Honoring Paul Robeson

“As an artist, I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this.” – Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976).

In the days following the honoring of Dr. King and leading to the celebration of Black History month, amid the ceaseless, deafening, mindless, twitter chatter, the chest pounding, bragging and braying of the Trumpet as well as so many presumed celebrities of all colors and persuasions, is our time not better spent honoring and emulating earlier giants who walked among us with pride, grace, maturity and style?

Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, NJ on April 9, 1898 and died on this date, January 23, 1976.

The son of a father born into slavery and a mother raised as an abolitionist Quaker. He earned an athletic scholarship to Rutgers in 1915, where he was the third African-American student to attend that college.

He was a four sport letterman and two-time all American football player as well as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and class valedictorian.

Following graduation, he attended Columbia University Law School, supporting himself as an actor and professional football player.  Admitted to the New York State Bar in 1923, he was, by then, earning critical raves for performances on the London and Broadway stage.

Choosing the theater over law, over the next twenty years, Robeson settled in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance and established himself as one of the most important musical and dramatic performers of his day.

He appeared in the original 1924 Provincetown Players production of Eugene O’Neill’s play about interracial marriage (and madness), “All God’s Chillun Got Wings” which stirred a firestorm of controversy when Robeson’s character, Jim, knelt and kissed the hand of Ella, his white wife.

Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the role of Joe and the song "Ol' Man River" in Show Boat for Robeson's famous bass voice. He originated the title role in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones; and became the first African American to play Othello on Broadway.

By the late 1940s, Robeson's international artistic reputation was well established, but by that time, it was rivaled by his reputation as a political activist.

Racism and imperialism were Robeson's greatest concerns.  His outspoken views on segregation coupled with his openly leftist leanings earned him many powerful enemies. He traveled repeatedly to the Soviet Union beginning in the 1930s which led to the unconstitutional seizure of his passport and an appearance before Joseph McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950.

When asked during those hearings why he did not simply move to the USSR, Robeson offered this response: "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.”

Robeson was blacklisted for his overt refusal to revoke Communism.  Unable to find work in the U.S., he fought for years to regain his revoked passport.  When he finally did so, he conducted a series of concert tours throughout Europe and Russia before his physical and emotional health began to betray him.

He returned to the U.S. in 1963 but spent most of the remaining years of his life in seclusion before passing.

Paul Robeson was one of the most influential participants in the Harlem Renaissance. His athletic and academic achievements have been rarely rivaled, and by fewer still given the racial barriers that he overcame in the decades before the emergence of Jackie Robinson in the mid-1940’s.

Robeson revived Negro spirituals and assured the continued place of this hallowed music in the pantheon of the Great American Songbook.  His theater and movie roles were the first to present African-American actors with dignity and pride, serving as a beacon for Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and others to follow.

Following his blacklisting, (and continuing refusal to revoke Communism) he would never again have a prominent voice in American politics or culture.  However, many of his words remain prescient to this day, including this incendiary comment from the late 1950’s:  “The ruling class leaders of this land, from 1945 on, stepped up the hysteria and propaganda to drive into American minds the false notion that danger threatened them from the East”.

After years in anonymity, his death in 1976 resulted in a surge of posthumous recognition. In the centenary of his birth, he received a number of tributes, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. He was named to the College Football Hall of Fame, and received an award from the U.N. General Assembly in recognition of his efforts to end Apartheid in South Africa. Finally, in 1978, his films were shown for the first time on American television.

I have no idea whether God speaks through some or any of us, but if so, He seems to do so more clearly through a select few.  One of those selected was Paul Robeson.

Ol Man River from Showboat - 1936

(Go Down Moses), Let My People Go

The House I Live In - 1947

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Provincetown Players production of  Eugene O'Neill's "All God's Chillun Got Wings" 1924