A great book about an astonishing figure. I was really shocked to discover how much of Robeson's activism and uncompromising idealism has been shoved under the carpet. His unflinching stand for equality in the face of truly brutal resistance is the mark of greatness and it makes his tragedy the more heartrending.
There's a lot of great detail in the book, but one scene really stuck with me and it goes some way to characterising Robeson's journey. He returned from Europe to the US, amid withering tirades of criticism thanks to inaccurate reports of treasonous disloyalty, after he had the gall to complain about the conditions of people of colour in his home country. Instead of hiding, Robeson performed a concert with Pete Seeger in New York State. Rednecks lined the road and leered at concertgoers as they arrived, descending on them with billyclubs, afterwards, as they left. The police stood by and watched for the most part. Despite being warned of the danger Robeson fearlessly took to the stage. The cops, only with the greatest reluctance, circled around behind the audience and shooed off the snipers who were settling in on the hill and waiting for a good shot.
Before reading this book I didn't know enough to place Robeson in the pantheon of civil rights heroes, but of course he is there. A man with enough talent to have done anything, lived a life of carefree wealth and acclaim, he stood on principle and never retreated, even as it destroyed his health, his work and his life. ( )

What a shame that Paul Robeson isn't better known as a hero and role-model. Duberman's biography tells the story of a remarkable man, born in 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey to a father who was an escaped slave and later became a Presbyterian minister. At seventeen, Robeson was given a scholarship to Rutgers University, where he received an unprecedented twelve major letters in sports in four years and was also his class valedictorian. After graduating he went on to Columbia University Law School, and, in the early 1920s, took a job with a New York law firm. No white secretary would assist a black man, however, so he turned to entertainment, a field in which blacks were more accepted. He attained international fame as an actor and singer, and also developed a leftist political consciousness that came to be his undoing. He traveled the world performing benefits for causes of social justice (he spoke fifteen languages). Unlike many other performers both before and after his time, he believed that the famous have a responsibility to speak out for justice and peace.

He was branded a Communist and hounded by J. Edgar Hoover, another dagger to add to those borne of racial prejudice that were aimed in his direction. Most amazingly, all the insults and setbacks and threats and injustice never cowed him. In 1953 when reporters baited him for "hurting your cause by allying yourself with Communists," he lashed out angrily to them: "Is this what you want?" (pretending to bend at the waist) For me to bend and bow and shuffle along and be a nice, kindly colored man and say please when I ask for better treatment for my people? Well, it doesn't work!" Wow. What a guy.


Robeson also rejected the notion of "gradualism" in the struggle for civil rights as "but another form of race discrimination: in no other area of our society are lawbreakers granted an indefinite time to comply with the provisions of the law."

One final anecdote showing his outstanding bravery and brilliance (but there are many many such anecdotes in the book): he was visiting the USSR in 1948, which, unbeknownst to the world, was in the middle of Stalin's anti-Zionist purges. Robeson kept inquiring about his Jewish friend Itzik Feffer and wanted to see him. In actuality, Feffer had been arrested (and was later executed). In an attempt to cover up what was going on, the authorities brought Feffer to see Robeson in his hotel room on Robeson's final night in Moscow. Feffer could not tell Robeson the truth in the room that he assumed to be bugged, but tried to communicate his fate through gestures. After their visit, Robeson proceeded with his concert. At the end, he asked for quiet, and announced he would sing one encore. He said the song was in honor of his friend Feffer, and then sang (with no preparation at all), the Resistance Song from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, first in Russian, then in Yiddish. Incredible story, incredible guy. Possibly poisoned by Hoover's FBI in 1961 (see testimony on the Web from his son).

(JAF)