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Quick Facts
- NAME: Paul Robeson
- OCCUPATION: Civil Rights Activist, Actor, Football Player, Lawyer, Singer
- BIRTH DATE: April 09, 1898
- DEATH DATE: January 23, 1976
- EDUCATION: Rutgers University, Columbia University Law School
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Princeton, New Jersey
- PLACE OF DEATH: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Full Name: Paul Leroy Robeson
- AKA: Paul Robeson
Best Known For
Paul Robeson was an acclaimed 20th century performer known for productions like The Emperor Jones and Othello. He was also an international activist.
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Play NowPaul Leroy Robeson. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 03:40, May 22, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451.
Paul Leroy Robeson. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451 [Accessed 22 May 2013].
"Paul Leroy Robeson." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 22 2013, 03:40 http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451.
"Paul Leroy Robeson," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451 [accessed May 22, 2013].
"Paul Leroy Robeson," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451 (accessed May 22, 2013).
Paul Leroy Robeson [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 22] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451.
Paul Leroy Robeson, http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451 (last visited May 22, 2013).
Paul Leroy Robeson. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451. Accessed May 22, 2013.
He supported Pan-Africanism, sang for Loyalist soldiers during Spain's civil war, took part in anti-Nazi demonstrations and performed for Allied forces during WWII. He also visited the Soviet Union several times during the mid-1930s, taken by much of its culture and ideas.
Back in the United States,
Contents
he once again received accolades for his stage work in the 1943 Broadway production of Othello. Yet McCarthyism and Cold War paranoia was on the bound. Robeson found himself contending with government officials looking to silence a voice who spoke out eloquently against racism, and had political ties that could be vilified. Robeson was labeled a communist, and was barred by the State Department from renewing his passport in 1950 to travel abroad for engagements. Despite his immense popularity, he was blacklisted from domestic concert venues, recording labels and film studios.
A Lasting Legacy
Robeson published his biography, Here I Stand, in 1958, the same year that he won the right to have his passport reinstated. Robeson again traveled internationally and received a number of accolades for his work, but damage had been done, as he suffered from debilitating depression and related health problems. Robeson and his family returned to the United States in 1963. After Eslanda's death in 1965, the artist lived with his sister. Robeson died from a stroke on January 23, 1976, at the age of 77, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In recent years, some efforts have been made by various industries to recognize Robeson's legacy after a period of silence about his achievements. Several biographies have been written on the artist, and he was inducted posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame. In 2007, Criterion released Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist, a box set containing several of his films, as well as a documentary and booklet on his life.
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African-American Expats
View groupMany African-Americans left their country to escape the confines of racism, segregation and McCarthyism in the United States. As a result, an entirely new African-American subculture sprouted up in Europe, Africa and other countries abroad. A street in Paris is named after Josephine Baker, who found acceptance and fame in France that she couldn't achieve in the still-segregated United States. Marcus Garvey was a leader of the Back-to-Africa movement. And singer Nina Simone lived in several different countries, including Liberia, Switzerland, England and Barbados before eventually settling down in the South of France. Find out more about these African-American expats, and the new lives they made for themselves abroad, on Biography.com.
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Blacklisted
View groupIn the 1940s and 1950s, the United States was in the grips of a "red scare." Many prominent individuals suspected of sympathizing with liberal or humanitarian causes were branded a communist threat, and even accused of espionage. Hollywood was a major focus of the accusations, and after 10 actors refused to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the blacklist was created. Hundreds of actors, actresses, directors, screenwriters and other entertainment professionals were barred from working. Here are some of the famous people who were on the Hollywood blacklist.
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