Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Allen C. Browne
Taken: July 22, 2017
Caption: Paul Robeson
Additional Description: This 1944 portrait of Paul Robeson playing Othello by Betsy Graves Reyneau hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“His greatest stage achievement was in the role of Othello: in England in 1930, with Peggy Ashcroft as Desdemona, and in New York in 1943, with Jose Ferrer as Iago. Meanwhile, Robeson appeared in nearly a dozen films, among them ‘Sanders of the River’ (1935) and ‘King Solomon's Mines’ (1937), both British made. He gave strong performances, but he gradually realized that the filmmakers had lied to him about the stereotyping of black characters; he quit me industry in 1951. Robeson's deepening resentment over racism in America drew him more and more into civil rights causes and affiliation with left-wing groups. By 1950 he was being denounced as a communist.” – American Characters, Lewis, et al. 1999.
Submitted: October 10, 2017, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p400430
File Size: 2.070 Megabytes

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