Paul Robeson… ….Destiny’s Child April 9th, 1878 - January 23rd, 1976

He was a child of destiny with a voice so compelling in oratory or song that the world stopped to listen. He learned to read, write and speak in over 20 languages so the world would understand his message. In the country of his birth, huge crowds filled great halls to hear him…and they were in awe of his marvelous voice. But many of them never understood the message in his words. He made 12 films but, because of his color, they were shown in separate theaters to segregated audiences and so his message of justice and equality for all was lost. Finally, in 1949, they took away the theaters, the halls, the audiences and the applause and refused to let him speak. The silence lasted over 8 years.

Paul's childhood home in Princeton

Paul Bustille Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey on April 9th, 1878 to the Rev. William Drew and Maria Louisa Bustille Robeson. The elder Robeson was born a slave but escaped north with his brother at age 15 and then risked his life twice returning south on the underground railroad to see his family. Against all odds, he completed 10 years of formal schooling earning a baccalaureate and post graduate degree from Lincoln University, a pioneer black college, to become an ordained Presbyterian minister. Paul’s mother was a young Philadelphia teacher when she married but by the time Paul was born (the youngest of seven children, two dead in infancy) she was in declining health suffering from severe asthma and almost blind from cataracts. She had to give up teaching. When William lost his pastorate he had to take odd jobs just to keep the family fed and they had to move to a much poorer part of town. {*see Notes}

When Paul was 5, tragedy struck again. While moving a stove, a live coal ignited his mother’s skirts and, with all the children in school except Paul and 12-year-old Ben, help came too late. Maria Louisa died hours later from her burns. He became, like the song he would sing, “a motherless child”.

Paul excelled in both his studies and in school sports. He also had to learn what it meant being black in a white world. His first attempt at acting was as “Othello” in a high school burlesque of Shakespeare put on to raise money for a field trip to Washington, D.C. that he couldn’t join. In 1915 Paul won a four-year scholarship to Rutgers University, only the third black person to ever attend that school and the first to play football. However, he had to room alone, eat alone, find his own lodgings when the team played away from home and even his locker was segregated from the rest. In his first year only the coaches spoke to him and he had to defend himself against his own team in practice scrimmages. He was named twice to the All-American Football Team and earned 15 varsity letters in baseball and basketball, graduated in 1919 as valedictorian of his class and made Phi Beta Kappa. But he was never elected captain of the team or asked to join any fraternities. And, in his junior year, his father died leaving him without his staunchest ally.

Paul as a young man

In 1920 he moved to Harlem, NY and entered Columbia University to study law. He got his second taste of life behind the footlights when he got the lead role in “Simon the Cyrenian” put on by the Harlem Amateur Players. He also met the woman he would soon marry…Eslanda Cardozo Goode.

A chance meeting in 1922 won Paul his first big singing role. The Four Harmony Kings, a quartet singing in the Broadway hit “Shuffle Along” lost their bass singer and Paul offered to take his place. Paul had never sung anything but the baritone melody line and had to learn the bass role. In turn, the lead singer of the group was elated to find Paul could reach ranges three tones lower than his previous bass singer and many tones higher. Paul went on tour with the group to England and later wrote Essie that racial prejudice was not as prevalent in the Britain of that time.

Paul graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923 and was hired on the spot by a law firm dealing in estates and wills. But when a white secretary refused to even take dictation from him, he walked away and gave up his dreams of a law career. In 1923 Paul auditioned for the lead role in Eugene O’Neill’s new play “All God’s Chillun Got Wings” and stunned his listeners. However, production of the play was delayed by a series of complications {*see Notes} and Paul went into a revival of “The Emperor Jones” for one week requiring him to learn two major roles at one time. The critics raved and the audiences called him back for numerous curtain calls. In 1924 Essie, now acting as his manager, concluded a contract with black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux to star Paul in his first film“Body and Soul”. But the film was silent so audiences wouldn’t hear that rich Robeson voice.

Essie and Paul

As "the Emperor Jones"

Then on April 19th, 1925, Paul gave the first public concert ever of Negro spirituals in the Greenwich Village Theatre. The New York Times critic wrote: “..The Negro songs voiced the sorrows and hopes of a people...It is this cry from the depths...that touches the heart”. In July, Paul Robeson became a leading recording artist with Victor Records. And, according to the biography written by his son, Paul began an intimate 25 year long extramarital relationship with Fredi Diamond, an actress who would soon become his leading lady in the film version of “The Emperor Jones” (1933).

Paul was on a European tour when his only child. Paul Robeson. Jr. was born on November 2nd, 1927.

In January, 1928 Florenz Ziegfeld offered Paul the role of Joe in “Show Boat” to be produced in London. He would only sing one song…but what a song!...”Ol’ Man River”! He missed the first stage production because he was committed elsewhere but played the part supposedly written just for him in three later productions including the film version in 1936. His marriage to Essie was sailing into troubled waters in 1930 when they embarked on a European tour after completing two successive concert triumphs at Carnegie Hall.

"Showboat" (1936)

On April 15th, 1930 Robeson began rehearsals for “Othello” in London, the first black man to do the role with an all-white cast. The choice of white Peggy Ashcroft to play Desdemona was already creating controversy in the USA. The show opened to glowing reviews. However, war drums were sounding in Europe and Paul was becoming increasingly worried but went on with his concerts. By this time Paul and Essie were living separate lives and he was engaged in a short-lived affair with Peggy Ashcroft.

Othello and Desdemona

In October 1936, Paul and Essie, now reunited, began a 12-concert tour of Soviet Russia. It would become a sticking point in Paul’s career later. He had such a rapport with Russian audiences because of his fluent command of their language that he considered living there for awhile. But hints of a political storm convinced him to return to London where he continued to play important roles in Eugene O’Neill’s plays. When the war started, he returned to doing films in the USA but his films always opened in separate theaters for segregated audiences. In 1942 he refused to do any more films until there were better roles for black actors. His last film role was in “Tales of Manhattan”.

After the war, the fears in America increased over Communist aggression. Paul’s open love of the Russian people put him right in the path of the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) {*see Notes} His passport was revoked and his concerts cancelled. They even removed his name from listing of Rutgers football team leaving the college with only ten players named for the years of his tenure. His defiance of the government resulted in the Peace Arch concerts in Washington State on the Canadian border attended by 600, 000 people in 1952. But he was blacklisted effectively banning him from working for over 8 years. Then the Supreme Court dismissed the reasons for his passport denial and he went to Europe to work returning to the USA five years later.

Paul Robeson died in 1976 finally recognized as the greatest Othello of them all. He was named to the Football Hall of Fame 13 years after his death. Others have taken up his banner for freedom but the work is far from over. His words still echo over the land… “To be free...to walk the good American earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil to give our children every opportunity in life….that dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands”.

Read more about Paul Robeson and other black actors in Arabella's Notes. For a list of my source material please e-mail me at mamalion27@aol.com

Filmography

Body and Soul (1925)
Borderline (1930)
The Emperor Jones (1933)
Sanders of the River (1935)
Showboat (1936)
Song of Freedom (1936)
King Solomon’s Mines (1937)
Jericho (1937)
Big Fella (1937)
The Proud Valley (1940)
Native Land (1942)
Tales of Manhattan (1942)