Paul Robeson

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Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson, circa 1942
Birth name	Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson
Born	April 9, 1898 Princeton, New Jersey
Died	January 23, 1976 (aged 77) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was a multi-lingual American actor, athlete, bass-baritone concert singer, writer, civil rights activist, Spingarn Medal winner, and Lenin Peace Prize laureate.

Contents 1 Early life and family 2 Education 2.1 Rutgers 2.2 Columbia Law School 3 Family 4 Actor and singer 4.1 Activism and advocacy 4.2 Robeson and the Soviet Union 4.2.1 Robeson's Reaction to Stalinism 4.3 International travel ban 4.4 Wales 5 Later life 6 Legacy 7 Quotes 8 Notes 9 Biographies of Paul Robeson (incomplete list) 10 Periodical references 11 Other references 12 External links 12.1 Archives 12.2 Articles 12.3 Other

[edit] Early life and family

Robeson was born in Princeton, NJ. His father, William Drew Robeson I, ran away from a North Carolina plantation where he had been enslaved; he later graduated from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) and became a church minister.^[1] His mother, Maria Louisa Bustill, came from an abolitionist Quaker family .^[1] Paul's four siblings include: William Drew Robeson, a physician who practiced in Washington, D.C.; Benjamin Robeson, a minister; Reeve Robeson (called Reed); and Marian Robeson, who lived in Philadelphia. In 1915, Paul graduated with honors from Somerville High School in Somerville, New Jersey, where he excelled academically and participated in singing, acting, and athletics.

[edit] Education

[edit] Rutgers

Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers University. When he went out for the Rutgers University football team, other players beat him up and pulled out his fingernails. He bore the abuse to prove his worth and when he graduated he was a two-time All-American and the school valedictorian, exhorting his classmates to "catch a new vision."^[2] Robeson was the third African-American student accepted at Rutgers, and was the only black student during his time on campus.

Robeson was one of three classmates at Rutgers accepted into Phi Beta Kappa. He was valedictorian of his graduating class and one of four students selected in 1919 to Cap and Skull, Rutgers' honor society [1]. A noted athlete, Robeson earned fifteen varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball, and track and field. For his accomplishments as an end in football, he was twice named a first-team All-American in (1917 and 1918). Football coach Walter Camp described him as "the greatest to ever trot the gridiron."^[3]

During the later period when the United States government stopped him from traveling outside the country, his name was retroactively struck from the roster of the 1917 and 1918 college All-America football teams.^[4]

[edit] Columbia Law School

After graduation, Robeson moved to Harlem and earned a law degree at Columbia, graduating in the same law school class as United States Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Between 1920 and 1923, Robeson helped pay his way through law school by working as an athlete and a performer. He played professional football in the American Professional Football Association (later called the National Football League) with the Akron Pros and Milwaukee Badgers. He served as assistant football coach at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and starred in the 1922 play Taboo in New York and in London.[2] At Columbia, Robeson joined Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity for African Americans. He graduated in 1923 and was hired at the law firm of Stotesbury and Miner in New York City but quit after a white secretary refused to take dictation from him because of the color of his skin. Robeson later studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

[edit] Family

He married Eslanda (Essie) Cardozo Goode (1896-1965) in August of 1921. She headed the pathology laboratory at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. Cardozo Goode was related to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo. Robeson and his wife had one child: Paul Robeson II, born in 1927.

[edit] Actor and singer

Robeson found fame as an actor and singer with his fine bass-baritone voice. He is one of the few true basses in American music, his beautiful and powerful voice descending as low as a C below the bass clef. In addition to his stage performances, his renditions of old spirituals were acclaimed; Robeson was the first to bring them to the concert stage.

His first roles were in 1922 playing Simon in Simon the Cyrenian at the Harlem YMCA and Jim in Taboo at the Sam Harris Theater in Harlem. Taboo was later re-named Vodoo. He was acclaimed for his 1924 performance in the title role of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones — originally performed, also with great success, by Charles Gilpin in 1920. He was also noted in his early career for his performance in All God's Chillun Got Wings in which he portrayed the black husband of an abusive white woman who, resenting her husband's skin colour, destroys his promising career as a lawyer. Next he played Crown in the stage version of DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy, which provided the basis for George and Ira Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess and, in 1930, starred as the title role in Shakespeare's Othello in England, when no US company would employ him for the role. He reprised the role in New York in 1943-1945. His Broadway run of Othello is still, as of 2006, the longest of any Shakespeare play. He won the Spingarn Medal in 1945 for this performance. Uta Hagen played Desdemona, and José Ferrer played Iago. He also played the role of Toussaint L'Ouverture in a 1936 play by C.L.R. James alongside the actor Robert Adams. Robeson's repertoire of African-American folk songs helped bring these to much wider attention both inside the US and abroad — in particular his rendition of "Go Down Moses." Robeson also became interested in the folk music of the world; he came to be conversant with 20 languages, fluent or near fluent in 12. His standard repertoire after the 1920s included songs in many languages (e.g., Chinese, Russian, Yiddish, German, etc.).

Between 1925 and 1942 Robeson appeared in eleven films — all but four of them British productions — after he and his wife moved to England in the late 1920s. He remained there, with long periods away on singing tours, until the outbreak of World War II. At the height of his popularity in the 1930s, Robeson became a major box office attraction in British films such as Song of Freedom and The Proud Valley. Briefly returning to the US he reprised his title role in Dudley Murphy's film version of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones in 1933. He was also cast as Joe in the 1936 film version of Show Boat, another box office hit for Robeson, and the most frequently shown and highly acclaimed of all his films. His performance of "Ol' Man River" for this film was particularly notable. He was Umbopa in the 1937 version of King Solomon's Mines. In films such as Jericho and Proud Valley, he portrayed strong black American male leading roles.

Robeson left Britain during the Second World War. It was later discovered that his name was in The Black Book, a Nazi document listing thousands of people living in Britain who were to be arrested following the successful completion of Operation Sealion.

[edit] Activism and advocacy

Robeson was among the first performers to sing in concert on behalf of the U.S. World War II war effort. [September 26, 1982, The New York Times]

He sang and spoke out against racist conditions experienced by Asian and Black Americans; he condemned segregation in both the North and the South. In particular, Robeson spoke out against lynching and, in 1946, he founded the American Crusade Against Lynching.

In 1948, Robeson was active in the presidential campaign to elect Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace, who had served as Secretary of Agriculture, Vice President, and Secretary of Commerce in the administrations of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. On the campaign trail in June of that year, Robeson went to Georgia, where he sang before "overflow audiences... in Negro churches in Atlanta and Macon." ^[5]

In March of 1950, NBC cancelled Robeson’s scheduled appearance on former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s television program, Today with Mrs. Roosevelt. A spokeman for NBC declared that 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.^[6]

According to Progressive Party organizer Rev. I. J. Domas, Robeson rode a flatbed truck through the streets of the Black neighborhoods singing. When people came out of their homes to hear him, he urged them to register to vote.^[7]

[edit] Robeson and the Soviet Union

Like many intellectuals and artists of the time, Robeson supported the Soviet Union. After living as a second-class citizen under Jim Crow laws in the United States, what Robeson saw in the Soviet Union led him to believe that it was free of racial prejudice. Describing his experience in Russia, Robeson said, "Here, for the first time in my life, I walk in full human dignity." [3]

On July 8, 1943, at the largest pro-Soviet rally ever held in the United States, an event organized by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and chaired by Albert Einstein, Robeson met Solomon Mikhoels, the popular actor and director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater and the Yiddish poet Itzik Feffer. Mikhoels headed the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in what was then the Soviet Union; Feffer was his second. After the rally, Robeson and his wife Essie entertained Feffer and Mikhoels.^[8]

Six years later, in June 1949 during the 150th anniversary celebration of the birth of Alexander Pushkin, Robeson visited the Soviet Union to sing in concert and was given a warm public welcome. ^[8]

[edit] Robeson's Reaction to Stalinism

Robeson was troubled because the Jewish pianist who had accompanied Robeson's concerts was denied a visa by the Russians, and their closest Russian Jewish friends were conspicuous by their absence. Concerned about their welfare, Robeson demanded of his Soviet hosts that he see Feffer, and they did meet. When they met, an obviously tortured Feffer indicated that Mikhoels, the famous director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater, had died in a motor vehicle accident. Robeson paid tribute to both Feffer and Mikhoels during his concert in Tchaikovsky Hall, June 14, 1949. After a spirited speech on their behalf in defiance of Soviet authorities, he sang the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising song "Zog Nit Keynmol" in both Russian and Yiddish ^[9] and in solidarity with artists and writers then being persecuted by Stalin. ^{[8] [9]}

In a 2006 interview with the Toronto Star, Paul Robeson, Jr. said ^[10]

"My father learned the words to the song from a Warsaw ghetto survivor on his way to Russia... This concert was broadcast live over radio to seven time zones. Imagine somebody goes to the Soviet Union in the midst of an anti-Jewish campaign and at a concert he tells them about the affinity between blacks and Jews. Dad was sending a message to Stalin."

In 1952, Robeson was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. In April, 1953 shortly after Joseph Stalin's death he wrote a eulogy entitled To You Beloved Comrade[4], in which he praised Stalin's "deep humanity," "wise understanding," and dedication to peaceful co-existence. Because of the segregation African Americans faced in the United States, Robeson said he admired Stalin for the decisive role the Soviet leader played in encouraging national minorities:

"I was later to travel", he wrote, "to see with my own eyes what could happen to so-called backward peoples. In the West (in England, in Belgium, France, Portugal, Holland) - the Africans, the Indians (East and West), many of the Asian peoples were considered so backward that centuries, perhaps, would have to pass before these so-called "colonials" could become a part of modern society." "But in the Soviet Union, Yakuts, Nenetses, Kirgiz, Tadzhiks - had respect and were helped to advance with unbelievable rapidity in this socialist land. No empty promises, such as colored folk continuously hear in the United States, but deeds." [5].

Robeson however is often criticized for continuing to support the Soviet Union despite being aware of Soviet anti-Semitism. At the time of Robeson's 1949 visit to Moscow, when Robeson met with Feffer, Feffer had been in prison for a year. Although their meeting-room was bugged, Feffer, through gestures and a few written notes, let Robeson know that he faced imminent execution, that other prominent Jewish cultural figures were under arrest and that a massive purging was underway. On his return to the United States, Robeson denied rumors of rampant anti-Semitism, and announced to a reporter from Soviet Russia Today that he had "met Jewish people all over the place... I heard no word about it." [6]. According to Joshua Rubenstein's book, "Stalin's Secret Pogrom," Robeson justified his silence on the grounds that any public criticism of the USSR would reinforce the authority of America's right wing which, he believed, wanted a preemptive war against the Soviet Union. [7].

[edit] International travel ban

In 1950, after he refused to sign an affidavit that he was not a Communist [8] the U.S. government took away Robeson's passport and, with it, his freedom to travel outside the United States. When Robeson and his lawyers met with officials at the U.S. State Department August 23, 1950 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." (Duberman, p. 389)

In the travel ban, Robeson joined other radicals whose right to travel was prohibited, including the writers Howard Fast and Albert E. Kahn, W.E.B. Du Bois and Richard Morford who headed the National Council of America-Soviet Friendship. In his biography of Robeson, Duberman sought and received answers to his requests under the Freedom of Information law. One such answer came in the State Department's 'memorandum for file' summarizing the August 23, 1950 meeting between U.S. officials and Robeson and his attorneys. (Duberman, p. 389, 411). The internal State Department memorandum reveals that U.S. government officials asked Robeson to sign a statement guaranteeing not to give any speeches while outside the U.S. When Robeson refused, the State Department declined to reconsider his passport application. His attorneys protested that this amounted to an unconstitutional violation of the right of free speech.(Duberman, p. 389)

While no U.S. citizen needed a passport to travel to and from Canada, the State Department also took steps to prevent Robeson from leaving the U.S. to sing at a concert in Vancouver, British Columbia in January 1952. Falling back on legislation passed during World War I "during the existence of a national emergency"—to prevent the entry or departure of its citizens, U.S. officials stopped Robeson from singing in Canada.

In an act of defiance against the travel ban, labor unions in the U.S. and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia on May 18, 1952. (Duberman, p. 400) Paul Robeson stood on the back of a flat bed truck on the American side of the U.S.-Canada border and performed a concert for a crowd on the Canadian side, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953. (Duberman p. 411), and over the next two years two further concerts were scheduled.

In 1956, Robeson left the United States for the first time since the travel ban was imposed, performing concerts in two Canadian cities, Sudbury and Toronto, in March of that year.

The travel ban ended in 1958 when Robeson’s passport was returned to him after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Kent vs. Dulles, that the Secretary of State had no right to deny a passport or require any citizen to sign an affidavit because of his political beliefs.(Duberman, p. 463)

However, because of the controversy surrounding him, all of Paul Robeson's recordings and films were withdrawn from circulation. From then until the late 1970s, it became increasingly difficult in the United States, if not impossible, to hear Robeson sing on records or on the radio, or to see any of his films, including the highly acclaimed and successful 1936 film version of Show Boat. As far as audiences of the late 1950s (and all of the 1960s) knew, there was only one film version of the show, the MGM Technicolor version of 1951.

[edit] Wales

Robeson's association with Wales began in 1928 while he was performing in London in the musical Show Boat. There, he met a group of unemployed miners who had taken part in a "hunger march" from South Wales to protest their situation. During the 1930s, Robeson made several visits to Welsh mining areas, including performances in Cardiff, Neath and Aberdare.[9] In 1934, he performed in Caernarfon to benefit the victims of an industrial accident at Gresford colliery, near Wrexham, in which 264 miners were killed.[10] In 1938, he performed in front of an audience of 7,000 at the Welsh International Brigades National Memorial in Mountain Ash, to commemorate the 33 men from Wales killed while fighting on the side of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War. In 1940, he appeared in The Proud Valley, playing a black laborer who arrives in the Rhondda and wins the hearts of the local people.

Between 1952 and 1957, Robeson was invited to sing at the Miners' Eisteddfod, an arts festival, held at the Grand Pavilion in Porthcawl. He was unable to attend because the United States government had confiscated his passport and banned him from traveling. In 1957, he spoke and sang to the Eisteddfod over a secretly-arranged transatlantic telephone link (paid for by Harry Belafonte), beginning with a greeting to those in attendance: "My warmest greetings to the people of my beloved Wales, and a special hello to the miners of South Wales at this great festival. It is a great privilege to be participating in this historic festival. All the best to you as we strive toward a world where we all can live abundant, peaceful and dignified lives."[11]

Welsh miners' organisations were among the most prominent international supporters of the campaign calling for the restoration of his passport and to Let Paul Robeson Sing!. When his passport was returned in 1958 as a result of a United States Supreme Court decision in a related case, Robeson traveled to Wales as a guest of the MP Aneurin Bevan to appear at the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale. He then performed at the Miners' Eisteddfod, fulfilling a promise he had made while prevented from traveling. In 1960, Robeson's final performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London included choral accompaniment from the Cwmbach Welsh male voice choir.[12]

Robeson remains a celebrated figure in Wales. The exhibit Let Paul Robeson Sing! was unveiled in Cardiff in 2001, going on to tour several Welsh towns and cities.[13] A number of Welsh artists have celebrated Robeson's life: The Manic Street Preachers' song "Let Robeson Sing" appears on the album Know Your Enemy. The band also covered "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?"— the spiritual sung by Robeson as part of his 1957 telephone performance. The play Paul Robeson Knew My Father by Greg Cullen, set in the Rhondda during the 1950s, features a character with a childhood obsession for Robeson's music and films.[14]

[edit] Later life

Robeson's autobiography, Here I Stand, was eventually published by a British publishing company in 1958.

In the 1950s, Robeson moved to the United Kingdom and traveled extensively. He spent five years touring the world, playing Othello again in Tony Richardson's 1959 production at Stratford-upon-Avon, and singing throughout Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. On his visit to England he befriended actor Andrew Faulds and inspired him to take up a career in politics.^{[citation needed]} He had health problems during his travels, and spent some time in Russian and East German hospitals.

In 1958, Robeson's 60th birthday was celebrated in several US cities and twenty-seven countries across Europe, the Soviet Union, Latin America, Asia and Africa.^[11] In May of 1958 his passport was finally restored and he was able to travel again.

In 1961, Robeson attempted suicide in a Moscow hotel room. His son claimed this was precipitated by a CIA agent who placed some synthetic hallucinogens into his drink under a covert program called MK Ultra.^[12] Paul Robeson returned to live in the United States in 1963. For the remainder of his life he was plagued by ill health, and his appearances were relatively few.

Over 3,000 people gathered in Carnegie Hall to salute Robeson's 75th birthday, including Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Pete Seeger, Angela Davis, Dolores Huerta, Dizzy Gillespie, Odetta, Leon Bibb, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte (who also produced the show), James Earl Jones, Zero Mostel, Roscoe Lee Browne, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Coretta Scott King; birthday greetings arrived from President Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania, President Michael Manley of Jamaica, President Cheddi Jagan of Guyana, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Indira Gandhi, Arthur Ashe, Linus Pauling, Judge George W. Crockett, Leonard Bernstein and the African National Congress. Robeson was unable to attend due to 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." ^[13]

In 1976, at the age of 77, Paul Robeson died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he had been living with his sister. He was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

[edit] Legacy

• Robeson sang in and was conversant in more than 20 languages, and at one time carried enough clout to be considered for a vice presidential spot on Henry A. Wallace's 1948 Progressive Party ticket.
• One of the post-graduate accommodation buildings at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) is named for him.
• Robeson was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha, the first black Greek letter fraternity
• He won numerous awards from such organizations as the U.S. Treasury Dept. (War Bonds), the NAACP (Spingarn Medal), Broadway (Donaldson award; equivalent to the Tony today)
• He was the first African-American to demand and receive the right to final approval of films (though only effectively in three films), and portrayed strong black male American roles 15 years before Sidney Poitier (albeit mostly in British films)
• As a two-time All-American, Robeson is among the greatest college football players of his era and won 15 varsity letters at Rutgers.
• Led anti-lynching delegation to President Truman, and another delegation to lift the ban on black players in Major League Baseball.
• His 1940s Othello was seen by over half a million viewers on Broadway or on tour.
• Hailed by Langston Hughes as the "truly racial voice" ("Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," 1926)
• The Hetzel Union Building at Penn State University contains the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.
• Three buildings on the Rutgers University campus are named in his honor.
• The Paul Robeson House in West Philadelphia, where he lived with his sister from 1966 until his death, is a museum.

• In 1963 the German Democratic Republic (DDR) established the Paul Robeson Choir.
• In 1965 the Paul Robeson Archive was established at the Academy of Arts in Berlin.
• In 1978, the United Nations honored Robeson for speaking out against apartheid in South Africa.
• In 1983, the East German government honored him with a postage stamp.
• In 1988, he was posthumously inducted into the Rutgers University sports Hall of Fame.
• In 1994, the New York City-based Celtic rock band Black 47 remembered Robeson in their song "Paul Robeson".
• In 1995, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
• In 1998, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
• In 2001, the Welsh rock group Manic Street Preachers remembered Robeson in their song tribute "Let Robeson Sing".
• In 2003, the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth featured Robeson's life story in a special exhibit focusing on his love for the working people of Wales.
• In 2004, the United States Postal Service honored Robeson with a stamp in the Black Heritage Series.
• In 2005, The World/Inferno Friendship Society released the Speak of Brave Men EP, featuring a photograph of Robeson on the cover and a song named for him. Lead singer Jack Terricloth, a New Jersey native himself, often cites Robeson as a personal hero.
• In 2005, Welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph included a song about the legacy of Robeson, Proud Valley Boy, on his 2005 album Deep Blue, concerning the support Robeson gave to the Welsh coal miners in the 1930s. Joseph encourages the audience at live concerts to research the history of Paul Robeson.
• In 2006, British author Angela Campion used Paul Robeson as a character in her novel about Black Hollywood, A Darker Shade of Blue. In a somewhat controversial move, she pairs Robeson as longtime lover of her heroine, Sara Newsome, but recreates Robeson's electrifying defiance of the HUAC, quoting his actual testimony.
• In 2007, the Criterion Collection issues a DVD Box Set Paul Robeson: Portraits of an artist.
• In 2007, Robeson was honored by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in public service announcements celebrating Black History Month.

[edit] Quotes

• In a January 1935 interview for a publication called the “Daily Worker,” Robeson had these words for those who stood up the Kremlin: “Commenting on the recent execution after court-martial of a number of counter-revolutionary terrorists, Robeson declared roundly: "From what I have already seen of the workings of the Soviet Government, I can only say that anybody who lifts his hand against it ought to be shot! It is the government's duty to put down any opposition to this really free society with a firm hand," he continued, "and I hope they will always do it, for I already regard myself at home here. This is home to me. I feel more kinship to the Russian people under their new society than I ever felt anywhere else. It is obvious that there is no terror here, that all the masses of every race are contented and support their government." [15]
• If the United States and the United Nations truly want peace and security let them fulfill the hopes of the common people everywhere -- let them work together to accomplish on a worldwide scale, precisely the kind of democratic association of free people which characterizes the Soviet Union today. - Daily Worker; November 15, 1945
• 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?. . .I am here because I am opposing the neo-Fascist cause which I see arising in these committees. You're the Alien and Sedition Act, and Jefferson could be sitting here, and Frederick Douglass could be sitting here. . . (Philip S. Foner, ed., _Paul Robeson Speaks_ [1978/2002], p. 427)Philip S. Foner, ed., _Paul Robeson Speaks_ [1978/2002], p. 427)
• Of course, it (1956 Hungarian Revolution) was not a true uprising of the people. It was inspired by America and other agents. The ‘Voice of America’ really started it."
• I am truly happy that I am able to travel from time to time to the USSR -- the country I love above all. I always have been, I am now and will always be a loyal friend of the Soviet Union. "’I Love Above All, Russia,’ Robeson Says," Afro-American, June 25, 1949, p.7.
• They see how under the great Stalin millions like themselves have found a new life. They see that aided and guided by the example of the Soviet Union, led by their Mao Tse-tung, a new China adds its mighty power to the true and expanding socialist way of life. They see formerly semi-colonial Eastern European nations building new People's Democracies, based upon the people's power with the people shaping their own destinies. So much of this progress stems from the magnificent leadership, theoretical and practical, given by their friend Joseph Stalin.

I have done the state some service, and they know’t.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice. . .
from Shakespeare's Othello, the final monologue which Paul Robeson frequently performed

[edit] Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Paul Robeson Centennial Celebration, A Brief Biography
2. ^ Time Magazine, 1998.
3. ^ College Football News, Top 100 Players.
4. ^ The New York Times, Sept. 26, 1982.
5. ^ The Atlanta Journal 6/21/48
6. ^ Paul Robeson Chronology
7. ^ Rev. Domas, whose role in church integration in Atlanta is told in a history on file at Emory University
8. ^ ^{a b c} Stewart, pg. 225.
9. ^ ^{a b} Duberman, pg. 352-354.
10. ^ Stoffman, Judy, "Robeson was a man who took a stand", Toronto Star, April 5, 2006, page E2
11. ^ [http://www.bayarearobeson.org/Chronology_8.htm#April%209,%201958 Paul Robeson Chronology.
12. ^ "Did the U.S. Government Drug Paul Robeson?" Democracy Now, July 6, 1999
13. ^ Paul Robeson Chronology

[edit] Biographies of Paul Robeson (incomplete list)

• Boyle, Sheila Tully, and Andrew Bunie, Paul Robeson: The Years of Promise and Achievement ISBN
• Du Bois, Shirley Graham, Paul Robeson, Citizen of the World. (Julian Messner, June 1, 1971) ISBN 0-671-32464-0; (Greenwood Pub Group, January 1, 1972) ISBN 0-86543-468-9; (Africa World Pr, January 1, 1998), ISBN 0-86543-469-7; (Africa World Pr, April 1, 1998), ISBN 0-8371-6055-3
• Duberman, Martin Bauml. Paul Robeson (Alfred A. Knopf, 1988). 804 pages. New Press; Reissue edition (May 1, 1995). ISBN 1-56584-288-X.
• Dorinson, Joseph and William Pencak with foreword by Henry Foner. Paul Robeson: Essays on His Life and Legacy (Oct 15, 2004) ISBN 0-7864-1153-8;
• Foner, Philip S. Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, and Interviews, a Centennial Celebration. Citadel Press; Reprint edition (September 1, 1982). 644 pages. ISBN 0-8065-0815-9.
• Holmes, Burnham, Paul Robeson: A Voice of Struggle (Heinemann Library, September 1, 1994) ISBN 0-8114-2381-6
• Larsen, Rebecca. Paul Robeson: Hero Before His Time (Franklin Watts, September 1, 1989), ISBN 0-531-10779-5
• McKissack, Pat, Fredrick McKissack and Michael David Biegel (illustrator). Paul Robeson: A Voice to Remember. Library (Enslow Pub Inc, May 1, 2001), ISBN 0-89490-310-1
• Nazel, Joseph. Paul Robeson: Biography of a Proud Man. (Holloway House Pub Co, August 1, 1980), ISBN 0-87067-652-0
• Robeson, Paul. Here I Stand. Beacon Press (1958), (1971 edition with Preface by Lloyd L. Brown), (January 1, 1998). 160 pages. ISBN 0-8070-6445-9.
• Robeson, Paul. Here I Stand. DVD. Director: St. Claire Bourne. Winstar Home Entertainment. DVD. (August 24, 1999). Run Time: 117 minutes.
• Robeson Jr., Paul. The Undiscovered Paul Robeson , An Artist's Journey, 1898-1939.
• Reiner, Carl, How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy Stories (Cliff Street Books, October 1, 1999), Cassette/Spoken Word (Dove Entertainment Inc, October 1, 1999). ISBN 0-06-019451-0
• Stewart, Jeffrey C. (editor); Paul Robeson Cultural Center; Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (corporate author). Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen. Hardcover (Rutgers Univ Pr, April 1, 1998) ISBN 0-8135-2510-1, Paperback (Rutgers Univ Pr, April 1, 1998) ISBN 0-8135-2511-X
• Stuckey, Sterling, I Want to Be African: Paul Robeson and the Ends of Nationalist Theory and Practice, 1919-1945 (Univ of California Center for Afro, June 1, 1976) ISBN 0-934934-15-0
• Wright, David K., Paul Robeson: Actor, Singer, Political Activist (Enslow Pub Inc, September 1, 1998) ISBN 0-89490-944-4

[edit] Periodical references

• Robeson Jr., Paul. "How My Father Last Met Itzik Feffer." Jewish Currents. November 1981.
• Whitman, Alden. "Paul Robeson Dead at 77". New York Times. Page 57, Column 2. January 24, 1976.

[edit] Other references

• Rappaport, Louis. Stalin's War Against the Jews: The Doctors Plot & The Soviet Solution, Free Press (October 1, 1990) ISBN 0-02-925821-9

[edit] External links

[edit] Archives

• Paul Robeson digital archive at Rutgers University
• Rutgers Celebrates the Paul Robeson Stamp
• Thoughts on Winning the Stalin Peace Prize
• "I Am at Home", at a Reception in the Soviet Union
• Paul Robeson Awards
• The Paul Robeson Collection
• Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956
• Paul Robeson Russian recordings 1940s, on iTUNES Digital Library

[edit] Articles

• American Masters: Paul Robeson
• "Did the CIA Drug Paul Robeson? - a Look at the Secret Program Mk Ultra" Part 1. 23:16 minutes. Amy Goodman interviews Paul Robeson, Jr., Dr. Eric Olson, Martin Lee. Democracy Now!. Thursday, July 1st, 1999. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
• " Robeson/Hollywood Star" NBC Evening News for Monday, Apr 09, 1979, David Brinkley reporting (2 min segment) (from the Vanderbilt Television News Archives)

[edit] Other

• Paul Robeson at the Internet Movie Database
• Findagrave: Paul Robeson
• Paul Robeson Cultural Center
• The Bay Area Paul Robeson Committee
• The Paul Robeson House
• A biography
• Discography
• Paul Robeson singing the English version of the U.S.S.R. anthem
• BBC site celebrating Robeson with contributions by Tony Benn
• Paul Robeson High School, a 4 year (9th -12th grades) business and technology high school in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood