Before Rosa Parks
before Martin Luther King Jr.
before Nelson Mandela...
there was Paul Robeson

THE HISTORY OF PAUL ROBESON
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Paul Leroy Robeson  was an American  bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional  football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances. 

​As well as advancing the cause of black Americans, he used his music to share the cultures of other countries and to benefit the labour and social movements of his time. A linguist, he sang songs promoting world peace and human rights in 25 languages, including Russian, Chinese and several African languages
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Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary’ author talk with Dr. Gerald Horne


​A world-famous singer and actor, a trained lawyer, an early star of American professional football and a polyglot who spoke over a dozen languages: These could be the crowning achievements of a life well-lived. Yet for Paul Robeson the higher calling of social justice led him to abandon both the NFL and Hollywood and become one of the most important political activists of his generation, a crusader for freedom and equality who battled both Jim Crow and Joseph McCarthy.
​nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/new-african-american-identity-harlem-renaissance

A New African American Identity:
The Harlem Renaissance


With the end of the Civil War in 1865, hundreds of thousands of African Americans newly freed from the yoke of slavery in the South began to dream of fuller participation in American society, including political empowerment, equal economic opportunity, and economic and cultural self-determination.
Unfortunately, by the late 1870s, that dream was largely dead, as white supremacy was quickly restored to the Reconstruction South. White lawmakers on state and local levels passed strict racial segregation laws known as “Jim Crow laws” that made African Americans second-class citizens.

June 12, 1956:
Paul Robeson Testifies Before HUAC


​On June 12, 1956, Paul Robeson testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, where he was questioned about his political speech, associations, and party affiliation. Robeson was an acclaimed athlete, actor, singer, cultural scholar, author, lawyer, and — what was of interest to the rightwing politicians in U.S. government — an internationally-renowned political activist.
​www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/paul-robeson-testifies-before-huac/​​
​www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/intothemusic/paul-robeson/4691690​

​Paul Robeson:
​the singer who fought for justice and paid with his life​


​He was the man the US government tried to erase from history. From the 1920s through the early 1960s legendary bass-baritone Paul Robeson was a musical giant on the world stage but from the late 1940s he was almost unknown within his own country. Part folk hero, part star of stage and screen, Big Paul became famous at a time when segregation was legal in the United States and black people couldn't get a meal in a New York cafe, let alone walk safely in the south, where lynching was not a crime.

Honoring the Legacy of Paul Robeson


​When Paul Robeson graduated from Rutgers in 1919, he thought he’d become a lawyer. But soon after he earned a degree from Columbia and landed a job with a law firm, a secretary who was white refused to take dictation from him because he was black. Robeson quit – not just the job, but the profession, too.
​www.rutgers.edu/news/honoring-legacy-paul-robeson