Paul Robeson

All Music Guide:

Paul Robeson excelled as an athlete, actor, singer, and activist, qualifying him as a contemporary renaissance man. His early accomplishments as a professional football player, Columbia law school graduate, and an actor on Broadway in the 1920s seemed but a prologue to even greater achievements to come. Involvement with the political left in the 1940s, however, led to a confrontation with the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the late 1940s. He was blacklisted, his passport was revoked, and his career came to a halt.

Robeson was born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey. His father had been a runaway slave who became a Methodist minister, and his mother died from a stove-fire accident when he was six. At the age of 17, Robeson became the third African American to enter Rutgers College (now University) where he made All-American in football and lettered in four varsity sports. Many of these achievements were nonetheless overshadowed by racism: his teammates often harassed him and he was barred from the school's glee club. After Rutgers, he played professional football on the weekends to support his studies in law at Columbia University. Following graduation he obtained work at a New York law firm, but quit when a stenographer refused to copy a memo, telling him, "I never take diction from a nigger."

Since Robeson already had experience in theater, his wife, Eslanda Cardozo Goode, encouraged him to pursue acting. In 1922 he appeared on Broadway, playing Jim in Jim H. Harris' Taboo, and then traveled to England where he revised the role. He joined Eugene O'Neill's Greenwich Village Provincetown Players on his return, and appeared in All God's Chillun Got Wings. He also won critical acclaim for his starring role in The Emperor Jones in 1925. Robeson toured England and the United States over the next three years, signing black spirituals and creating a sensation with his role as Joe in Showboat.

For the next ten years, Robeson lived abroad, avoiding the simmering racial conflicts in the United States. He appeared in Othello and The Hairy Ape, toured Europe, and even visited Russia, where he was well-received. In the late 1930s he also reexamined his passive stance toward political issues. After singing for the opponents of Franco in Spain, he embraced communism and decided to return to America to fight racism. Stateside, Robeson busied himself with protesting against lynching, picketing the White House, and refusing to perform for segregated audiences.

Even with his awakened interest in politics, Robeson maintained a busy acting and singing schedule in the early 1940s, first appearing in a radio performance of Ballad for Americans and later in the first American version of Othello to include an African American in the lead role. His controversial political positions, including a suggestion that blacks should refuse to fight if the United States went to war with Russia, soon caused repercussions. When appearing before HUAC, the Committee asked him why he didn't relocate to Russia. He replied: "Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay right here and have a part of it just like you."

The U.S. State Department revoked Robeson's passport in 1950, which meant he would be forced to remain in the United States, where he was blacklisted. When he completed his autobiography in 1958, even the New York Times and the New York Herald-Tribune chose not to review it. After his passport was reinstated in 1958, he traveled once again to Britain and Russia, where he remained popular. Following stage work in Europe and Australia, Robeson returned to the United States in 1963 due to declining health.

Isolated from many former friends and supporters, Robeson attempted to commit suicide twice. He also suffered a number of breakdowns and became dependent on psychotropic drugs. It was ironic to many that throughout the '60s and '70s, as African Americans began to actively fight for racial equality in the United States, Robeson, an outspoken advocate of these issues, remained withdrawn and on the sidelines. Americans, however, didn't forget him. On April 15, 1973, admirers gathered at New York's Carnegie Hall to celebrate his 75th birthday. Robeson was admitted to Presbyterian University Hospital in Philadelphia on December 28, 1975 following a massive stroke. He died on January 23, 1976.

Wikipedia:

Paul Leroy Robeson ( /ˈoʊən/ ROHB-sən April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American singer and actor who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement. As a political activist he was aligned with the Soviet Union, and during McCarthyism this brought scrutiny and retribution from the American government.

Robeson won a scholarship to Rutgers University, where he became a football All-American, and class valedictorian. He graduated from Columbia Law School while playing professionally in the National Football League (NFL) and sang and acted in off-campus productions. He worked a brief stint as a lawyer before focusing on the arts, making singing tours of the United States and Europe and becoming an international star of stage, screen, radio and film.

He was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of spirituals. He took the role of Shakespeare's Othello with an otherwise all-white cast. As his artistic career progressed, he became an outspoken political advocate. His political beliefs with respect to American policy caught the attention of the FBI, the CIA, and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and also brought public condemnation in the US.

The Cold War led to a climate in America in which anti-imperialist groups were considered dangerous to American foreign policy. Under the McCarran Act Robeson's passport was revoked, due to his work in the anti-imperialism movement, his criticism of American civil rights policies, and his affiliation with members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Though internationally acclaimed, he was blacklisted in the United States from performing on stage, screen, radio and television and as a result, his income suffered because he was also not permitted to travel overseas. His right to travel was restored in 1958, but his already faltering health broke down under controversial circumstances in 1963.

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 from cataracts, 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)

In the fall of 1915, Robeson became the third African-American student ever enrolled at Rutgers, and the only one at the time. Although he was determined to excel at his studies, he tried out for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team that fall. During tryouts, the players tested his resolve to make the team by engaging in unwarranted and excessive play that was arguably precipitated by racism. In an ensuing practice, he used his superior size and strength to physically exact retribution against the other players. Witnessing his brutal tactics, the coach, Foster Sanford, decided he had overcome the provocation and announced that he had made the team.

He then joined the debate team and became involved with the Glee Club, although he was unable to join it because membership required attending all-white mixers, which he was prohibited from doing. Undeterred, he sang on-campus informally and off-campus for spending money. He also joined the track and field, basketball and baseball teams. In his sophomore year, amidst Rutgers' sesquicentennial celebration, he was benched, in a stinging insult, when a Southern team refused to take the field because Rutgers 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 Robeson's life, his father fell grievously ill. Consequently, Robeson took sole responsibility to care for him, shuttling between Rutgers and Somerville. His father soon died, and at Rutgers, Robeson somberly 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 in football won him recognition as a first-team All-American in both junior and senior years. Walter Camp considered him the greatest defensive end ever. Academically, he was accepted into Phi Beta Kappa and Cap and Skull. His classmates showed their respect 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 (NYU) 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. He was already well-known in the black community for his singing, and 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. His theatrical debut was playing Simon in Ridgely Torrence's Simon of Cyrene. After a year of courtship, Goode and Robeson married on August 17, 1921.

Robeson 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 Taboo by Mary Hoyt Wiborg. He then sang in a chorus in an off-broadway production of Shuffle Along before he abandoned it to join Taboo in Britain for the summer. 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 that career due to blatant racism in the field, which he felt would relegate him to a position far below his intellect. Essie supported them as the head histological chemist of surgical pathology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital 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.

Chilluns 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. Weeks later, reviews of Jim in Chillun's, though arguably clouded by its controversial subject, were less favorable. Robeson deflected criticism of Chillun's plot by writing that fate had drawn him to the "untrodden path" of drama and stated the importance to America of African culture and that the only "original" American culture was African-American and that the measure of a culture is in its artistic contributions. The popular success of his acting placed him in elite social circles and his ascension to fame had occurred at a startling pace, which was forcefully aided by Essie. Her 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, Robeson 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, with and without Essie, from January 1926 until May 1927. During a hiatus in New York, Robeson learned that Essie was several months pregnant. Nevertheless, Robeson and Brown toured Europe in October. On November 2, 1927, Paul Robeson, Jr. was born. Essie experienced complications. By mid-December, her health had deteriorated dramatically. Over her objections, Essie's mother wired Robeson and he returned to her in late December. Essie completely recovered after a few months.

Show Boat (1928-1929)

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 judging 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 a royal audience, principally Queen Mary. Robeson 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. Feeling comfortable in London, the Robesons bought a home in Hampstead. Show Boat continued for 350 performances and as of 2001, it remained the Royal's most profitable venture. Robeson 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."

Marriage difficulties (1930-1932)

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. At this time they went on a concert tour of Europe and there was no suggestion that their relationship had been harmed. In early 1930, Essie and Robeson together starred in the experimental classic Borderline.

They returned to the West End for Robeson's 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 became first black actor cast as Othello in Britain since Ira Aldridge. The production met with mixed reviews which pointed out Robeson's "highly civilized quality [but lacking the] grand style."

Drawn into an interview, Robeson 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. Robeson's and Jackson's relationship became serious and they discussed marriage. He returned to Broadway as Joe in the spring 1932 revival of Show Boat, to critical and popular acclaim. Subsequently, Robeson received, with immense pride, an honorary master's degree from Rutgers. Robeson was advised by Sanford that divorcing Essie and marrying Jackson would do irreparable damage to his reputation. Jackson's and Robeson's relationship abruptly ended in 1932, following which Paul 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 Robesn's acting. He then returned to the US for a lucrative portrayal Brutus in the film The Emperor Jones. "Jones" became the first feature sound film starring an African American, an accomplishment not repeated for more than two decades in the U.S., and 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, until then, the worst economic period in American history, Robeson was viewed, by some biographers, as unmindful of the 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. Consequently, Robeson 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. They were welcomed by Eisenstein upon reaching 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, although he did express concern that Italy's conquest of Ethiopia was unnecessary. 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 the 1937 version of King Solomon's Mines. Consequently in 1937, he was the 10th-most popular star in British cinema.

Spanish Civil War (1937-1939)

Robeson would later write that 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 for the war's refugees. He transformed his performances of Ol' Man River from a show tune into a battle cry of unwavering defiance. His business agent became concerned about political involvement. However, Robeson had decided that contemporary events were paramount and trumped his commercial activities.

After an invitation from J. B. S. Haldane, Robeson visited Spain in 1938 because he believed in the cause the members of the International Brigades were fighting for. He sang spirituals to the Republicans, appeared on Radio Madrid, and provided a morale boost to the troops when they felt victory was doubtful. Robeson's view of the USSR was enhanced by the assistance it offered the Republicans.

Months later, he welcomed Jawaharlal Nehru to Kingsway Hall, where Nehru equated imperialism with Fascism, to support his efforts for Indian independence. He 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." He appeared in Unity Theatre's Plant in the Sun by Herbert Marshall which dealt with labor activism. He visited the Rhondda Valley and performed for miners and their families in Cardiff, Neath and Aberdare. At Mountain Ash, his performance commemorated the Welsh killed while fighting for the Republicans. He recorded a message to the Republicans, which would become his epitaph:

Political activism (1939–1958)

Outbreak of World War II (1939–1943)

Robeson returned from Europe after the outbreak of World War II, quickly 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 Robeson, at the then exorbitant rate of $100 per night and only if he would register under an assumed name. He complied, but then arranged to spend 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. Under the weight of internal disputes, government repression, and financial hardships, the CAA disbanded in 1955.

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)

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. He toured North America with the show until 1945. As of 2011, his run of Othello was the longest of any Shakespeare play on Broadway, running for 296 performances. Stage actress Uta Hagen played Desdemona, and José Ferrer played Iago. For his portrayal, Robeson 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.

Onset of Cold War (1946–1948)

The start of the Cold war led to a climate in which anti-imperialist groups in America were considered hostile to US foreign policy.

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, then home to the Japanese American Citizens League.

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 lynch law."

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.

Controversies and international travels (1949)

In the spring of 1949 Robeson learned that the performances were canceled by booking agents at the FBI's behest. For the first time in his professional life, Robeson was without a US concert audience. 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 complied with a request from the State Department to sign a waiver to not make any "political or charitable appearances while on tour." Under continual heavy surveillance by the FBI and the CIA during this tour, he spoke at the Paris congress of the World Peace Council. The speech, although 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.

Robeson arrived in Moscow in June, but, unable to find any of his Jewish friends, including Feffer, he let his feelings be known to Soviet authorities. Not willing to lose Robeson as a propagandist for the USSR, Soviet authorities retrieved Feffer from a Moscow prison. Feffer told him that the room was probably bugged, Mikhoels had been murdered, and, with insight, predicted his own fate to be a state execution. At an ensuing concert, Robeson paid tribute to Feffer and Mikhoels, singing the Yiddish song "Zog Nit Keynmol". 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 prevent the USSR's reputation, he kept the meeting secret, except from his son, for the rest of his life.

This subsequent controversy over his Paris speech caused the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to seek Jackie Robinson's testimony on the subject. Robinson was reluctant to testify, in part because of Robeson's prior advocacy for the integration of professional baseball. Robinson did not testify to the veracity of Robeson's published remarks, but he advised that such thinking was 'silly'. Robinson's statement was used to politically isolate Robeson. Robeson declined to comment on Robinson personally, only saying that Robinson was entitled to his own opinion.

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)

A review of College Football: and All America Review defined it as "the most complete record on college football". It omitted Robeson's name from its listing of the 1917 college All-American football team. 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."

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.

End of McCarthyism (1956-1957)

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."

Later when his left-wing activism became controversial, accusations that he was a "'godless' Communist" were not accepted by his black churchgoing audiences, who felt he "personified the spirituals in his music". He never expressed "even the remotest allegiance to 'materialistic atheism'".

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, New York City, which were released on LP. 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)

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 as a "parade of humanity paid their respects". His funeral was held at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem, where Robeson's brother Ben had been pastor for 27 years. 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." His biographer, Martin 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

Throughout 1976 memorials were held at Rutgers; The World Peace Council in Athens; Columbia University; Toronto; Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.; and by Actor's Equity in Los Angeles. On October 8, 1976, Artist's Tribute to the Life of Paul Robeson, was held at Carnegie Hall, as a 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..." 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.

Rutgers University named several of its facilities after Robeson. Pennsylvania State University named its cultural center after the artist. In 1995, he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame.

The Paul Robeson Residence in Manhattan was declared a National Historic Landmark on December 8, 1976.

He was honored at the United Nations General Assembly for his efforts to end Apartheid in South Africa.

The centenary of Robeson's birth was commemorated around the world, a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was honored at SOAS through the Paul Robeson House. Years later, an English Heritage Blue Plaque was erected at his former home in Hampstead, and he was featured on a US postage stamp, the 27th in the Black Heritage Series. In 2006 a tribute to Robeson was held at the SOAS.

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.

The first Paul Robeson Archive was established in 1965 at the Academy of Arts in East Berlin; five years previously, Robeson had been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Humboldt University of Berlin.

The Robeson Family Archives at Howard University. 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.

In multiple areas of American life, Robeson demonstrated his ability to achieve in the largest competitions. He dominated in academics, in sports, in singing and in acting, both in person and on screen. Not content with that, he demanded attention for his views on civil rights in America, Australia and South Africa, the labor movement, religious liberty for Jews and others and the dangers of Fascism. These achievements were unparalleled in American life, and 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 and his renditions remain the standard for all later singers. This was just part of his rejection of the notion that African-American culture was anything but a treasure for all people.

His lengthy and extensive blacklisting during the 1950s initially limited his presence in American mainstream interpretations of history, including in-depth books on sports history, entertainment, civil rights and black history. In the US little newsreel footage of Robeson survives, even in the Library of Congress, as the majority of US newsreel footage of Robeson's time was not preserved.

Robeson was one of the first African-American singer-activists. He was the first black artist to refuse to play to segregated audiences. Robeson's work was cited by Nelson Mandela and other post-colonial world leaders for influencing African Independence movements. In the arts, James Earl Jones, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte cited his film roles as the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage. In films such as Jericho (1937) and The Proud Valley (1940), he portrayed leading roles without the subservience typical at the time. Film industry figures and historians wrote of his influence as the first major black actor unwilling to play stereotypes.

While a consensus definition of Robeson's legacy has been debated, Robeson personified resistance to oppression: "The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative."

Filmography