HISTORY ON VIDEO - BIOGRAPHY OF
PAUL ROBESON DOCUMENTARY
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
A PAUL ROBESON CHRONOLOGY
1898
Paul Leroy Robeson born, youngest of five children of William Drew Robeson and Maria Louisa Bustill Robeson. In Princeton, New Jersey, where father was pastor of Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church.
1904
Mother died of burns in accidental household fire.
Father raised family.
1907
Family moved to Westfield, New Jersey, where Paul attended integrated public school.
1909
Family moved to Somerville, New Jersey where Revered Robeson was
appointed pastor of St. Thomas A.M.E. Zion Church
1911
Paul entered Somerville High School, and was one of two Blacks enrolled. He played title role in Shakespeare´s Othello, sang in glee club, and played football- all in spite of principal´s opposition.
1915
Fall – Entered Rutgers. Tried out for varsity football and met racist hostility.
Took competitive examination for four year scholarship at Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey and succeeded. Graduated from Somerville High School as honor student at the age of seventeen.
1917
Walter Camp, foremost authority on football, listed Robeson first on roster of college stars..
*Philip S. Foner, Editor. Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches and Interviews. New York: Brunner/Mazel Publisher, 1978.
1918
May 17--Father died at age of seventy-three.
Chosen by Walter Camp for his AD-American team.
Awarded (through 1919) fifteen varsity letters in sports at Rutgers, including basketball, baseball, discus,
shot put and javelin as well as football. Also elected member of both prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Society and Cap and Skull, honor society of Rutgers seniors.
1919
May 29—Submitted senior thesis, "The Fourteenth Amendment, the Sleeping Giant of the American Constitution."
July—Moved to Harlem in New York City. 1920
February--Entered Columbia University Law School, worked at odd jobs and played some professional football to earn tuition money.
Made acting debut playing lead in Simon the Cyrenian, one of Plays for a Negro Theater by white poet Ridgely Torrence. Congratulated by members of Provincetown Players in audience at Harlem YMCA.
1921
August--Married Eslanda Cordoza Goode. Eslanda, called Essie by her friends was granddaughter of Francis L. Cardoza, distinguished black Secretary of State of South Carolina during Reconstruction
1922 April—Played role of African in Mary Hoyt Wiborg's
play Taboo.
Summer—While still student at Columbia Law School, went to England to appear in production of Taboo (renamed Voodoo) with Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Met Lawrence Brown at Regents Park Road flat of John Payne, American Negro singer. Toured British provinces with Mrs. Campbell.
1923
Spring- Graduated from Columbia Law School, and sought work in law firms
1924
Offered lead in two plays by Eugene O'Neill--A// God's Chillun Got Wings and revival of The Emperor Jones. Accepted roles, having quit position at downtown law firm because secretary refused to take dictation from him.
May 5--Threatened by Ku Klux Klan if he appeared in All God's Chillun, in which a white woman would kiss his hand.
May 15--Opened in All God's Chillun in role of Jim Harris and was immediate success.
June--Starred in Rosanne in Philadelphia. Fall--Made silent movie Body and Soul for Oscar Micheaux, independent Black filmmaker.
1925
April 19- Gave concert with Lawerence Brown, made up solely of Negro music- three groups of spirituals and one group of secular and dialect songs. Concert was resounding success and brought Negro spirituals to prominent place in music world.
September 11—Opened in Emperor Jones in London to critical acclaim.
October. Victor Records advertised recording of Negro spirituals.
1926
January 5—Launched tour with Lawerence brown under auspices of James B. Pond, sang Negro spirituals to packed audiences across U.S.
October 6—Opened in Black Boy in New York to rave reviews for performance through play about black prizefighter was not well received.
1927
October- Returned to Europe and gave concerts with Lawerence Brown.
November- Son Paul, Jr., (Called Pauli), born in New York.
1928
March—Played role of Crown in Porgy, play by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, replacing Jack Carter.
April--Opened in Show Boat by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, and became overnight sensation singing "01' Man River."
September 29--New Yorker magazine published
"Profile of Robeson" by Mildred Gilman in which he was called "the promise of his race," "King of Harlem," and "idol of his people."
1929
Toured Central Europe and the British provinces.
, Despite invitations by top London society,
I encountered racial discrimination and was refused admission to
London hotels (through 1930). Created furor and major hotels stated they would not refuse admission or service to Negroes.
November 5--Returned to U.S. to sing at jammed Carnegie Hall.
1930
May 29--Opened to great acclaim in role of Moor in Shakespeare's Othello at Savoy Theatre in London and had twenty curtain calls. Was first American Negro since Ira Aldridge to play role.
Appeared in film Borderline with Esianda, made in Switzerland.
First biography, Paul Robeson, Negro by Eslanda Goode Robeson, published in New York by Harper & Brothers. Head sculpted by Jacob Epstein, leading British sculptor.
Appeared in British Who's Who (never listed in Who´s Who in America).
1931
May 11--Opened in The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill at Ambassador Theatre in London.
1932
Received Honorary Master's Degree from Rutgers University.
1933
May—Returned to New York to star in movie of The Emperor Jones.
August—Returned to England and studied singing, and languages. Became acquainted with African students in London, among them Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo, Kenyatta. Paul and Essie made honorary members of West African Students' Union.
August—Played benefit of All God's Chillun for Jewish refugees at urging of Marie Seton, British writer who was later to write biography of him
September--Asked to speak at Socialist Club of Cambridge University.
1934
May--Played role of Bosambo, a tribal chief, in film version of Edgar Wallace's Sanders of the River, was enraged by addition to film, without his knowledge, of *scenes praising British colonialism.
Extended repertoire beyond Negro spirituals to include Mexican, Scottish, and Russian songs. Continued to study languages and eventually mastered 25, from Chinese to Arabic.
Alexander Woollcott, well-known essayist and reconteur, extolled Robeson in While Rome Burns. In chapter called "Colossal Bronze" Woollcott said: "Of the 'countless people I have known in my wanderings over the world, he is one of the few of whom I would say that they have greatness... by what he does, thinks and is, by his unassailable dignity, and his serene, incorruptible simplicity, Paul Robeson strikes me as having been made out of the original stuff of the world.
Invited to Soviet Union to discuss with 6 Eisenstein making film, Black Majesty, dealing with rebellion leading up to establishment of Haiti.
In Moscow, Met William L. Patterson, Black lawyer who told him of the struggle involving the Scottsboro Boys in U.S. and urged him to return home to help in the fight for Negro causes.
Had discussion with Einstein. Was deeply impressed by fact that all schoolchildren in Soviet Union were educated against racism. Black Majesty not produced, but Robeson determined to return annually.
Went back to London to continue work in films and theatre, Began study of writings on Marxism and socialist, system in the Soviet Union.
1935
May 9--Opened in Stevedore, play on black-white labor unity by Paul Peters and George Sklar; —
September 25--Sailed for United States to make film of Show Boat.
193
Received rave reviews for singing of "Or Man River" in Show Boat.
March--Performed role of Toussaint L'Ouverture in play by C. L. R. James.
August--Appeared in The Song of Freedom, film about Africa which he felt was the first true one he has done about that continent. It portrayed a black singer
who, after discovering his aristocratic African origins, returned
to take over leadership of his people. September--Filmed King Solomon's Mines,
based on book by H. Roger Haggard.
December (through January 1937)--Visited Soviet Asia and Caucasus and was deeply impressed by great progress made by so-called backward people in these areas especially racial minorities.
1937
Co-founder (with Max Yergan) and Chairman of Council on African Affairs, formed to aid national liberation struggles in Africa.
January--Starred in Big Fella film based on Claude McKay's novel Banjo.
February--Played in film entitled Jericho (released in U.S. As Dark Sands), about an American soldier, Jericho Jackson, who remained in Africa after World War I. Went to Egypt for shooting, his first visit to Africa.
May Song of Freedom opened and received praise even from previously critical American Negro press.
June 24—Declared stand on side of Republican Spain, stated: "The artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.¨
• August-September— Sang at numerous concerts for Spanish Republican cause.
October--Polled first place as singer most popular with British radio listeners. Announced intention of retiring from commercial entertainment.
December 19--At rally in support of "arms, food and justice for democratic Spain," changed words of "Or Man River" from "I'm tired of livin' and feared of dyin to "I.must keep fightin' until I'm dyin'."
1938
January 23--Went to Madrid to sing in hospitals for troops of International Brigade. February—Returned from Spain,
June—Appeared in Plant in the Sun a play by Ben Bengal dealing with sit-down strikes and union organizing in U.S., produced by Unity Theatre under auspices of British Labour Party.
November--After almost two years of refusing roles from major film companies, announced he will play in
film produced by small independent company, Ealing Studios, about life of Welsh miners.
November- After almost two years of refusing roles from major film companies, announced he will play in Proud Valley, film produced by small independent company, Ealing Studies, about the life of Welsh miners.
June 3--Returned to U.S. and appeared in short run of revival of the Emperor Jones.
July 1--Gave first song recital after return at Mother A.M.E. Church in Harlem where brother Reverend Benjamin Robeson was pastor.
August--Refused to open in John Henry in Washington, D.C., because theater was segregated. Opened in New York instead.
1939
October 27--Signed contract with Columbia Artists for role in Ballad for Americans, based on The Ballad of Uncle Sam by John Latouche (renamed by Norman Corwin), with music by Earl Robinson.
November 5--Premier on CBS Radio of Ballad for Americans with Earl Robinson's 'American People's Chorus lead to greatest audience response since Orson .Welles' famous Martian scare program. Studio audience cheers for twenty minutes after performance.
Through 1942--Crossed country many times, appeared at regularly scheduled concerts, except in deep south or before segregated audiences.
1940
February appeared in twenty-minute opera version of The Emperor Jones by Louis Gruenberg with Eugene Ormandy and Philadelphia Orchestra.
March--Bought house, "The Beeches," in Enfield, Connecticut, after inquiries showed there would be no difficulties with neighbors.
Received honorary degree from Hamilton College.
July--Refused service in fashionable San Francisco restaurant; sued owner for $22,500 under California Civil Code barring discrimination in public places on basis of race or color.
July 23--Sang Ballad for Americans to 30,000 people jamming Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
September--Appeared with pianist Hazel Scott and novelist Richard Wright at benefit for Negro Playwrights Company before 5,000 people at Golden Gate Ballroom in Harlem. Active throughout year in Committee to Aid China, Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee to Aid Spanish Refugees, and Council on African Affairs.
1941
May 19--Spoke at United Auto Workers rally in Downtown Detroit to aid Ford organizing campaign.
July 7--Made honorary member of National Maritime Union.
1942
Devoted time and talent to war effort, touring war plants, performing at War Bond rallies, and recording programs for American and Allied soldiers. Gave recitals, many at no fee, for such groups as Washington Committee for Aid to China, Russian War Relief, Ford Workers Victory Chorus, Labor Victory Rally at Yankee Stadium, Concert for Negro Soldiers
February 20--Headline in Kansas City Call read, "Paul Robeson Stops in Middle of Concert to Protest Municipal Auditorium Jim-Crow. Famous Baritone Blasts Segregation in Public Building." - - -
March 7--Spoke at Bethel A.M.E. Church a St. Antoine and Kirby in Detroit on behalf of black families of Sojourner Truth Housing Project at request of Sojourner Truth Citizens Committee. Urged fighting back against Ku Klux Klan elements.
May--Narrated documentary film Native Land dealing with 1938 findings of La Follette-Thomas Senate Civil Liberties Committee supporting union organizing.
May--Addressed Yankee Stadium meeting of 51,000 workers, called for second front to shorten war.
August 10--Opened in his first U.S. Othello at
Brattle Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts, under direction of Margaret Webster.
August--In last commercial film, appeared with Ethel Waters as sharecropper in final episode of Tales of Manhattan, six stories connected through travels of a dress coat.
September 15--Spoke and sang for workers at Inglewood, California plant of North American Aircraft at invitation of Local 887, UAW-CIO.
.
1943
January--Received Abraham Lincoln Medal for notable and distinguished service in human relations in New York.
June 2--Received honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia.
June 7--Spoke and sang at Negro Freedom Rally at Madison Square Garden.
October--Opened on Broadway in Theatre Guild
production of Othello to tremendous critical and audience acclaim.
November 12--Honorary lifetime membership in International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union conferred by union president Harry Bridges after action by convention.
December 3--As part of Negro delegation, presented plea for removal of ban against Negroes in major leagues at Hotel Roosevelt in New York before Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and league officials.
1944
January--Made honorary member of State, County and Municipal Workers of America, CIO.
April 14--Chaired Conference on "Africa--New Perspectives," under auspices of Council on African Affairs.
May- Jerome Beatty, in article America´s No. 1 Negro¨ Appearing
in American Magazine, said: "Paul Robeson broke the back of prejudice to command recognition as a football star, lawyer, concert singer, and actor. Today he has won top triumphs for his magnificent portrayal of Shakespeare's Othello."
June 30--Othello closed in New York after record run of 296 performances and 494,839 paid admissions.
July 4--Received Billboard's first annual Donaldson Award for Outstanding Lead Performance for role in Othello.
September--Began cross-country tour of Othello, with Southern states omitted except for Negro colleges and unsegregated audiences.
1945
June--Received Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree from Howard University, Washington, D.C.
June 25--Spoke at Madison Square Garden Rally for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), against poll tax, and for elimination of other obstacles toward equality for Negro people.
August--Went to Europe as part of first racially-mixed overseas USO-sponsored camp show for troops, accompanied by Lawrence Brown and violinist Miriam Solovieff. Sang for troops in Germany, France, and Czechoslovakia.'
October--Awarded NAACP Spingarn Medal, highest honor given each year to a black man.
November 25--Addressed Central Conference of American Rabbis, declared that United States had taken
over role of Hitler, and now "stands for counter-revolution all over the world."
1946
January 7--Appeared with Marian Anderson at rally for South African famine relief held under auspices of Council on African Affairs at Abyssinian Baptist Church in
Harlem.
September--Joined in sponsoring Crusade Against
Lynching, representing coalition of some 50
organizations. As delegate to Washington, asked President Harry F. Truman to issue "formal public statement" that would make clear his views on lynching, and urged him to establish a "definite legislative and educational program to end the disgrace of mob violence." Addressed mass meeting and spoke on radio against lynching.
October--Elected vice-president of Civil Rights Congress of which William L. Patterson was executive secretary.
October 7- Appeared before California Legislative Committee on Un-American Activities (Tenney Committee) as co-chairman of the National Committee to Win the Peace. Asked if he was member of Communist Party. He said he was not but praised Communists as fighters for democracy and declared
characterize myself as an Anti-Fascist.
1947
March--After singing "Joe Hill" by Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson at University of Utah, Salt Lake City--the city where Joe Hill was executed in 1915--announced, "You have just heard my final concert for at least two years, and perhaps for many more. I'm retiring here and now from concert work. I shall sing now for my trade union and college friends. In other words, only at gatherings where I can sing what I please."
June- Gave four concerts in Panama for United Public Workers of America, CIO, who were trying to unionize Panamanian workers, predominantly blacks. Ten thousand attended.
October--Received award from Artists, Writers, and Printing Workers Congress of Bucharest, Rumania.
December 20--Announced support of Henry A. Wallace as independent candidate for President of the United States in opposition to Cold War policies of Truman Administration. Later attended meeting to form Wallace for President Committee out of which emerged Progressive Party.
1948
March--Toured Hawaiian Islands for International Longshoremen’s' and Warehousemen’s' Union accompanied by Lawrence Brown and Earl Robinson.
April--West Virginia authorities banned Paul Robeson: Citizen of the World, a young people's biography by Shirley Graham, from public libraries.
April-July--Barnstormed for Progressive Party and its presidential candidate, Henry A. Wallace.
May-September--Sought appointment with President Truman to confer on anti-poll tax, anti-lynching, and fair employment legislation but repeated requests rejected.
April-July--Barnstormed for Progressive Party and its presidential candidate, Henry A. Wallace.
May-September--Sought appointment with President Truman to confer on anti-poll tax, anti-lynching, and fair employment legislation but repeated requests rejected.
June--
Appeared before U.S. Senate Committee holding hearings on Mundt-Nixon Bill drafted by House Un-American Activities Committee which called for registering of Communist Party members and "Communist Front" organizations. Opposed measure as violating rights of American citizens. When asked if he would fight in a war with Soviet Union, replied, "That would depend on conditions." Also refused to answer question as to communist Party membership.
June 23-- Speaking at Manhattan Center dinner sponsored by Masses 8 Mainstream magazine, urged all artists and writers to oppose Mundt-Nixon Bill. (Bill was not brought to vote in Senate).
July-- At Progressive Party convention in Philadelphia, which nominated Henry A. Wallace for President and Senator Glen H. Taylor for Vice-President, pledged to help ticket with all his power. In course of speech said: "What mockery! Our high standard of living for a minority in the richest country of the earth! Absentee ownership still rules supreme. One percent of the population owns as much wealth as one-third of the ill-housed, ill-fed whom Roosevelt so feelingly described. The spectacle of the Pews and Grundys, the Sullivans and Dulles' in full view on the Republican side, and the Du Ponts, House of Morgan, Dillon-Reed, Forrestal on the Democratic side shows the contempt of big business barons for the great majority of the American people."
July- August--Touring South with Henry Wallace, was threatened with lynching but spoke out for racial equality.
November--Election results disappointed Wallace • supporters, but continued to support Progressive Party and its program against Cold War and for rights of labor and minorities. (In 1950 Wallace left Progressive Party, and voiced regret for having criticized Truman on Cold War.)
1949
January 28--Told protest meeting called by newly organized Negro Youth Builders Institute, Inc., that "the suppression of the Negro in the United States varies only
in degree in New York, New Jersey, Georgia and Alabama," that the public must be "aroused" to poor. school conditions in Harlem and Brooklyn, inadequate housing, "Police brutality in the North, Generally," which. wound include "the railroading to the electric chair of six
Negro youths in New Jersey (the Trenton Six)."
Comparing what he termed "children in cotton fields in the South, children on tobacco plantations and exploited children all over," with the "neglected children of the North,¨ said conditions were of the same pattern—evidence of a colored minority in a hostile white world.¨
February-- Started concert tour in England. -
April 20-- At World Congress of Partisans of Peace in Paris, with delegates from 60 countries including Dr. W.E.B. DuBois from the United States, delivered speech in which he said " is unthinkable that American Negroes will go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us
for generations., against a country [the Soviet Union]
which in one generation has raised our people to full human dignity of mankind." Speech was distorted and quotation reported out of context by news reporters in dispatches to their papers in the U.S.
May— Visited Poland's Warsaw Ghetto, which made deep impression.
June 14-16-- Three-part series, "Two Worlds," published in Komsomolskaia Pravda, Journal of Communist Youth in USSR. In "First Joy," he described impressions of first visits to Soviet Union in 1934 and 1936. In "My Name Is Robeson," related some episodes of his life. In "Ten Years of Struggle," talked of fight for
peace, against war, and for better life for American people.
June 16-- Returning to New York from four month tour of Europe and Soviet Union, called trial of eleven Communist leaders "a type of domestic fascism" and denounced Wall Street's "war policy."
June 19-- Paul Robeson, :.W., was Married to Marilyn Paula Greenberg, _a white student also studying at Cornell. 1
July 13----4:- Negro spokesmen testifying before House Un-American Activities Committee declared Robeson did not speak for his race at Paris. Witnesses included Manning Johnson who testified Robeson dreamed of becoming a "Black Stalin" but was so incoherent even reporters conceded he had said nothing truly meaningful. NAACP announced it opposed hearings.
July 18-- Jackie Robinson first baseball player, told Committee that Robeson's statement in Paris sounded "very silly to me," but also said U.S. Negroes "were stirred up long before there was a Communist Party and they'll stay stirred up long afterthe party has disappeared--unless Jim Crow has disappeared by then."
July--Baltimore Afro-American, one of America's leading
black newspapers, advised Jackie Robinson to stick to
baseball and stay out of politics.
August 27--Peekskill riots began when Robeson concert was
attacked and Robeson prevented from singing as many in
audience were injured by rock throwers. Robeson
announced, "I'm going to sing wherever the people want me
to sing. My people and I won't be frightened by crosses
burning in Peekskill or anywhere
else."
August 28--Jackie Robinson
bitterly attacked Peekskill riot in interview in Brooklyn
Dodgers dugout.
September 4--Second concert held successfully but turned
into nightmare as lawlessness that broke out after concert
resulted in injuries to at least 150 persons, some serious,
while state troopers either did nothing to prevent attacks
or, in some instances, encouraged mob. Robeson denounced
attack as "fascist."
September 20--Appeared at trial of eleven Communist
leaders but was barred from saying anything other than
that he knew the defendants.
September 25--Started singing and speaking tour
sponsored by Council on African Affairs, often at
considerable personal risk since American Legion
and Veterans of Foreign Wars picketed concerts and
stirred up crowds.
October--Soviet Union named Mount Robeson in his
honor.
November 10--Spoke out in favor of peaceful relations
with Soviet Union at banquet sponsored by National
Council for American-Soviet Friendship at Waldorf
Astoria Hotel in New York City.
1950
March 13--NBC barred appearance on Mrs. Franklin D.
Roosevelt's TV program scheduled for March 19.
Charles R,. Denny, NBC Executive Vice-President,
declared "no good purpose would be served in having
him speak on issue of Negro politics."
May 27--In Nation article, Earl Schenck wrote: "As a product of his times, Robeson today is perhaps more All-American than he was as member of his college."
July 28--On advice of attorneys, refused to hand over passport as demanded by agents of State
Department. At the time had completed arrangements for trip to Europe to attend several meetings and to fulfill speaking engagements in a number of countries, as well as to give several concerts in Italy and England and to make recordings.
August 1--Robeson's lawyers wrote to State
Department asking for explanation of order.
August 7--Chief of Passport Division replied: "The action was taken because the Department considers that Paul Robeson's travel abroad at this time would be
contrary to the best interest of the United States."
August 28--Visited State Department and
demanded to see Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
Offered passport back if he would sign statement that he too" would not make any speeches while abroad. Refused.
September--Convention People's Party in Ghana selected Robeson's films, King Solomon's Mines, Jericho, and Native Land for showing on occasion of second anniversary. _
November--First column in Robeson's monthly newspaper, Freedom, appeared. (Paper continued publication in Harlem with column, "Here's My Story," appearing in most issues until August 1955.)
December 19--Sued Secretary of State Dean Acheson in Washington, D.C., to prevent cancellation of passport.
1951
April 20-U.S. District Court for District of Columbia ruled against Robeson by asserting it had no power to act in his case, but also denied government's motion that he be compelled to turn in canceled passport. (In the summer, Paul Jr.'s application for passport to attend 1951 Youth Festival in Berlin is denied.)
August 16--Appealed April dismissal of passport suit.
November 5--Addressed opening session of Conference for Equal Rights for Negroes in the Arts, Sciences, and Professions held in New York City.
November 15--With Soviet Ambassador Alexander S. Panyushkin and Corliss Lamont, addressed "world peace rally" sponsored by National Council for American-Soviet Friendship in New York City.
December 17--Headed New York delegation presenting petition to UN by Civil Rights Congress charging genocide against Negroes of United States on ground that "15 million black Americans are mostly subjected to conditions making for premature death poverty and disease.
April 6-June 2--Made birthday tour to raise $50,000 to aid National Negro Labor Council, Council on African Affairs and Freedom.
May 18--Sang to estimated 40,000 listeners at Peace Arch Park on U.S.-Canadian border.
December--Othello Recording Corporation issued album "Robeson Sings, " which included "Wandering," "Four Rivers," "Witness," "My Curly-Headed Baby," "Night" (in Russian and English), and "Hassidic Chant." With recording companies refusing to issue his records or record new ones and all concert halls, theaters, etc., closed to him, Robeson, who had been listed among top ten highest paid concert artists of 1941, saw his income dwindle from a high of over $100,000 in 1947 to about $6,000 in 1952.
December--Concert scheduled in Chicago was called off because mortgage holders on church where it was to be held threatened that if he sang, they would demand immediate payment or foreclose. Some Negroes holding federal jobs had been threatened with firing if they attended.
1953
January. First Book of Negros—A Child´s History of the Negro, by Langston Hughes, published by Franklin Watts.
January 29—National Church of Nigeria named Robeson ¨Champion of African Freedom4
.¨ Award granted Baptist Church in Detroit sponsored by Mrs. Vera Smith, chairperson of the Church´s Evangelistic Commission.
May 31—Began second nation-wide concert tour with appearance at Greater St. Peter´s Baptist Church in Detroit, sponsored by Freedom Associates. Tour spanned five months and took him to the West and Deep South.
July 5—Sang at concert in Washington Park, Chicago, before 25,000 under auspices of Freedom Associates of Chicago.
September 23—Presented with 1952 Stalin Peace Prize by Dr. WEB. Dubois at ceremonies at New York's Theresa Hotel.
1954
June 1—All-India Peace Council circulated plea for return of passport.
March--Gave two sold-out concerts in auditorium of
First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles.
April 30--Sang and talked at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, under sponsorship of Forum for Free
July 10--Paid farewell tribute to Leslie McFarland, Negro member active in work of International
Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union in Oakland, California.
1956
March 11--Taped message read to "Let Paul
Robeson Sing" meeting at Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England.
July 13--Appeared before House Un-American Activities Committee and told them, "You are the UnAmericans."
November--Name omitted from 1956 edition of College Football and All-American list of players on 1918 Walter Camp All-American team.
1957
April 28--British Actor's Equity Association voted to "make representation in whatever quarters may have influence in allowing him (Robeson) to perform in this country."
May 4--Manchester Guardian reported letter signed by 27 members of Parliament and British Actors' Equity Association joining campaign to invite Robeson to England to sing.
May 17--Appeared at Prayer Pilgrimage for Negro rights in Washington, D.C., celebrating court desegregation decision of 1954.
August 1--Robeson Comeback Concert at Third Baptist Church in San Francisco packed.
September 23--Urged U.S. government to defend Constitution against racist in Little Rock, Arkansas.
October--Quoted by Carl Rowan in Ebony magazine article, "Has Paul Robeson Betrayed the Negro?" as saying: "I am honestly convinced that China and Ghana would not be free today, that Negroes in Montgomery would not be so near freedom, had the Communists not come to power in Russia.¨
December—Invited by Welsh miners to be honored gust at 1957 Elsteddfod. Appeal to Supreme Court for passport turned down, but was able via transatlantic hookup between New York and Porthcrawl Wales, to sing on schedule.
1958
March 17--Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker of American Embassy in New Delhi, India, informed U.S. State Department that Prime Minister Nehru's daughter, Indira Ghandi, was organizing national committee to sponsor a "Paul Robeson Day" in Delhi. State Department failed in frantic effort to prevent celebration of Robeson's birthday in India.
April 9--60th Birthday celebrated in Berlin, German Democratic Republic, in Moscow, in Peking, and in many African nations.
May 10--Gave first New York concert in ten years at sold-out Carnegie Hall. At end told cheering audience passport battle had been won. Critics acclaimed his singing.
June 25--Announced plans for trip to London and concerts in Prague, Berlin, and Soviet Union, but made it clear he was deserting the country of my birth."
August--Here / Stand published: London, Dennis Dobson; New York, Othello Associates; Bucharest, Editura Politica; Berlin, Congress-Verlag; Moscow, Moilodaia Guardiia; Moscow, Pravda. No leading American publisher would publish Robeson's autobiographical work.
September 17--Started tour of German Democratic Republic.
October--Presented with Miners Lamp by miners of
• Wales. Will Paynter, president of South Wales area, told large audience they were "honoring a great man and great artist."
November--Climaxed English concert tour wan appearance at St. Paul's Cathedral. First black person to stand at lectern of Cathedral, he sang to 4,000 persons seated inside and 5,000 standing outside.
1959
January 1--Welcomed at Kremlin New Year's Ball by Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
January--Fell ill, was confined to Moscow hospital. During next four years was in and out of hospital many times because of deteriorating disease of circulatory system. Doctors said "absolutely no" to idea of stage appearance.
February--Permitted by doctors to appear in Othello in London if he kept physical activity to minimum and performed fewer than customary eight performances
weekly.
February 14--Won tax fight of several years to avoid paying $9,655 in federal income tax on $25,000 Stalin Peace Prize received in 1953. Internal Revenue now took position that prize belongs in same category as Nobel and Pulitzer prizes.
February 22--Performed in Moscow in first
appearance since illness.
April--Appeared in Othello at Stratford-on-Avon. May 11--Elected Vice-President of British-Soviet Friendship Society.
August 4--Spoke in Vienna at International Youth Festival attended by 17,000 from 82 countries. Criticized U.S. foreign and domestic policies.
1960
January 30--Attended theatre production with Premier Khrushchev marking 100th anniversary of Chekhov's birth in Moscow.
May 1--Guest of honor at Miners Gala on May Day in Edinburgh, Scotland, acclaimed as Paul Robeson's Day. In short speech said: "My people were hewers of wood and drawers of water all over the Western World. Today on the Continent of my forefathers, we are saying it is time for us to live a new life, time to be free. The struggles of Labor and the struggles of my people have always, in my mind, been joined." Receives Scottish Miners Lamp inscribed: "From the Scottish Miners to Paul Robeson."
November--Last concert tour took him to Australia and New Zealand. In Adelaide, Australia, told reporters: "I sing folk music because it covers the whole world. I am interested in all peoples. I am deeply concerned in the problems of the people who were here before you--the indigenous people of Australia. I don't call them the aborigines. I call them indigenous peoples."
1961
April 15- Reentered hospital in Moscow. Spent much time in hospitals and nursing homes. When news came he was being considered by Ghana´s President Kwame Nkrumah as lecturer at University of Ghana´s Institution of African Studies, U.S. State Department failed in attempt to block appointment but was too ill to accept.
1962 Paul Robeson was in nursing home in London, Eng.
1963
August 27--Interviewed at London airport in connection with March on Washington, declared: "The turning point has come for the American Negro people."
December 1--Brother Reverend Benjamin C. Robeson, pastor for twenty-seven years of Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Harlem, died at age of seventy.
December 20--New York Times announced "Robeson Will Return to U.S. to Retire."
December 22--Arriving in New York after five years and five months absence from U.S., was met by Paul, Jr., and daughter-in-law, Marilyn. Asked by reporters "would he take part in the civil rights program," replied, "Yes, I've been part of it all my life." New York Times, without slightest evidence, headlined story, "Disillusioned Native Son: Paul Robeson."
1964
February--Welcomed back to America by
Freedom ways, quarterly review of "the Negro Freedom movement," which called him a great voice for freedom over many years.
March--Issued first public statement after returning, on anniversary of 1963 March on Washington: We´re moving.¨
1965
Winter--Published "The Legacy of WEB. Du Bois" in Freedomways.
April 22--Freedomways Salute to Paul Robeson at Hotel Americana, chaired by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, packed with admirers. James Baldwin noted that "in the days when it seemed that there was no possibility in raising the individual voice and no possibility of applying the rigors of conscience, Paul Robeson spoke in a great voice which created a man."
December 13--Eslanda Robeson died of cancer at age of sixty-eight.
1969
April 2--Paul Robeson Music and Arts Lounge dedicated in new student center at Rutgers University
November 15--Presented with Znitlovsky Award by Zhitlovsky Foundation for Jewish Education. Accepted by Paul, Jr., at New York Hilton ceremonies.
November 29--Local 1199, Martin Luther King, Jr., Labor Center, celebrated opening of new 15-story headquarters with cultural program entitled "A Tribute to Paul Robeson" produced by Moe Foner. Hosts for evening were Ossie Davis and Mary Travers. Paul Robeson, Jr., delivered tribute and Dizzy Gillespie closed show. Two auditoriums needed because of great .response.
December--Head football coach and president of Rutgers University criticized failure of National Football Foundation to select Paul Robeson, twice All-American, for its Hall of Fame.
1971
April 8-9--Two-day Paul Robeson symposium held in Berlin, German Democratic Republic. Speakers from U.S. included William L. Patterson and Lloyd Brown.
April 9--Dr. Edmund J. Blaustein, president of
Rutgers University, delivered dedication speech at Newark-Rutgers student center named after Paul Robeson.
1972
August—Proclaimed by Ebony Magazine one of the ¨ten most important black men in American history.¨
1973
April 15--¨Salute to Paul Robeson on 75th birthday packed Carnegie Hall, New York City.
June 3—Awarded Doctor of Law by Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, first black college in U.S. and the one from which father graduated. Paul, Jr., accepted award.
October 21—New York Times Book Review review of Here I Stand (Beacon Press, 1971) was first in major commercial paper in fifteen years.
1974
June—Honored by Actors´ Equity Association, AFL-CIO, as first recipient of annual award named for him. Message accepting award was last public statement.
1975
December 28—Admitted to Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia after mild stroke. Condition grew more serious daily.
1976
January 23—Died age of seventy-seven.
January 27—5,000 attended funeral service at Mother AME Church in Harlem.
