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The River Reporter "Old Man River" Paul L. Robeson, 1898-1976 By TOM RUE One of the most accomplished actors and singers America has produced is Paul Leroy Robeson, but his name has been largely forgotten by the nation which once recognized him.Paul Robeson was born April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey. His father, the Rev. W.D. Robeson, a minister of the AME Zion Church, was born into slavery in Robeson County, North Carolina. In 1910, the family moved to Somerville, New Jersey, where Robeson graduated valedictorian of his high school class. Robeson went on to Rutgers University, where he won a Phi Beta Kappa key, and was an All-American football player two seasons in a row. At a time when such accomplishments were unheard of among blacks, Robeson was to prove himself one of the century's artistic geniuses. After attending law school at Columbia, and a brief position with a Wall Street firm, Robeson felt a vocation to act. He gave up the practice of law when he realized the limited potential of a black lawyer. Few juries, his employers feared, would give credence to the words of a Negro. Artistic success came quickly to Robeson. He appeared in All God's Children Got Wings, Porgy and Bess, and Black Boy. In 1943, he played Othello in a New York production which ran 296 performances -- a record for a Shakespearean play on Broadway. Numerous movies and records followed, and in 1944 he won the Donaldson Award for the best acting performance that year. He received the Gold Medal for the best diction in American theater from the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Perhaps most widely known for his music, Rogers and Hammerstein wrote Old Man River expressly for Robeson. He was able to make this his theme song, tailoring it over the years to describe his own heartfelt experience. As early as 1925, The New York Times captured the essence of Robeson's musical spirit, saying that it was his "intense earnestness which grips his hearers.. Mr. Robeson's gift to make [the music] tell in every line, and that not by any outward stress, but by an overwhelming inward conviction. Sung by one man [it] voiced the sorrows and hopes of a people." Robeson performed only for causes he believed in. The stage in the United States, England, and the USSR gave him a platform from which to voice his views on racism in America. Gradually, however, the great baritone voice that had carried him through almost three decades began to be muffled. In 1947, a concert in Peoria, Illinois was marred by a city council resolution disapproving the "appearance of any speaker or artist who is an avowed propagandist for un-American ideology." Robeson retorted, "Since when in America does a city dare keep an artist out because of his political beliefs?" On September 4, 1949, a riot took place at a Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York. State troopers stood by and watched as concert-goers were mobbed and beaten. Some 140 people were injured. All over the country, concerts were cancelled for fear of a repeat riot, and records were withdrawn from store shelves. Robeson was interrogated by Joseph McCarthy before a Senate committee, where Robeson finally stated that he was not now nor had he ever been a communist. Then he added, "The only thing un-American here is this committee." Robeson was the only non-criminal in U.S. history to be denied the right to travel outside the country, including Canada and Mexico. His passport was revoked in 1948 by the State Department which claimed that his travels abroad would be "contrary to the best interests of the United States." In t958, Robeson's passport was restored, but he had lost ten years of his career. Racist and McCarthyist forces had succeeded in making him a non-person, effectively wiping his name from most of the public's memory, and even from many official records. Robeson lived out the remainder of his life in seclusion with his sister in Philadelphia. Through all his persecutions, Robeson never lost his sense of humanity or his love for his loyal friends. In 1975, he found time to telegram get-well wishes to an aging childhood friend who was hospitalized. Monticello resident Bea Holleran, who attended a recent lecture by Paul Robeson, Jr., told the young Robeson, "I've known you since you were a little boy and I loved your father. One thing the youth should know is that he was a lover of children." Robeson's son said his father never changed his political views. Recalling his father's words shortly before his death: "I'm still the same Paul, dedicated to freedom and the progress of humankind." Robeson died January 23, 1976. His gravestone bears the inscription: The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I have no alternative. -- TOM RUE The River Reporter
By TOM RUE LOCH SHELDRAKE -- The son of the world famous Paul Robeson did not come to Sullivan County to talk about his late father, though he did show an Oscar-winning biographical film entitled Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist.Topically current, Robeson spoke boldly and without hesitation in support of human dignity and equality, and like his father, did not hesitate to condemn the evil of racism at the highest levels of his country's government. Opposing "the gutting of the public sector and of affirmative action," he addressed an audience at Sullivan County Community College (SCCC) on February 20. The flavor and tone of Robeson's lecture, cosponsored by SCCC's Black Student Union and the Student Government Association, paralleled the commitment of his late father, the internationally renowned singer, actor, scholar, and social activist. "Under the guise of Gramm-Rudman 'tax reform,'" Robeson said, the government is abrogating the civil rights legislation of past decades. We have a president of the United States who has made it clear that we live in a white man's world. He is a racist to his bones," Robeson asserted. He predicted that within five years this country will undergo a racial upheaval on the scale of the current revolution in South Africa if dramatic changes are not made at all levels of government. "You don't need political apartheid if you have economic apartheid." Speaking against the blows the Reagan administration have dealt to government funded social programs, Robeson exclaimed, "If there's anything black America is willing to go to war about, it's the degutting of the public sector!" A major element of Reagan's domestic economic policy has been that the needs of the poor and disadvantaged should be filled by the corporate sector, not by government. Robeson asserted that this is not taking place. Yet, major funding cuts have been made and more are now planned under the Gramm-Rudman bill, in an effort to balance the federal budget. Robeson told the crowd that the real root of Gramm-Rudman is racism and insensitivity to the needs of America's common people. To balance the budget, Robeson called on those present to urge members of Congress to "bury" Reagan's Star Wars plan, which he termed "the biggest boondoggle since day one. A physicist by profession, Robeson explained that the government is "wasting trillions" on the laser concept of Star Wars. The USSR, Robeson claimed, will simply cover their missiles with reflective coatings, and Reagan's laser beams will be reflected back into space. Asked who he foresaw leading the social revolt he predicted, Robeson answered that "the days of the messiahs are over. The leaders are the positive infrastructure in the community." He mentioned the Rev. Jesse Jackson as a possible candidate, but added that the present civil rights leadership does not have a sufficient economic base to win a national election. Robeson called for people around the country, both black and white, to unite and "by massive civil disobedience," shake the foundation of corporate America. Financial leaders, he said, must be made to feel the full weight of the suffering they have caused. "If this can not be done by peaceful, nonviolent direct action, which I advocate," said Robeson, "then let it be done by whatever means necessary.. in the tradition of Nat Turner, John Brown, and Malcolm X after his trip to Mecca.
The River Reporter Thursday, March 27, 1986 To Tom Rue: I appreciate greatly your article of February 27, 1986 on Paul Robeson Jr.'s presentation at my College's Theatre. Your article was accurate and fairly depicted Mr. Robeson's philosophy.I think you portrayed both the father and the son in a positive light. I only hope that your readership will seriously consider the points made by Mr. Robeson, Jr. in his presentation, because many "thinking" Blacks are in agreement with him. There is in America, a felt stress and anxiety, which reminds me of the feeling I had just before Watts went up in flames. There are hundreds of thousands of decent people in this country who are fast becoming hopeless, as regards our system of government, I am afraid. The potential for violence is great; much blood will be spilled and lives lost, should these people continue to be denied an opportunity to share the fruits of their labor in this country. Finally, Mr. Rue, I thank you for attending the presentation, as I will probably not be able to schedule this type of program for Black History Month again. As you are aware, the number of people in attendance were few, and the cost was great, despite our best efforts to advertise this event. Once again, I thank you and the Black Student Union thanks you also. Sincerely, Karyle Woods-Moore Assistant Director Student Activities BSU Advisor Sullivan County Community College |
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© 1985-2006, Tom Rue. All rights reserved.
