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[[image: b/w Head photo of Paul Robeson]]
[[caption]] PAUL ROBESON, 1930/SCHOMBURG COLLECTION, NYPL [[/caption]]

[[image: b/w Seated photo of Paul Robeson]]
[[caption]] Paul Robeson as Emperor Jones (1933) [[/caption]]

[[image: b/w head photo of gentleman in glasses, smiling and wearing hat; no caption]]


DELEGATE SALUTES PAUL ROBESON
and LANGSTON HUGHES

[[image: b/w head/shoulders photo of gentleman smiling and saluting with hat]]

[[image: b/w photo of Eleanor Roosevelt and Rev. B.C. Robeson; a group of clergymen stands behind them]]
[[caption]] MRS. ROOSEVELT WITH REV. B.C. ROBESON, 1945/UPI [[/caption]]

PAUL ROBESON
Actor, Singer

Paul Robeson has earned worldwide fame over the past four decades in a variety of roles—as athlete, actor, singer, and scholar.

Born in Princeton, New Jersey on April 9, 1898, Robeson is the son of a runaway slave who put himself through Lincoln University and later became a Presbyterian minister.

Robeson entered Rutgers on a scholarship, and won a total of 12 letters in track, football, baseball, and basketball. In 1917 and again in 1918, he was named All-American by Walter Camp who later called him "the greatest defensive end that ever tred the gridiron." In addition to his athletic exploits, his academic ability gained him Phi Beta Kappa honors in his junior year.

In 1923, Robeson won a law degree from Columbia, financing his schooling by playing professional football. While at Columbia, Robeson was seen by Eugene O'Neill in an amateur play. After making his professional debut in Taboo (1922), Robeson then appeared in O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings, and Emperor Jones.

Called upon to whistle in the latter play, Robeson sang instead, and his voice met with instant acclaim. In 1925, he made his concert debut with a highly successful program of all-Negro music. He went on to such stage successes as Show Boat; Porgy, and Othello. (When he did Othello in 1943 in New York, his ovation was called "one of the most prolonged and wildest...in the history of the New York theatre.")

A world traveller in the Soviet Union, Asia, and Europe, Robeson speaks several languages, including Chinese, Russian, Gaelic, and Spanish.

Robeson's political affiliations have at times tended to attract even more publicity than his artistic career. In 1950, for instance, he was denied a passport after refusing to sign an affidavit as to whether or not he had ever belonged to the Communist Party. Eight years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the refusal to sign such an affidavit was not valid grounds for denial of a passport. Robeson subsequently settled in London, making a number of trips to the continent (and to the U.S.S.R. as well) before returning to the United States in 1963.

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