How about an athlete who has won 15 varsity letters in four different sports? [24] Prior to his graduation, he won a statewide academic contest for a scholarship to Rutgers and was named class valedictorian. [188][189] Truman immediately terminated the meeting and declared that the time was not right to propose anti-lynching legislation. Hollenbeck discussed Edward U. Condon, Alger Hiss, and Paul Robeson. Double pneumonia and a kidney blockage in 1965 nearly killed him. Ignoring Essie's objections, her mother wired Robeson and he immediately returned to her bedside. We wish peace with Franco's Spain despite her fascism. Due to the reaction to the promulgation of Robeson's political views, his recordings and films were removed from public distribution, and he was universally condemned in the U.S press. [356], This article is about the singer and activist. [207] Reluctant to lose Robeson as a propagandist for the Soviet Union,[208] the Soviets brought Feffer from prison to him. When Paul Robeson took the stage at Carnegie Hall in May of 1958, it had been 11 years since he had previously concertized freely in the United States. [171] Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Robeson and his family returned to the United States in 1940, to Enfield, Connecticut, and he became America's "no.1 entertainer"[172] with a radio broadcast of Ballad for Americans. Cockburn attacked Orwell's description of Paul Robeson as "anti-white", pointing out Robeson had campaigned to help Welsh coal miners. In West Philadelphia, the Paul Robeson High School, which won 2019 U.S. News & World Report for Best High Schools in Pennsylvania,[340] is also named after him. ", "British give singer Paul Robeson hero's welcome", "Paul Robeson: The singer who fought for justice and paid with his life", "MI5 tracked Robeson amid communist fears", "Muscular assimilationism: sport and the paradoxes of racial reform", "List of National Historic Landmarks by State", "Brown, Robeson inducted into college football hall", "From the Valley of Obscurity, Robeson's Baritone Rings Out; 22 Years After His Death, Actor-Activist Gets a Grammy", "Theater Hall of Fame | The Official Website | Members | Preserve the Past • Honor the Present • Encourage the Future", "Paul Robeson zu Gast Unter den Linden – Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin", "Paul Robeson's granddaughter at Ebbw Vale eisteddfod", "National Register of Historical Places Inventory – Nomination Form: Paul Robeson Residence", "Paul Robeson Residence Accompanying 3 photos, exterior, from 1976", New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, "English Heritage Unveil A Blue Plaque To Honour Paul Robeson", "2009 New Jersey Hall of Fame Inductees Welcomed at NJPAC", "Paul Robeson High School – The School District of Philadelphia", "Rutgers dedicates plaza to Paul Robeson", "Commercial Avenue Renamed for Paul Robeson", "New Brunswick: Commercial Avenue renamed Paul Robeson Boulevard", "Phillip Hayes Dean, the Playwright of Divisive 'Paul Robeson,' Dies at 83", "Book review: 'Agent 6' by Tom Rob Smith", "Steve McQueen to make film about Paul Robeson", "Crossroads Premieres Paul Robeson at NBPAC's Grand Opening, Lion King Actor to Star", "Paul Robeson's visit to Australia and Aboriginal activism, 1960", "Understanding Paul Robeson's Soviet Experience", Paul Robeson – James Earl Jones One Man Show, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Historic 1944 footage of Paul Robeson speaking in New York at celebration honoring his 46th birthday and the anniversary of the Council on African Affairs, Eight digitally restored recordings of Paul Robeson, Emory University: Paul Robeson collection from the Billops-Hatch Archives, 1917–1965, Paul Robeson and the International Brigades, Time to Bring Negro Players Into The Major leagues, Never Again Can Colonialism Be What It Was, Thoughts On Winning The Stalin Peace Prize, Ho Chi Minh is Toussaint L'Ouverture of Indo-China, We Can Learn From The Struggle in South Africa, Paul Robeson: The Complete EMI Sessions, 1928-1939 Box Set, On My Journey: Paul Robeson's Independent Recordings, Freedom Train and the Welsh Transatlantic Concert Live, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Robeson&oldid=1013871866, Activists for African-American civil rights, African-American players of American football, American expatriates in the United Kingdom, American people who self-identify as being of Native American descent, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners, Players of American football from New Jersey, Progressive Party (United States, 1948) politicians, Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball players, Somerville High School (New Jersey) alumni, Articles with dead external links from July 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from March 2018, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages which use embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, NFL player missing current team parameter, Infobox NFL biography articles missing alt text, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2012, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from August 2017, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2011, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Wikipedia external links cleanup from May 2019, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Internet Broadway Database person ID same as Wikidata, Articles with dead external links from May 2020, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Singer, actor, social activist, lawyer, athlete, This page was last edited on 23 March 2021, at 22:32. [312] He received a Donaldson Award for his performance. [184][185] Robeson gave further performances at benefit concerts for the China Aid Council and United China Relief at Washington's Uline Arena on April 24, 1941. [294] His 12 pall bearers included Harry Belafonte[295] and Fritz Pollard. Some people were able to keep working, whether it was through pseudonyms or crediting their friends. In 1956, Robeson was called before HUAC after he refused to sign an affidavit affirming that he was not a Communist. Land of Liberty. [74], Robeson worked briefly as a lawyer, but he renounced a career in law due to widespread racism. 123 Robeson: Primary Victim of the “Blacklist” hand behind this outrage taking place in a region where a large prison was a major employer and where violence had deep historical roots.5 Ms. Robeson was understandably outraged, shocked by the [21] In 1912, Robeson attended Somerville High School in Somerville, New Jersey,[22] where he performed in Julius Caesar and Othello, sang in the chorus, and excelled in football, basketball, baseball and track. Robeson's last British film was The Proud Valley (1940), set in a Welsh coal-mining town. [116] The production received mixed reviews which noted Robeson's "highly civilized quality [but lacking the] grand style. He let Soviet authorities know that he wanted to see him. [180] He toured North America with Othello until 1945,[181] and subsequently, his political efforts with the CAA to get colonial powers to discontinue their exploitation of Africa were short-circuited by the United Nations. [326] Edgecombe Avenue itself was later co-named Paul Robeson Boulevard. [46] Academically, he was accepted into Phi Beta Kappa[47] and Cap and Skull. Langston Hughes: The poet, pictured in 1958, was affiliated with some Communist-linked groups, and his … “You Are the Un-Americans, and You Ought to be Ashamed of Yourselves”: Paul Robeson Appears Before HUAC. A documentary look at the confluence of the Red scare, McCarthyism, and blacklists with the post-war activism by African Americans seeking more and better roles on radio, television, and stage. After the war ended, the CAA was placed on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations and Robeson was investigated during the age of McCarthyism. [244] During the height of the Cold War, it became increasingly difficult in the United States to hear Robeson sing on commercial radio, buy his music or see his films. After McCarthyism, [Robeson's stand] on anti-colonialism in the 1940s would never again have a voice in American politics, but the [African independence movements] of the late 1950s and 1960s would vindicate his anti-colonial [agenda]. [173] Nevertheless, during a tour in 1940, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel was the only major Los Angeles hotel willing to accommodate him due to his race, at an exorbitant rate and registered under an assumed name, and he therefore dedicated two hours every afternoon to sitting in the lobby, where he was widely recognised, "to ensure that the next time Black[s] come through, they'll have a place to stay." [268], During an uncharacteristically wild party in his Moscow hotel room, Robeson locked himself in his bedroom and attempted suicide by cutting his wrists. Meredith was a fellow Northeast Ohioan to this writer, born to non-actor parents. I have made my choice. [221] Subsequently, the State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports because it believed that an isolated existence inside United States borders not only afforded him less freedom of expression[222] but also avenge his "extreme advocacy on behalf of the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa. [346] These quotes are drawn from Robeson's testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in June 1956. [305] Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist won an Academy Award for best short documentary in 1980. Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda Goode, an accomplished woman in her own right, went to Spain in January 1938 in support of Republican forces. [315], Robeson archives exist at the Academy of Arts;[316] Howard University,[317] and the Schomburg Center. In January 1978, James Earl Jones performed the one-man show Paul Robeson, written by Phillip Hayes Dean, on Broadway. Teams: St. Christopher Club, Commonwealth Big Five Home: Harlem, New York City Few people know that Paul Robeson was a star basketball player during the 1910s, and even played the sport as a professional. [34] As a sophomore, amidst Rutgers' sesquicentennial celebration, he was benched when a Southern team refused to take the field because the Scarlet Knights had fielded a Negro, Robeson. In 1956, black entertainer and activist Paul Robeson chided his HUAC inquisitors, claiming that they had put him on trial not for his politics, but because he had spent his life “fighting for the rights” of his people. 4 comments on “ Scandalize My Name: Stories From the Blacklist ” Peter Amsel on April 10th, 2016 - 11:44am He attended college at Amherst and … He also starred in the film version of the play (1933). 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