (1949)

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

In the spring of 1949 Robeson learned that the performances were canceled by booking agents at the FBI's behest.His recordings were banned from radio and stores, so he had to go overseas to work. As a precondition to the renewal of his passport, he agreed to not make any "political or charitable appearances while on tour."

Under surveillance by the FBI and the CIA during this tour, he spoke at the Paris congress of the World Peace Council.

Depending on sources, his speech may have been misquoted by the Associated Press, became a catalyst for his portrayal as an enemy of mainstream America. According to the original text of the speech, it was an anti-imperialistic statement, however over the wires came a declaration, attributed to Robeson, that America was a fascist nation and that it was ludicrous to believe that American Negroes would assist American armed forces due to generations of oppression.

The reaction by the press in the US was nearly universal, and sometimes vitriolic, condemnation. At the urging of the State Department, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP stated that regardless of lynchings, Black America would always serve in the armed forces.

He arrived in Moscow in June, but, unable to find Feffer, he let his feelings be known to Soviet authorities. Reluctant to lose Robeson as a propagandist for the USSR, Soviet authorities brought Feffer from prison to him. Feffer told him that the room was likely bugged and Mikhoels had been murdered, and suggested he would be summarily executed. Back in the US, Robeson denied that any persecution existed in the USSR, to keep the right wing of the US from taking the moral high ground. To protect the USSR's reputation, he kept the meeting secret, except from his son, for the rest of his life.

The controversy over his Paris speech caused HUAC to seek Jackie Robinson's testimony in order to politically isolate Robeson. Robinson testified that Robeson's statements, if accurately reported, were 'silly'.

Days later, the announcement of a concert to support the CRC, to be headlined by Robeson and held near Peekskill, New York, provoked local papers to decry the use of their community to support such subversives. A small riot broke out prior to the concert, which was principally initiated by local residents of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Robeson pronounced that Peekskill was a part of the "'anti-fascist struggle'" and the concert was rescheduled. The concert occurred without incident, while hundreds of New York State troopers patrolled the area. As concert attendees left, the mob bombarded them with rocks and randomly beat them, resulting in scores of injuries—some serious, as police watched. Under public pressure, the Governor of New York Thomas Dewey called a grand jury which promptly concluded the riots were a Communist plot "'to foment racial and religious hatreds.'" Criticism of Robeson became a durable consensus, even among liberals, that Robeson's pronouncements were anathema to America.

Blacklist and passport confiscation (1950–1955)

College Football: and All America Review, reviewed as "the most complete record on college football", omitted Robeson's name from its listing of the 1917 college All-American team,, nor is he listed as ever playing for Rutgers. Months later, NBC canceled Robeson's scheduled appearance on former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's television program. A spokesman for NBC declared either that, depending on sources, Robeson's appearance had not been approved by NBC headquarters, or Robeson would "never appear on NBC." Press releases of the Civil Rights Congress objected that "censorship of Mr. Robeson's appearance on TV is a crude attempt to silence the outstanding spokesman for the Negro people in their fight for civil and human rights [and that our] basic democratic rights are under attack under the smoke-screen of anti-Communism." Protesters picketed NBC offices and protests arrived from numerous public figures, organizations and others.

In 1950, the State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports, effectively confining him within the US. Robeson was not even allowed to travel to Canada or Mexico, countries that US citizens could visit without a passport. Far from seeking to revoke his citizenship and deport him, FBI and state department records indicate that the US government believed that a blacklisted existence inside the US borders would offer Robeson less freedom of expression than his presence internationally. When Robeson and his lawyers met with officials at the State Department and asked why it was "detrimental to the interests of the United States Government" for him to travel abroad, they were told that "his frequent criticism of the treatment of blacks in the United States should not be aired in foreign countries"—it was a `family affair'." When Robeson inquired about being re-issued a passport, the State Department declined, citing Robeson's refusal to sign a statement guaranteeing "not to give any speeches while outside the U.S."

"The US government [had]revoked his passport and rejected his appeal because as a spokesperson for civil rights he had been 'extremely active in behalf ot the independence for the colonial peoples of Africa.'"

In 1951 an article titled "Paul Robeson - the Lost Shepherd" was published in The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, under the pseudonym "Robert Alan", described as "a well known New York journalist", 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 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, Robeson accepted the award in New York. In April 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, Robeson penned To You 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 Robeson's opinion, the USSR was the guarantee of political balance in the world.

The famed African-American singer and his wife were thus associated with the Communist Party and party front groups, and Robeson was publicly condemned for his beliefs.

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.

Under the weight of internal disputes, government repression, and financial hardships, the CAA disbanded in 1955.

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. In response to questions concerning his alleged party membership, Robeson first insisted that the Communist Party was a legal party and invited its members to join him in the voting booth, then he invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to respond. Robeson refused to discuss Stalin, calling it "a question for the Soviet Union", instead lambasting committee members on civil rights issues and the enslavement and exploitation of blacks throughout American history. Asked why he had not remained in the USSR, he replied that "because my father was a slave and my people died to build this country, 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! Is that clear?"

Campaigns were simultaneously launched in the US and UK to protest the passport ban. In the UK, The National Paul Robeson Committee was formed, sponsored by Members of Parliament as well as writers, scholars, actors, lawyers, trade union leaders and others. The Committee began a "Let Paul Robeson Sing" mass petition, which gathered signatures from tens of thousands of supporters. Over the next four years, many prominent figures in Britain argued for the restoration of his right to travel. The group held a conference and concert at St Pancras Town Hall, London headed by Cedric Belfrage, on May 26, 1957 with Robeson singing from New York over a telephone connection.

Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalinism at the 1956 Party Congress silenced Robeson on Stalin, though he continued to praise the USSR and in so doing imitated the defendants sent to their death in the Trial of Sixteen in 1936.

In 1956, Robeson left the US for the first time since the travel ban, performing concerts in two Canadian cities in March. 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.

In 1957, Robeson was invited by Welsh miners to be the honored guest at the annual Eisteddfod Music Festival. An appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States to reinstate his confiscated passport had been rejected, but through the newly completed trans-Atlantic telephone hook-up between New York and Porthcawl, Wales, Robeson was able to sing to the 5,000 gathered there as he had earlier in the year to London. Journalist Gil Noble called the concert "perhaps the most emotional and moving in Robeson's long concert career."

Because of the controversy surrounding him, Paul Robeson's recordings and films lost mainstream distribution and he was universally condemned in the mainstream U.S press. 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 to see his films.

Due to his blacklisting within the mainstream media, the concert stage, theater, radio, film and the civil rights movement, Robeson became a virtual nonperson."

Passport restored (1958–1963)

Comeback international tours (1958–1960)

Robeson's autobiography, Here I Stand, was published by a British publishing company in 1958. As part of his "comeback", he gave two sold-out recitals that month in Carnegie Hall. After the US Supreme Court ruled, in Kent v. Dulles, that the Secretary of State could not consider a person's political beliefs when responding to a passport request, Robeson's passport was restored in May 1958 and Robeson soon left for London.

Robeson and Essie began traveling extensively, using London as their base. During this period Robeson was under constant surveillance by the CIA, MI6 and the State Department. In the United Kingdom, he found himself deluged with professional offers.

In August 1959 he left for Moscow where he received a tumultuous reception and needed a police escort at the airport. A crowd of eighteen thousand people filled the Lenin Stadium (Khabarovsk) to capacity on August 17 where Robeson sang classic Russian songs along with American standards. Robeson and Essie then flew to Crimea to spend time at Yalta resting, working with a documentary film crew and spending time with Nikita Khrushchev. Robeson also visited Young Pioneer camp Artek before returning to the UK.

On October 11, 1959 Robeson took part in a historic service at St.Paul's Cathedral, the first black performer to sing there. Four thousand people attended the evensong performance with hundreds overflowing onto the streets. The State Department had circulated negative literature about him through the media in India; one censored CIA memo suggested that Robeson's appearance could be used to thwart the desegregation of a swimming pool.

On a trip to Moscow, Robeson experienced bouts of dizziness and heart problems, and he was hospitalized for two months while Essie was diagnosed with operable cancer.

Robeson recovered and returned to the UK to fulfill his engagements. In 1958, he visited the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale as the guest of the local MP Aneurin Bevan, revisited his ties to the black community in Cardiff's Butetown and gave performances throughout Europe. 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. Robeson inspired him to take up a career in politics after admonishing him for being apolitical. The production of Othello was geared towards Robeson's health concerns but gave him a lucrative seven month run and chance to participate in an updated version of the play. In 1960, in what would prove to be his final concert performance in Great Britain, Robeson sang with the Welsh Male Voice Choir, Côr Meibion Cwmbach, to raise money for the Movement for Colonial Freedom at the Royal Festival Hall.

Robeson embarked on a 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. After appearing at the Brisbane Festival Hall, they went to Auckland where Robeson first acknowledged that he needed money and then reaffirmed his support of Marxism, denounced the inequality faced by the Māori and efforts to denigrate their culture.

In a message to the Melbourne Peace Conference some time around December 1960/January 1961, Robeson said "...the people of the lands of Socialism want peace dearly".

Back in Australia, he was introduced to Faith Bandler who enlightened the Robesons concerning the deprivation endured by Australian Aborigines. Robeson 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, and declared, "'there's no such thing as a backward human being, there is only a society which says they are backward.'" Robeson advocated for trade unions and supported their cause with impromptu performances, including the singing of Joe Hill at the Sydney Opera House construction site. He was given art and artifacts from Aborigine culture to signify trade union support for Aboriginal rights. The Robesons sought out the Aborigines as much as possible, and they became further enlightened to their treatment. Robeson, at the age of 62, won adulation in all artistic phases of this, his final major concert tour. Robeson left Australia as a respected, albeit controversial figure and his support for Aboriginal rights had a profound affect in Australia over the next decade.

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 did 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.

In spring of 1961, Robeson again visited the USSR for the last time. 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."

Withdrawal from public life (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. He lived in Harlem with his wife.

On January 15, 1965, Robeson gave the eulogy at the Harlem funeral of Lorraine Hansberry recalling her work at Freedomways and her contributions to civil rights. Robeson was also contacted by both Bayard Rustin and James L. Farmer, Jr. about the possibility of becoming involved with the mainstream of the Civil Rights movement. Due to 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 of cancer in December 1965, Robeson moved in with his son's family in an Upper West Side apartment in New York City and in 1968, settled at his sister's home in Philadelphia.

Retirement

In 1968, in honor of Paul Robeson's 70th birthday, celebrations were held in in East Germany, at the Royal Festival Hall in London, and in Moscow. The black commission of the CPUSA celebration remarked that "the white power structure has generated a conspiracy of silence around Paul Robeson. It wants to blot out all knowledge of this pioneering Black American warrior..."

Despite Robeson's lengthy theater career, Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times theater critic from 1925 to 1960, included just a one-sentence reference to Robeson in his 1970 book Broadway, advertised as "an history of American theater". Atkinson chronicled African-American performers, Show Boat and Eugene O'Neill, but only mentions Robeson briefly in context with Othello. In the early 1970s, The New York Times and The New York Daily News both ran extensive pieces on black actors who played Othello with no mention of Robeson.

In these years Robeson was honored by accolades and celebrations, both in the US and internationally, including public arenas that had previously shunned him.

He saw few visitors aside from close friends and gave few statements apart from a few messages to support current civil rights and international movements, feeling that his record "spoke for itself". Though he had withdrawn from the public eye, close friends and family disputed rumors in the mainstream press that he was "broken" and "disillusioned". He spent his final, unapologetic years in Philadelphia.

In 1971, Actor's Equity created the Paul Robeson award to recognize the principles by which he lived. A sold-out performance was held at Carnegie Hall to salute his 75th birthday in 1973. Birthday greetings arrived from several world-wide prominent officials or organizations. He was unable to attend because of illness, but a taped message from him was played which said in part, "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."

Death and funeral

On January 23, 1976 in Philadelphia, following complications of a stroke, Robeson died, at the age of 77. He lay in state in Harlem for two days and his funeral was held at Mother AME Zion Church, where his brother Ben had been pastor. Honorary pall bearers included Harry Belafonte and Pollard. Bishop J. Clinton Hoggard performed the eulogy. Robeson was cremated and his ashes interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Tributes and condolences came from around the world and from the US House of Representatives. Coretta Scott King remarked that she "deplored 'America's inexcusable treatment' of a man who had had 'the courage to point out her injustices.'" The Amsterdam News eulogized him as "Gulliver among the Lilliputians [and his life would] always be a challenge and a reproach to white and Black America." Throughout the year, memorials were held throughout the US. On October 8, 1976, Artist's Tribute to the Life of Paul Robeson, and at Carnegie Hall to benefit for the Paul Robeson Archive. Sidney Poitier proclaimed, "When Paul Robeson died, it marked the passing of a magnificent giant whose presence among us conferred nobility upon us all..."

Duberman wrote:

"The white [American] press, after decades of harassing Robeson, now tipped its hat to a 'great American,' paid its gingerly respect in editorials that ascribed the vituperation leveled at Robeson in his lifetime to the Bad Old Days of the Cold War, implied those days were forever gone, downplayed the racist component central to his persecution, and ignored the continuing inability of white America to tolerate a black maverick who refused to bend. The black [American] press made no such mistakes. It had never, overall, been as hostile to Robeson as the white [American] press, (though at some points in his career, nearly so)."

Legacy and honors

Posthumous honors

The centenary of Robeson's birth was commemorated around the world. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and a star was bestowed in his honor on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Several public and private establishments have been land marked or named in his honor. Beginning in 1978, Robeson's films were finally shown on American television, with Show Boat debuting on cable television in 1983. Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist won an Academy Award for best short documentary in 1980. In 1995, he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame. He was honored at the United Nations General Assembly for his efforts to end Apartheid in South Africa. The Welsh people maintained their loyalty to Robeson and in Cardiff in 2001, the exhibition Let Paul Robeson Sing! was unveiled. American Jews continue to celebrate his memory as an ally.

Legacy

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, if any, have achieved the level of excellence in athletics and academics which he accomplished. His achievements were unparalleled and were all the more incredible given the barriers of racism that he had to surmount. Early in his theatrical career, his drawing attention of the extant racism in England brought public awareness to a problem that had been thought previously solved and his re-emphasis on the Negro spirituals had a profound effect on the development of music in the early 20th Century. Robeson brought Negro spirituals into the center of the American songbook His portrayal of leading roles, without the requisite subservience typical of African-Americans at the time, were later acclaimed by James Earl Jones, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte as the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage.

"After McCarthyism, the two towering figure of anti-colonialism in the 1940s, Robeson and W. E. Du Bois, would never again have a voice in American politics, but the [African independence movements] of the late 1950s and 1960s, would vindicate their anti-colonial analysis..." However in light of Khruschev's revelations of the atrocities committed by Stalin during his regime, his unrepentant support of Stalin was a stain on his lifelong human rights activism.

Robeson archives exist at the Academy of Arts;, Howard University, and the Schomburg Center. 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.

"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 forefaters to America." However, a consensus definition of his legacy remains controversial, but to deny his courage, in the face of public and governmental pressure, is to defame his courage.

Filmography

Main article: Paul Robeson filmography

• Body and Soul (1924)
• Camille (1926)
• Borderline (1930)
• The Emperor Jones (1933)
• Sanders of the River (1935) Template:Nb10
• 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)

See also

• The Communist Party USA and African-Americans

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". The Messenger Reader. New York: The Modern Library. pp. 292–293. ISBN 0-375-75539-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)

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.
• 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, Anthony (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.
• 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. (ed.) and Carroll, Peter N. (ed.) 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
• 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
• 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". Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 3–16. ISBN 0-396-07545-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• 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". Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 178–188. ISBN 0-396-07545-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• 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". Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 26–49. ISBN 0-396-07545-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help). 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
• 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

Young adult materials

• Du Bois, Shirley Graham (1995). Paul Robeson, Citizen of the World. Trenton: Africa World. ISBN 0-86543-468-9
• Holmes, Burnham (1995). Paul Robeson: A Voice of Struggle. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn ISBN 0-8114-2381-6
• Larsen, Rebecca (1989). Paul Robeson: Hero Before His Time. New York: Franklin Watts. ISBN 0-531-10779-5
• McKissack, Pat; with McKissack, Fredrick (1992). Paul Robeson: A Voice to Remember. Hillside: Enslow Publishers. ISBN 0-89490-310-1
• Wright, David K. (1998). Paul Robeson: Actor, Singer, Political Activist. Springfield: Enslow Publishers. ISBN 0-89490-944-4

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

External links

• Official Website of the Paul Robeson Foundation

• Paul Robeson at IMDb
• Paul Robeson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Paul Robeson at the BFI's Screenonline
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