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ROBESON AT RUTGERS FISHMAN during remarks opening a production of Edward Boatner's "Freedom Suite," the spokesman of Rutgers-Douglass NAACP called attention to Paul Robeson's contributions as a student, and his claim to be in the football Hall of Fame. The student upsurge has led to the inclusion of Robeson's picture in the Rutgers gym, the opening of the Paul Robeson Music and Arts Lounge, and the recognition by Professor Richard McCormick, Chairman of the History Department, speaking for the University, of the need for a Rutgers Paul Robeson archives and center. [[^]] 12 This "lifting of the corner of the curtain" on Paul Robeson is part of a larger accommodation to the needs and just demands of the black students of the Camden, New Brunswick and Newark campuses of Rutgers. History does move forward! DOCUMENTS I. James Carr protests jim-crow treatment of Paul Robeson: letter, 1919. City of New York Law Department June 6, 1919 President William H.S. Demarest, LL.D. Rutgers College New Brunswick, New Jersey Dear Sir: During the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Rutgers College, a stateement appeared in the public press that Washington and Lee University, scheduled for a follball game with Rutgers, had protested the playing of Paul Robeson, a regular member of the Rutgers team, because of his color. In reading an account of the game, I saw that Roberson's name was not amoung the players. My suspicions were immediately aroused. After a condsiderable lapse of time, I learned that Washington and Lee's protest had been honored, and thatb Roberson, either by covert suggestion, or official athletic authority, had been excluded from the game. You may imaginenmy deep chagrin and bitterness at the thought that my Alma Mater, ever proud of her glorious traditions, her unsullied honor, her high ideals, and her spiritual mission prostituted her scared principles, when they were brazenly challenged, and laid her convictions upon the altar of compromise. Is it possible that the honor of Rutgersnis virile only when untested and unchallenged? Shall men, whose progenitors tried to destroy this Union, be permitted to make a mockery of our democratic ideals by robbing a youth, whose progenitors helped to save the Union, of 227 DOCUMENTS 1. James Carr protests jim-crow treatment of Paul Robeson: letter, 1919. City of New York Law Department June 6, 1919 President William H.S.Demarest, LL.D. Rutgers College New Brunswick, New Jersey Dear Sir: During the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Rutgers College, a statement appeared in the public press that Washington and Lee University, scheduled for a football game with Rutgers, had protested the playing of Paul Robeson, a regular member of the Rutgers team, because of his color. In reading an account of the game, I saw that Robeson's name was not among the players. My suspicions were immediately aroused. After a considerable lapse of time, I learned that Washington and Lee's protest had been honored, and that Robeson, either by covert suggestion, or official athletic authority, had been excluded from the game. You may imagine my deep chagrin and bitterness at the thought that my Alma Mater, ever proud of her glorious traditions, her unsullied honor, her high ideals, and her spiritual mission prostituted her sacred principles, when they were brazenly challenged, and laid her convictions upon the altar of compromise. Is it possible that the honor of Rutgers is virile only when untested and unchallenged? Shall men, whose progenitors tried to destroy this Union, be permitted to make a mockery of our democratic ideals by robbing a youth, whose progenitors helped to save the Union, of 227