Katia Yoza-Mitsuishi

Paul Leroy Robeson (1898 – 1976) excelled as a scholar, athlete, singer and actor. Robeson used his fame as a performer to champion independence, freedom, and equality for all people. He advocated for racial equality in the United States, and for marginalized and oppressed people around the world. Despite being internationally renowned for his performances on stage and screen in the 1930s and 1940s, racial prejudice and anti-Communist paranoia in America ended his career. As a result, his name and accomplishments have largely been forgotten in America.[1]  

Robeson was born in Princeton in 1898, where his father was minister of the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church from 1879 through 1901. In 1907, when he was nine years old, Robeson and his family relocated to Westfield, New Jersey. They moved to Somerville in 1910, and Paul graduated from Somerville High School in 1915, where he first showed signs of excellence at singing, oratory, athletics, and acting. He won a four-year scholarship to study at Rutgers College during his senior year in a statewide writing competition.[2] 

Paul Robeson grew up in the United States at the height of the Jim Crow era. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) only two years before Paul Robeson’s birth. This landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision advanced the “separate but equal” doctrine after rejecting an 1892 incident in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for Black people. The Supreme Court rejected Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights of equal protection—as established by the Fourteenth Amendment (1868)—were violated by segregation. As a result, restrictive Jim Crow laws spread, and separate race-based public accommodations became common until the Supreme Court overturned it in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954). 

Paul Robeson is one of Rutgers University's most distinguished alumni, where he was the third African American to enroll as a student. He was the university’s first African American football player and also talented at baseball and basketball. Robeson was named an All-American in 1917 and 1918 and won 15 varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball, and track. His father, a former enslaved person who graduated from Lincoln University, trained Paul in oratory. Robeson won oratorical competitions each of his four years at Rutgers. He graduated as valedictorian at the 1919 Rutgers commencement. He delivered a speech titled "The New Idealism," and called upon his audience to fight for a government with “equal opportunities for all."[3] After graduating from Rutgers, Robeson attended Columbia Law School and briefly went on to practice. In 1922 he quit his job and the profession, after experiencing continued racial discrimination against him at his office.

Encouraged by his wife, Eslanda, Robeson pursued a career in acting and singing. As a singer, he was famous for his deep baritone voice and is most famously known for his rendition of "Ol' Man River" from the musical Show Boat. Over time, Robeson changed the lyrics of the song until it became a protest song about a global freedom fighter, according to historian Shana L. Redmond. He changed, “tired o’ livin’ and feard [sic] o’ dyin” to, “I must keep fightin’ until I’m dyin.” He also replaced the original, “Dere’s an ol’ man called de Mississippi/ Dat’s de ol’ man dat I’d like to be,” for, “There’s an old man called the Mississippi/That’s the old man I don’t like to be.”[4] As an artist and performer, he was committed to freedom of speech and expression.[5] Robeson also appeared in two Broadway productions by Eugene O’Neill, All God’s Chillun Got Wings in 1924, which, controversially for the time, featured an interracial kiss, and then in 1925 in The Emperor Jones. He also played Shakespeare's Othello in nearly three hundred performances, one of the longest-running Shakespeare productions in Broadway history.

Robeson moved to England in 1927 with his wife and son, Paul Jr. (born 1927) to further establish his singing and acting career.[6] They stayed there until the outbreak of World War II.[7] He was soon a star in British cinema. While living in England, Robeson studied anti-imperialism and Pan-Africanism and became more politically active. He traveled to the Soviet Union, as well as advocated against fascism during the Spanish Civil War. Robeson used this fame to advocate for equal rights for African Americans and oppressed peoples worldwide. He involved himself in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and advocated for anti-lynching legislation when meeting with President Truman in 1946. Robeson campaigned against colonialism in African countries and contributed to the work of the Council on African Affairs (CAA), whose goal was to provide Americans with accurate information regarding the struggle of African people.[8] Robeson also spoke out for the rights of miners and unemployed workers in the United Kingdom, for India's independence, and the Māori people's rights in Australia. He sang for peace and justice in many different languages throughout the United States, Europe, the Soviet Union, and the African continent. He once said, "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."[9] 

Paul Robeson's connection with the Soviet Union and Communism provoked suspicion and persecution during the McCarthy era. His reputation was affected, and, as a result, his concerts were canceled, and record companies stopped working with him. The U.S. State Department revoked his passport from 1950 until 1958. This decision impacted his career and income, as he could no longer perform abroad. He appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in June 1956 and declared, "I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist. I am being tried for fighting for the rights of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America."[10] As soon as Robeson got his passport back, he departed for Europe with his wife. Soon after returning to the United States in 1963, Robeson retired from public life. He died in Philadelphia in 1976.

Paul Robeson was an exemplary figure in the struggle for human dignity and freedom in the early 20th century. He related his struggle as an African American man in an openly racist society to the fights for social justice and political rights around the world. Today, Robeson's legacy is a shining example of excellence and a model for young African Americans. In 2019, Rutgers celebrated Robeson's graduation centennial from Rutgers College in 1919. Rutgers dedicated a plaza named after him on the College Avenue Campus at Rutgers–New Brunswick.[11] In 2019, the City of New Brunswick renamed Commercial Avenue as Paul Robeson Boulevard.[12] coLAB Arts’ resident mural artist Kelley Prevard's Paul Robeson legacy mural series, “Paul Speaks of Peace” in New Brunswick's Recreation Park, caps off the centennial celebration of Paul Robeson's connection to the city. Additional local projects in development related to Paul Robeson's legacy include restoring his childhood home in Princeton to become a Civic Center[13] and a new lifelike statue in New Brunswick.

[1] Smithsonian Magazine. Remembering Paul Robeson, Actor, Sportsman and Leader. January 23, 2017. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remembering-paul-robeson-actor-sportsman-and-leader-180961834/.

[2] Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Becoming Paul Robeson. February 27, 2019.

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/becoming-paul-robeson.

[3] New Jersy Digital Highway. Paul Robeson. Scholar Athlete. Activity two. Accessed June 3, 2022. https://njdigitalhighway.org/lesson/paul_robeson/athlete_activity_two.

[4] Redmond, Shana L. Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora. New York University Press, 2014, pg. 118.

[5] New Jersey Digital Highway. Paul Robeson. Performer. Lyrics changes. Date of access June 3, 2022. https://njdigitalhighway.org/lesson/paul_robeson/lyric_changes.

[6] Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Paul Robeson, Global Citizen. December 2, 2019, https://www.rutgers.edu/news/paul-robeson-global-citizen.

[7] Independent. Paul Robeson: The story of how an American icon was driven to death to be told in film. November 20, 2014, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/paul-robeson-the-story-of-how-an-american-icon-was-driven-to-death-to-be-told-in-film-9874111.html.

[8] Redmond, Shana L. Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora. New York University Press, 2014, pg. 121.

[9] Carnegie Hall. Paul Robeson. Singer, Actor, and Social Activist. Accessed June 4, 2022,

https://www.carnegiehall.org/About/History/Carnegie-Hall-Icons/Paul-Robeson.

[10]  NJ.com. How a Somerville H.S. graduate used fame to fight injustice, September 15, 2018, https://www.nj.com/opinion/2018/09/how_a_somerville_hs_graduate_used_fame_to_fight_in.html.

[11] Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Rutgers Dedicates Plaza to Paul Robeson, Renaissance Man for the Ages. April 12, 2019, https://www.rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-dedicates-plaza-paul-robeson-renaissance-man-ages#.XLSGm5NKhBw.

[12]  TAPintoNew Brunswick. City Completes Process of Installing Paul Robeson Blvd. Signs. June 12, 2019,

https://www.tapinto.net/towns/new-brunswick/sections/development/articles/city-completes-process-of-installing-paul-robeson-blvd-signs.

[13] New Brunswick today. Paul Robeson’s Childhood Home in Princeton Being Restored as Civic Center. April 29, 2021. https://newbrunswicktoday.com/2021/04/29/paul-robesons-childhood-home-in-princeton-being-restored-as-civic-center/.