Author: Thomas James Martin
Published Suite101: February 1, 2003
The artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.
~Paul Robeson
Some individuals are so painfully ahead of their times. When coupled with genius they are the visionaries, singled out by God or some force of Nature to shatter the outmoded paradigms of their contemporaries. They are special incarnations, singular gifts from some aspect of God that we only dimly understand if at all.
I think of abolitionist John Brown, leading an idealistic, but premature rebellion against slavery; of Mozart being told by the Emperor Franz Josef that his music had "too many notes;" of Negro League baseball players Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibbs and Satchel Paige, playing before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, playing without the recognition that should have been accorded them for their outstanding abilities.
I think of Paul Robeson.
How did this outstanding individual, a true Renaissance man, so truly exceptional in so many ways become if not totally forgotten at least not fully appreciated for his outstanding abilities and powerful force of character? He was a world-class athlete, an All-American in football, a Phi Beta Kappa scholar who was valedictorian of his Rutgers graduating class, a lawyer, a renowned actor, a truly great singer, and a relentless fighter for the rights not only of African-Americans but of all men.
He was born in Princeton New Jersey on April 9, 1898, the youngest of five children, to Rev. William Drew and Maria Louisa Robeson. His father was a former slave who escaped to freedom at age 15, eventually earning a theological degree. His mother was a schoolteacher, the daughter of a line of free abolitionists, a heritage that included an English Quaker, Delaware Indian, and African Bantu lines.
It fell to him--as to so many of those rare individuals who are ahead of their time--to lead the way, especially in the performing arts and civil rights. He was like a frontiersman, one who comes before the settlers, who blazes the trails and maps the wilderness for those who come afterwards. Often he was a lone voice in the wilderness in those days prior to Martin Luther King, sit-ins, marches and the Civil Rights Act.
His wife, the former Eslanda Cardozo Goode, encouraged his acting, and he eventually joined the Provincetown Players in Rhode Island where his efforts came to the attention of playwright, Eugene O'Neill. He is remembered to this day for his performances in O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings and The Emperor Jones. He was also renowned for his portrayal of the Moor in Shakespeare's Othello.
He appeared in several movies and is especially known for the role of "Joe" in both the stage and screen versions of Showboat., where he became identified with the song "Ole Man River." That song rendered in his powerful baritone sends chills down the spines of audiences even today. Robeson eventually changed the lyrics of the song to remove some of the stereotypical racial overtones when he sung it at concerts. For example, he rewrote the following verse, which you have probably not heard before, as it has been decades since it was sung that way.
Original Words:
Niggers all work on the Mississippi,
Niggers all work while the white folks play.
I gits weary and sick of tryin';
I'm tired of livin' and scared of dyin'
And Ol' man river, he just keeps rollin' along.
Robeson's Rendition:
There's an old man called the Mississippi,
That's the old man I don't like to be.
I keeps laffin' instead of cryin'
I must keep fightin' until I'm dyin'
And Ol' man river, he just keeps rollin' along.
Eventually Robeson became disgusted with the paucity of decent parts available for African Americans both on stage and in Hollywood and concentrated on his singing, eventually performing all over the world. He became more and more interested in learning the languages (He learned over 20.) and folk songs of other cultures.
In his autobiography, Here I Stand, he wrote that he "learned that the essential character of a nation is determined not by the upper classes, but by the common people, and that the common people of all nations are truly brothers in the great family of mankind." Thus, he began singing spirituals and other folk songs as he found that "they, too, were close to my heart and expressed the same soulful quality that I knew in Negro music."
Nathan Irvin Huggins, writing in an article in the Nation, expresses best the importance of this discovery to the complex figure and multi-talented person that was Paul Robeson:
[Robeson] found the finest expression of his talent. His genuine awe of and love for the common people and their music flourished throughout his life and became his emotional and spiritual center.
After extensive tours of the Soviet Union in the 1930s, he became an advocate of Communism, as he saw a kinship between the serfs of Czarist Russia and oppression of African Americans. By the late '30s, he had become a vigorous opponent of racism. He lent his prestige to crusades against lynching and refused to sing before segregated audiences. He petitioned Congress to legislate against the racial barrier in baseball that had kept so many talented black athletes out of the major leagues.
After World War II as the enmity between the United States and the Soviet Union grew into the Cold War, Robeson's advocacy of Communism and leftist politics in general left him a victim of McCarthyism. Among many things, they questioned his trips to the Soviet Union, support of picketing against the segregation of black actors and his efforts to organize Panamanian workers.
At Congressional hearings In 1946 he first denied under oath that he had ever been a member of the Communist party then rescinded that denial in another inquiry. His passport was revoked by the State Department in 1950. Although he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in 1952, he was unable to leave the country to claim it until 1958.
His activism and leftist leaning came at an even greater price for his career though. For example, a riot prevented his giving a concert in upstate New York. No agents would book him for concert tours. When he published his autobiography in 1958, the New York Times and the New York Herald-Tribune refused to review it.
During the McCarthy hearings a Congressional committee asked him why he did not stay in the Soviet Union since he admired its government so much. He replied:
Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay right here and have a part of it just like you. And no fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear?
In the end he entered a kind of socio-political exile in his own country, becoming a forgotten man in the 1960s and 70s. This pariah status probably contributed to his growing health and emotional problems. His disconnection with his audience and some friends led to depression, and he tried to commit suicide twice.
Harry Belafonte, the famous singer, became good friends with Robeson. Realizing that his friend could have chosen an easier life for himself, Belafonte asked Paul near the end of his life if all his struggles had been worth it? Paul Robeson's reply is timeless and is enlightening for every single soul who has drawn or will ever draw breath on this planet:
Harry, make no mistake: there is no aspect of what I have done that wasn't worth it. Although we may not have achieved all the victories we set for ourselves--may not have achieved all the victories and all the goals we set for ourselves, beyond the victory itself, infinitely more important, was the journey.
In 1973 at the celebration of his 75th birthday, Coretta Scott King remarked in Carnegie Hall about the importance of Robeson to the Civil Rights Movement. She said that he had been "buried alive" for fighting for freedom and dignity in those decades before the movement gathered momentum.
Paul Robeson died of a stroke in 1976. What a powerful and courageous journey it was.
Editor's Notes: I would like to acknowledge the following web sites which I used in researching this article:
Rutgers University
Paul Robeson Home
Copyright 2003-2010, Thomas James Martin, all rights reserved.
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