June, 1932 Receives Honorary Master of Arts degree from Rutgers University.
January, 1939 Begins concert tour of the British Isles; is greeted everywhere by huge crowds and honored with civic awards, receptions and ceremonies.
January 21, 1940 Receives honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Hamilton College, upstate New York.
August, 1940 Is called by Collier's magazine
"the favorite male Negro singer" of concertgoers and "America's No. 1 Negro entertainer."
May 10, 1941 Receives first annual award from the New Jersey Organization of Teachers of Colored Children, "For distinguished contributions to his county as scholar, singer, actor and ambassador of good will."
July 8, 1941 Speaks and sings to the Third National Convention of the National Maritime Union, held in Cleveland, where the Union confers honorary membership on Robeson.
March 22, 1942 Is guest of honor at dinner "In Tribute to Anti-Fascist Fighters," held at Hotel Biltmore, New York, chaired by Dorothy Parker, attended by over 1,000, including many celebrities, raising $11,000 in contributions for the transportation of anti-fascist Spanish refugees, veterans of Republican Spain's war against fascism, from the concentration camps of Nazi-occupied France to Mexico, where they are granted political asylum.
May 17, 1942 Receives citation from Secretary of Treasury Morgenthau, "In recognition of distinguished and patriotic service to our country."
July 20, 1942 Is guest of honor at Free People's Dinner, at Beverly Hills Hotel, Los Angeles, sponsored by 400 civic leaders and Hollywood film stars under the auspices of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee and the Council on African Affairs, to raise funds to liberate anti-fascist leaders from Nazi concentration camps in France.
September, 1942 Bay Area CIO in San Francisco holds luncheon in Robeson's honor.
February 12, 1943 Receives annual Lincoln Award from students and faculty of Abraham Lincoln High School, Brooklyn, NY, "in recognition of his courageous championship of good will, tolerance and minority rights."
June 2, 1943 Delivers commencement address and receives honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Morehouse College, Atlanta. In presenting the award, Morehouse President Benjamin E. Mays tells Robeson: "You sing as if God Almighty sent you into the world to advocate the cause of the common man in song. You are truly the people's artist... .We are happy. .to be the first Negro college in the world to place its stamp of approval upon the leadership of a man who embodies all the hopes and aspirations of the Negro race...."
July 8, 1943 Is special guest at 8th Annual Session of the National Maritime Union Convention in New York and is awarded honorary membership in the Union.
July 20, 1943 Speaks at Free People's Dinner, given in his honor, in Berkeley, CA, declaring that the victory over Fascism "must bring a world where there can be no question of a colored people or a white people, but a question of human beings, a world where there can be no question of colonial exploitation of any kind."
July 25, 1943 Is honored guest at meeting of the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln School For Social Science, in Chicago. Donates $2,000, the fee paid him by the Chicago Defender for his performance the previous night. Robeson rarely makes a public gesture of giving money; he usually does it in private or by donating his services.
September-October, 1943 Gives several performances of Othello in New Haven, Philadelphia and Boston. While in Boston, is invited to City Hall, where Mayor Maurice Tobin presents him with the key to the city, the first time such and honor is given to an African American.
November 12, 1943 Honorary membership conferred by International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) President Harry Bridges after unanimous action by Convention, for "his steadfast devotion and service to the cause of democracy and to the economic and cultural advancement of all peoples."
January 23, 1944 Is made honorary member of State, County & Municipal Workers of America, CIO.
April 2, 1944 Receives award from National Federation for Constitutional Liberties, for his "outstanding contribution toward building international unity within our country and throughout the world." The awards dinner is held at the Roosevelt Hotel, New York, with 800 in attendance.
May, 1944· Is made honorary member of International Fur andLeather Workers' Union at its biennial convention, "Inrecognition of your magnificent contribution to thestruggle of humanity, particularly the Negro people,against oppression, intolerance, reaction and fascism,for liberty, equality and progress of all mankind.".· Article entitled "America's No. 1 Negro," in AmericanMagazine, says: "Paul Robeson broke the back ofprejudice to command recognition as a football star,lawyer, concert singer and actor. Today he has wontop triumphs for his magnificent portrayal ofShakespeare's Othello."
May 20, 1944 Is awarded the Gold Medal for the best diction in American theater, presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
July 4, 1944 Receives Billboard magazine's coveted Donaldson Award for the best acting performance in 1944, for his role in Othello.
1945 Receives citation from National Negro Museum and Historical Foundation "for courage and devotion to the ideals upon which American democracy was founded."
May 13, 1945Attends membership meeting of United Auto Workers Local 453, Chicago, and is made honorary member.
June 6, 1945 Receives Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Howard University, Washington, DC. At ceremony, sings Ballad for Americans.
October 18, 1945 Is awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal, "for the highest achievement of an American Negro," the top honor given each year by NAACP. At ceremony, held at the Biltmore Hotel, in NYC, NAACP Secretary Walter White, says, "No honest American, white or Negro, can sit in judgment of a man like RobesOn unless and until he has sacrificed time, talent, money and popularity in doing the utmost to root out the racial and economical evils which infuriate men like Robeson." Robeson shocks his audience of 700 when he suggests that the United States should seek peaceful coexistence with the USSR and the "creation of a world where people, whether white or black or brown, can live in peace and harmony and where resources can be used for the good of all, for the advancement of mankind."
November 15, 1946 Is guest of honor at Founders Day Luncheon, on proposed home grounds of the DuSable community Center, Chicago.
January, 1947 Testimonial dinner in Robeson's honor, sponsored by Local 600, UAW in Detroit.
January 20, 1947 Speaking at a dinner given in his honor by the Detroit chapter of the National Negro Congress, announces his departure from the theater and concert stage in order to dedicate himself to the political struggle. States, in part, "The rich think they can stop the progress of the Negro people by taking one here and another there and lifting them up. They are very wrong. We Negroes stand with all other workers. I must take my artistic work away from its special place, back to the working people, to tie up my personal side with the cultural side of the workers."
April 27, 1947 Addresses and sings to 3,500 at "Chicago Salutes Paul Robeson," at the Civic Opera House, with Lena Home and others paying tribute to Robeson, under auspices of the Abraham Lincoln School for Social Sciences.
May, 1947Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity awards him its Alpha Medallion for his "outstanding role as a champion of freedom."
September 6, 1947 Is honored at gala luncheon given by the Cultural Division of the National Negro Congress, held at the home of Dorothy Dandridge in Los Angeles and attended by leaders in the theatrical and civic circles of the city.
October 18, 1947 Receives award from Artists, Writers & Printing Workers' Congress of Bucharest, Romania.
November 1, 1947 Is honored guest at pre-election party of the Progressive Citizens of America, at Midland Hotel, Chicago.
July 28, 1948 This year's annual visit to Camp Wo-Chi-Ca includes the dedication of the Paul Robeson Playhouse, built by the campers, staff and union volunteers as "a place for workers' children to dance and sing." People come from miles around for the festivities, where the campers perform a play honoring Robeson, and he gives a concert for them.
May 25-29, 1949 Gives concert to 15,000 at Smetana Hall in Prague, Czechoslovakia. For two hours before program, Czech youth groups parade through the streets to honor and welcome him to their city. Also sings for the workers at several factories, gives radio interviews, and concludes his stay with a Sunday concert at the Prague Stadium.
August 14, 1949 Visits Camp Kinderland, a secular Jewish and multi-cultural summer camp established in Hopewell Junction, NY, in 1923. Sings and speaks to the children, and they present him with an honorary scroll.
•October, 1949 Soviet Union names Mount Robeson in his honor, the highest peak in Republic of Kirghizia.
October 11, 1949 Howard University Medical School holds dinner in his honor, at Dunbar Hotel, Washington, DC, followed by Robeson concert at Turner's Arena.
May 6, 1950 Selection announced for African-American 1950 National Honor Roll, sponsored by African American Newspapers. Citation reads: "Actor, singer extraordinary, who has chosen to leave these peaceful arts in which he gained fame in order to throw himself into the political fight in which he hopes to win human dignity and equality for the common people."
May 8, 1952 Receives plaque from International Ladies Garment Workers Union, inscribed "Your life, your thoughts, expressed in words and songs, binds the liberation struggle with the struggles of the toilers towards a new, free and happy world."
May 11, 1952 Is honored at 54th birthday party, Arcade Ballroom, Chicago.
June 1, 1952 Because no local concert hall will now rent to him, speaks and gives free concert to 13,000 jammed into Washington Park, in Chicago. The crowd is there to pay tribute to Robeson for "his leadership in the struggle for peace, democracy and the liberation of oppressed peoples." The event is sponsored by the Chicago Negro Labor Council.
December 22, 1952 Awarded the International Stalin Peace Prize. The Prize had been established three years earlier to honor citizens of any country for "outstanding service in the struggle against war and for the strengthening of peace." State Department denies him permission to travel to accept award.
January 29, 1953 National Church of Nigeria, at a ceremony attended by 5,000, honors Robeson with the award "Champion of African Freedom," in recognition and appreciation of his "unswerving devotion and selfless service to the cause of African liberation."
June 7, 1953 Gives concert at Macedonian Missionary Baptist Church, San Francisco, to a capacity crowd of 2,000, followed by a banquet in his honor.
October 19, 1954 New World Review magazine sponsors "Cultural Tribute to the Robesons" in New York City.
June 12, 1956 -Emergency Civil Liberties Committee holds concert at Town Hall, New York City, A Tribute to Paul Robeson, with proceeds going to help defray costs of Robeson's passport suit.
October 5, 1957 Is invited by Welsh miners to be honored guest at annual Eisteddfod Music Festival. Appeal to Supreme Court for passport is rejected, but he is able to sing on schedule, via trans-Atlantic telephone hook-up between New York and Porthcawl, Wales, to the 5,000 gathered there.
April, 1958 The Bulletin, publication of the Workers' Music Association, London, is dedicated to Robeson in honor of his 60th birthday.
April 11 and 12, 1958 Gives two concerts af Mandel Hall, University of Chicago, sponsored by the Students Representative Party. Following the second concert, sings and speaks at a "smoker" given in his honor by the Chicago branch of his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha.
April 13, 1958 Honored for his 60th birthday, at a party sponsored by the Chicago Citizens Committee and the African American Heritage Association, held at Parkway Ballroom, Chicago.
July, 1958 Visits British Parliament, where a luncheon is given in his honor.
August, 1958 Is made Honorary Professor, Moscow State Conservatory of Music for his "researches in folk music of all nations and his use of music to strengthen and enlarge understanding and promote friendship between all peoples.
October, 1958 Sings at National Eisteddfod, music festival of Welsh miners, in Ebbw Vale, Wales. In appreciation for the support he gave them during the 1920s and 1930s, thousands of miners and their families give a rousing, tearful welcome to their Great Honorary Welsh Hero and present him with a miniature Miners' Lamp.
October 7, 1958 Street is named in his honor in Lvov, Poland.
November 26, 1958 Birmingham Peace Committee holds Luncheon in honor of Robeson, at the Imperial Hotel, Birmingham, England.
April, 1959 Is awarded Honorary Membership in the Musicians' Union, London.
May 1, 1960 Returns to Scotland as guest of honor at annual May Day celebrations of mine workers. Sings and speaks to the 20,000 gathered there and receives the Scottish Miners' Lamp.
October, 1960 Awarded honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree, for his "services in the great struggle for peace," from Humboldt University, Berlin, honorary membership in the German Academy of Arts, German Democratic Republic, and the Order of the Star of International Friendship from the GDR government.
October-November, 1960 Last concert tour takes him and his lifelong accompanist Lawrence Brown to Australia and New Zealand for ten weeks. Peace reception is given in his honor in Sydney. In speech entitled "The People Must, If Necessary, Impose the Peace," at Melbourne Peace Conference, calls for complete disarmament and friendship among all peoples. By invitation of the Building Workers' Industrial Union, appears at the construction site of the Sydney Opera House, where he sings to the workers. In Wellington, sings to striking dock workers and accepts honorary membership in their union. Throughout the tour, when speaking at events or to the press, always expresses his concern over the mistreatment of the Maoris in New Zealand and the aboriginal peoples in Australia.
1961 Is invited by President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana to chair the music and drama departments at the University of Accra. While the State Department fails in its attempt to block the appointment, Robeson, although "delighted and honored" by the offer, must decline, due to ill health.
January, 1963 Paul Robeson Choir is established in German Democratic Republic.
April 10, 1965 Paul Robeson Archive is established at the Academy of Arts in Berlin, GDR. Dedication ceremony is one event in elaborate celebration spread over several days.
April 22, 1965 Freedomways magazine holds a celebration of Robeson's 67th birthday at Hotel Americana in New York, attended by 2,500. Among the 60 illustrious sponsors and those paying tribute to him are James Baldwin, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Earl Dickerson, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Linus Pauling, Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger, Billy Taylor, I.F. Stone. John 0. Killens speaks of Robeson as "the big daddy of all Negro artists. He taught us the meaning of freedom, that there is no price too high to pay for it." Keynote speaker John Lewis, Chair of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, says, in part, "We of SNCC are Paul Robeson's spiritual children. We, too, have rejected gradualism and moderation. We are also being accused of radicalism, of communist infiltration." For reasons of ill health, this will be Robeson's last pubic appearance.
May 15, 1965 Freedomways holds a second Robeson 67' birthday celebration, at the First Unitarian Church in Los Angeles.
June 4, 1965 "Salute to Paul Robeson" is held at Jack Tar Hotel, San Francisco, sponsored by The Sun Reporter.
Winter, 1967 Who's Who in American History includes Robeson.
April, 1968 Celebrations of Robeson's 70th birthday take place in many countries.
April 8, 1968 British Trade Unions hold 70th birthday tribute at Royal Festival Hall. Many old friends and luminaries paying tribute to Robeson include his two British Desdemonas, Peggy Ashcroft and Mary Ure, actors Peter O'Toole and Michael Redgrave; many others who can not attend but send messages include John Dankworth, John Gielgud, Yehudi Menuhin and Oliver Tambo, who will later become one of the top leaders of the African National Congress of South Africa.
April 9, 1968FM radio station in New York broadcasts 2-hour tribute to Robeson, for his 70th birthday.
April 13, 1969 Meeting in tribute to Robeson for his 71st birthday is held in Chicago. He is unable to attend, due to illness.
February 14, 1970 Receives coveted Ira Aldridge Award from New York Chapter of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
April 2, 1970 Rutgers University dedicates the Paul Robeson Music and Arts Lounge, in Student Center, on New Brunswick campus. Event is sponsored by the Eastern Region of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
September 20, 1970 Is cited by Black Academy of Arts and Letters for his
"immeasurable contribution to our society."
November, 1970 Black World magazine publishes "Paul Robeson: Black Star," a tribute by C.L.R. James.
November 15, 1970 Is presented with Zhitlovsky Award by Zhitlovsky Foundation for Jewish Education. Award is accepted by Paul, Jr., at New York Hilton ceremonies.
November 29, 1970 .Local 1199's Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center celebrates opening of new 15-story headquarters with cultural program entitled "A Tribute to Paul Robeson." Participants include Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Pete Seeger, Mary Travers, Dizzy Gillespie. Two auditoriums are needed to accommodate huge audience.
1971· Detroit International Afro-American Museum holds Paul Robeson Exhibit.·Canadian Broadcasting Company and a PBS station in New York air programs on his life.
April, 1971· Entire first quarter issue of Freedomways is devoted to"Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner." Containstributes, poems and articles by Gwendolyn Brooks,Lloyd L. Brown, Margaret Burroughs, Alice Childress,Ossie Davis, Shirley Graham Du Bois, Harry Edwards,Nikki Giovanni, Dick Gregory, Lena Home, William L.Patterson, Sterling Stuckey, among others. Alsoincludes selections from Robeson's speeches andwritings.·Local 1199, New York, holds 73rd birthday celebration,with many celebrities participating.
April 4-14, 1971Huge multi-event 73rd birthday salute is held at the German Academy of Art, Berlin, GDR, including two-day symposium on his life, entitled "Paul Robeson and the Afro-American Struggle." In tribute to Robeson's work on the Council on African Affairs in the 1940s, Alex La Guma, South African scholar and writer, declares, "Until then, I believe, most Americans thought in terms of Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories of Tarzan and the Apes whenever they heard the continent of Africa mentioned." Other participants include William L. Patterson, Coretta Scott King, Angela Davis, John Henrik Clarke.
November 6, 1971 Receives award as "Pioneer in Black Achievement" from the International Black Cultural and Business Exposition.December 7, 1971Dizzy Gillespie presents a "Tribute to Paul Robeson and Black Culture" in the Princeton University Chapel.
1972 Is selected for special honors, along with 32 other individuals, and the only African American, as a charter member of the National Theater Hall of Fame.
April, 1972 Du Sable Museum of African American History, Chicago, celebrates Robeson's 74th birthday and designates April 9, his birthday, as the date for an annual cultural and benefit event for the museum.
April 9, 1972 New student center on Newark campus of Rutgers University is named in honor of Robeson, its most illustrious alumnus. In dedication speech, president of the University says, in part, "Today, after a period of neglect by this University of which I am ashamed, we return to Paul Robeson some small portion of that great honor he brought to us."
May 3, 1972 Receives Black Psychiatrist Association's Annual Award, citing him as "a model and inspiration" to Black youth.
August, 1972 Proclaimed by Ebony magazine one of "The Ten Greats of Black History," along with Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, Nat Turner, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Richard Allen. Article states, in part, that Robeson "dedicated himself totally to the cause of the liberation of all oppressed people irrespective of color," and that "no Black man has ever had more to give—or has given more—to his people than Robeson."
August 6, 1972 Sunday Arts and Leisure section of New York Times features article entitled "Time to Break the Silence Surrounding Paul Robeson."
September, 1972 Receives National Urban League's 2nd annual Whitney M. Young Memorial Award.
October, 1972 Awarded the Duke Ellington Medal by Yale University.
November, 1972 Hollywood NAACP confers its Image Award on Robeson for his "eminence as an artist and a fighter for human justice."
November 19, 1972Is inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.
1973Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Lincoln University, PA, establishes Paul Robeson Scholarship Fund.
February, 1973Veterans of Abraham Lincoln Brigade, who fought against fascism in Spain, at celebration of their 36th anniversary, honor Robeson for his contributions to the cause of Spanish freedom.
February 4, 1973Berkeley High School (Berkeley, CA) holds "A Tribute to Paul Robeson, A Black Man Ahead of His Time," a concert performed by bass Eugene Jones.
February 16, 1973Freedomways magazine holds its Annual W.E.B. DuBois Cultural Evening in honor of Robeson.
April 5, 1973"Birthday tribute to Paul Robeson: Singing out freedom all over the world," article in The Morning Star, London, reports on 75" Birthday Rally, in London on March 11, attended by 3,000 and other tributes around the world.
April 8-14, 1973Rutgers University holds week-long series of events in honor of 75th birthday and awards him Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Rutgers President Edward Bloustein, in presenting the award, states, "After a period of neglect, too long contributed to... by the University, we return to you, with this degree, some small portion of the great honor you have brought to us." Program is funded by the University and a $10,000 matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
April 15, 1973 Over 3,000 pack Carnegie Hall for 75th birthday salute to Robeson and benefit to establish a Paul Robeson Archive in the US. (One had already been established in the GDR in 1965.) Program participants include former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Pete Seeger, Angela Davis, Dolores Huerta,Dizzy Gillespie, Odetta, Leon Bibb, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte (who also produced the show), James Earl Jones Zero Mostel, Roscoe Lee Browne, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Coretta Scott King.
