Black History Month and Paul Robeson

This writeup was modified from the original text, which was sent out in the 2/12 UAEA Weekly Email

Black History Month: February is Black History Month, an annual celebration of the role African-Americans have played in US History. I started doing writeups of influential labor leaders and activists last year, and I want to continue that trend by discussing another influential African-American leader. If you’re interested, this is part two of writeups on African-American labor history - I wrote a piece last year that briefly discussed the lives and works of Asa Philip Randolph, Dora Lee Jones, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, and Bayard Rustin, which you can read on our blog. 

Paul Robeson (1898 - 1976) - Paul Robeson is genuinely one of my favorite people from American history - he lived such an accomplished and prolific life it almost feels like he was invented by Hollywood, but everything about his story and background is true. Even if you’ve never heard his name, it’s very likely you’ve heard his voice - Paul was an accomplished singer who recorded hundreds of songs throughout his life with a uniquely deep and sonorous voice. 

Paul was born in New Jersey to Drew Robeson, a former slave who escaped his plantation as a youth through the Underground Railroad and later became an accomplished minister. Paul excelled in both football and theatre throughout his childhood, and was admitted to Rutgers College in 1915 on an academic scholarship. He was eventually nominated by his peers to be the 1919 class valedictorian, something which is especially notable given the segregation of the time and the fact he was one of only two black students in a class of 500 men. While in college he also participated in the debate society, took care of his sick father until his father’s death, starred in and received acclaim for multiple university theater performances, and became a consensus All-American football player two years in a row while playing for Rutger’s football team - some sports historians consider him one of the best “end” players of all time. 

Paul considered pursuing a career in law and finished a law degree at Columbia University, but ultimately decided to not continue due to the field’s racism (in his first job the firm refused to allow him to present cases in court and secretaries refused to take orders from him). Instead, he continued acting and singing, with most stage performances widely praised. He spent much of the 1920’s and early 1930’s traveling back and forth between America and England to perform in a variety of productions, including stage shows, concerts, and films - his repeated visits overseas were due in part to his perception that the English and Russians did not treat him differently based on his skin color, a common occurrence in segregated America at the time. Paul made history in 1933 when he starred as the first-ever African-American lead in a film in the production of Emperor Jones, but this accomplishment was undercut by Hollywood not allowing additional African-American starring roles until 20 years later. Paul instead was given a series of minor roles in films throughout the 1930’s that he felt depicted stereotypes about his community and the African continent. Perhaps due to this, Paul became increasingly outspoken about the role of African-Americans in American society throughout the 1930’s and began modifying his performances. While he was known for his renditions of many southern spirituals and folk songs, he started the practice of removing racist epithets from the songs and rewrote many to change the tone from depressing ruminations on slavery and oppression to more hopeful revolutionary messages about overcoming adversity. He also became very interested in the role of trade unions after visiting the Soviet Union in the 1930’s - he saw them as a way to address the injustices and exploitation of all oppressed communities, as well as a path for African-Americans to gain full equality in American society. One of his most striking experiences was walking in Russia and having scores of people come up to shake his hand and express their love for his work - while people might ask for an autograph in England and America at the time, almost no one had ever shaken his hand. Throughout this period and for the rest of his life Paul would visit striking workers at hundreds of protests and picket lines to express support (and lend his reputation to each fight), usually performing several songs such as the Star Spangled Banner, Old Man River, or the Ballad of Joe Hill during each visit. For his support, dozens of unions granted him honorary memberships throughout his life, including the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, the United Public Workers Union, and the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union. 

Paul returned to America in 1939 after the start of World War 2, and worked with various activists throughout the 1940s in attempts to desegregate Major League Football, integrate the California hotel industry, oppose imperialism (especially African apartheid), support trade unions, and demand the US government pass anti-lynching legislation. His work against lynching included his founding the American Crusade against Lynching (ACAL), meeting with President Truman, and, eventually, co-writing the document “We Charge Genocide” for the United Nations, where he publicly called discrimination, disenfranchisement, police brutality, and the US government’s unwillingness to pass anti-lynching laws acts of genocide against African-Americans. His reputation initially helped him advocate for and draw public attention to many of these things (Colliers magazine called him “America’s number one entertainer” in 1940), but it also worked against him - media coverage of his speeches often misrepresented his views and painted him as an anti-American radical, something which led to reduced bookings of his performances. Paul was further impacted when the US Government canceled his passport in the late 1940s and refused to allow him to leave this country - this caused his annual income to drop from $150k/year (about $2 million today) to about $3k.year (about $41k today). During this period he continued his advocacy and started a monthly magazine called Freedom. His passport was eventually restored in 1958 and he spent many years afterwards on a global tour. While he returned to America in the mid-1960’s and was briefly involved in the early civil rights movement, poor health and disagreements about the focus of civil rights’ groups’ leaders prevented him from becoming more active. 

Paul died in 1976, but his legacy lives on. Besides being one of the most accomplished performers in American history (he was honored both during and after his life with a Grammy, an Oscar, a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame, multiple theater awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a US Stamp, recognition by the UN General Assembly, and the International Peace Prize), Paul is recognized by American, Indian, Chinese, Russian, and African unions and advocacy groups as a thought leader and unwavering advocate of freedom and international brotherhood. I think he also represents the fact that activism can take many forms and that advocacy can occur in both formal ways as well as works of art - it’s important to remember that the growth and support of unions does not need to be only in the form of membership or through standard tasks like contract negotiations in order to be meaningful. 

If you’re interested, this link has a Youtube playlist with some of Paul’s most popular recordings. I should caveat this by noting that Paul was recording in the 1930’s-1950’s and that some of his terminology is reflective of the era, not our modern sentiments.