Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson
American
Renaissance Man
Paul Robeson, renowned for his rich baritone voice and acting ability, he suffered from debilitating depression and spent the last 15 years of his life out of the public eye. - AsNotedIn
Paul Robeson, renowned for his rich baritone voice and acting ability, he suffered from debilitating depression and spent the last 15 years of his life out of the public eye. - AsNotedIn
| Y/M/D | Description | Association | Composition | Place | Locale | Food | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Y/M/D | Description | Association | Composition | Place | Locale | Food | Event |
| 1898/04/09 | Paul LeRoy Robeson is born at 110 Witherspoon St (built c 1870). He was the son of a former slave, the Reverend William Robeson of the Witherspoon Street Church, and Maria Louisa Bustill Robeson. | Born | Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Manse, Princeton | Princeton | |||
| 1921/05/23 | The premiere of 'Shuffle Along' at the Cort 63rd Street Theatre, 22 W 63rd St, NYC (razed) begins a runs of 504 performances. | Chorus | Shuffle Along | ||||
| 1929/11/05 | Baritone Paul Robeson makes his Carnegie Hall debut, his first of a dozen appearances at the Hall that span nearly three decades. | Performer | Carnegie Hall | New York City | |||
| 1930/00/00 | Paul Robeson song recital | Singer | Brooklyn Academy of Music | New York City | |||
| 1934/12/00 | Invited by Sergei Eisenstein, Paul Robeson, his wife Essie and Marie Seton travel to Moscow in the Soviet Union. "Here I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life ... I walk in full human dignity." PR | Life | |||||
| 1936/05/17 | With music by Jerome Kern, "Show Boat" starring Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan and Helen Westley is released. | Actor | Show Boat (film) | ||||
| 1937/06/17 | Directed by Robert Stevenson, "King Solomon's Mines" feature film starring Cedric Hardwicke, Anna Lee, Paul Robeson and Roland Young is released in the UK. | Actor | King Solomon's Mines | ||||
| 1938/00/00 | Paul Robeson explains to his son Paul that the Great Purge was justified because the Soviets can not tolerate any dissent and "Sometimes great injustices may be inflicted on the minority when the majority is in a pursuit of a great and just course". | Communist Supporter | Great Purge of 1937 | ||||
| 1939/00/00 | Paul Robeson's home 1939-1941 | Home | 555 Edgecombe Avenue | New York City | |||
| 1952/05/18 | Paul Robeson's first concert at US-Canadian border | Singer | Peace Arch | Blaine | Robeson Peace Arch Concerts | ||
| 1952/12/20 | In same year as the Night of the Murdered Poets, when 13 Soviet Jews were executed on false charges in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, Robeson is awarded the International Stalin Prize by the Soviet Union. | Honor | House Un-American Activities Hearings | ||||
| 1953/08/16 | Paul Robeson's second concert at US-Canadian border | Singer | Peace Arch | Blaine | Robeson Peace Arch Concerts | ||
| 1956/06/12 | Paul Robeson is called before HUAC for refusing to sign an affidavit that he was not a Communist. | Defendant | House Un-American Activities Hearings | ||||
| 1966/00/00 | In the fall, Paul Robeson moves to the three-story home of his sister Marian R Forsythe. | Home | Paul Robeson House | Philadelphia, PA | |||
| 1975/12/28 | Paul Robeson suffers a stroke and is brought taken to Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia. His doctors say Robeson is suffering from a severe cerebral vascular disorder. | Health | Paul Robeson House | Philadelphia, PA | |||
| 1976/01/23 | Singer, actor and black activist, Paul Robeson, dies at the age of 77 in Philadelphia. | Died |
History
Paul Robeson was a gifted student and athlete while attending Rutgers University in New Jersey. He was a brilliant Phi Beta Kappa student, two time All American football player (1917-1918), and won honors in debating and oratory. He graduated from Columbia Law School but gave up law to pursue a career in singing and acting. Robeson performed on Broadway, and is noted for his leading roles in Othello and Eugene O'Neill's play, Emperor Jones, and his stunning rendition of the song "Ole Man River" in the musical Showboat. In 1934, he visited the Soviet Union, where he felt fully accepted as a black artist. During World War II, he entertained troops at the front and sang battle songs on the radio. Despite his war efforts, he was labeled "subversive" by McCarthyites, who were wary of his earlier trip to the Soviet Union, his support of the 1947 St. Louis picketing against segregation of black actors and a Panama effort to organize the mostly-black Panamanian workers. Robeson began receiving death threats from the Ku Klux Klan while campaigning for the Progressive Party candidate in the 1948 presidential election. When he publicly opposed the Cold War, even the national secretary of the NAACP questioned his loyalty as an American. Connecticut state officials also went to court to prevent him from visiting his family home in Enfield. Undaunted, Robeson formally denounced the action and on August 27 1949, traveled to Peekskill, New York, to sing before a group of African American and Jewish trade unionists. A KKK-led riot canceled the concert but Robeson returned the following week with 25000 supporters. A "human wall" protected Robeson while he sang, though afterwards many of the concert goers were ambushed and beaten while local police and state troopers stood by.
In March 1950, NBC barred Robeson from appearing on a television show with Eleanor Roosevelt. Concert halls closed their doors to him, and his records began to disappear from stores. After eight years, an international outcry, and the Supreme Court's reversal of the same situation for the artist Rockwell Kent in 1958, Robeson won.
In 1937, Robeson wrote, "the artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I have no alternative." He continued this fight for freedom, both political and artistic, until his death in 1976. - NPS
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