Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson. April 9, 1898 - January 23, 1976. , Paul Robeson was one of the 20th century's greatest voices and trailblazing human rights and peace activist. The son of The Rev. William Drew Robeson, who escaped from slavery at the age of 15, and Maria Louisa Bustill, a free Black educator of Lenni-Lenape and Quaker descent, Robeson graduated from Rutgers College in 1919. He achieved extraordinary success despite the segregation and racism. He broke barriers as a college football star, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and The Cap and Skull Society, and graduated valedictorian of his class. In 1923, Robeson graduated from Columbia Law School.

In the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance and in Europe, Robeson soared to global stardom as a concert singer, recording artist, and actor. His dignity, fierce intellect, and towering presences stood in stark contrast to the demeaning African-American stereotypes of his time. Never one to let his personal success blind him to injustice, Robeson inspired millions around the world as a champion of civil rights, economic justice, colonial independence, global freedom of movement, world peace, and anti-nuclear proliferation.

When the Cold War and McCarthyism consumed America in the late 1940s and 1950s, Robeson's ideals were considered by many to be un-American. The government revoked his passport and helped orchestrate a virtual ban on preventing Robeson from performing and recording. But Pal Robeson continued to speak out. In 1958, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the denial of passports based on political beliefs was unconstitutional. Robeson re-established his career in American and abroad and continued to speak out for human rights, world peace, and freedom.