Saul J. Turell’s Academy Award-winning documentary short Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist, narrated by Sidney Poitier, traces his career through his activism and his socially charged performances of his signature song, “Ol’ Man River.”
Tribute to an Artist part 1
Tribute to an Artist part 2
Robeson: Civil Rights, Anti-lynching, desegregation, discrimination
1927
Having long since developed deep interest in Jewish culture, performs concert in New York's Town Hall to aid The Women's Committee of the American ORT, an organization devoted to teaching trades to young Jewish people in Eastern Europe seeking to immigrate to Palestine. By now, several Yiddish songs have become a regular part of his repertoire.
March 12, 1933
Opens in a three-week run of All God's Chillun Got wings at Embassy Theatre, London, followed by another four weeks at the Piccadilly Theatre, where he gives a special benefit performance for Jewish refugees from nazi Germany. Years later, states that this benefit marked the beginning of his political awareness because, in reference to the Hitler regime, "Really, it was like seeing the Ku Klux Klan in power....Brown shirts instrad of white sheets, but the same idea."
December 1936 to January 1937
Takes vacation in Soviet Union, to improve his Russian and to perform a concert tour. Visits Soviet Asia and the Caucasus; is very impressed by social, economic and cultural progress of racial minorities in these formerly "backward" areas. Years later, in reference to the Soviet Union, he would state: "There I found the real solution of the minority and racial problems, a very simple solution: complete equality for all men of all races. I was struck by the quick success of all groups in taking part in modern civilization,-once they were given a dhance. Eskimos and people from Turkestan, who had always been called primitive and backward, took their place as citizen workers. In a few years, they became efficient in every phase of modern life, even in building and handling machinery. I saw with my own eyes that people are not 'backward' because of colour, but because they are kept back."
November 5, 1939
Performs world premiere on CBS Radio of Ballad for Americans, with the American People's Chorus, music by Earl Robinson, libretto by John La Touche, generating one of the largest audience responses of any performance in the history of radio and yielding Robeson nationwide acclaim. The 600 people in the CBS studio respond with a 15-minute standing ovation of thunderous applause and cheers. The 11-minute cantata, with its fervent cry against racial discrimination and persecution of all kinds, and celebrating the multi-ethnic, multi-racial face of America, injects a new concept into American music which electrifies the country: CBS is inundated with phone calls, thousands of letters and telegrams demanding the words, musical recording and a repeat broadcast. The cantata's popularity reaches such a wide range that, in an ironic twist, it is used as the theme song at the Republican National Convention in the fall of 1940.]
November 14, 1943
Makes special trip to Boston to address a meeting calling for a full investigation into the recent rash of anti-Semitic acts of vandalism against a Jewish cemetery and a synagogue. Making the link to the war against fascism in Europe, he says, "The struggle for freedom in which we are bloodily engaged ,means to me freedom for all individuals. To attack the Jews is to attack the colored race, and I trust that Negroes in Boston are as outraged as though the attacks had been on them."
December 3, 1943
Speaks to annual meeting of Major League Baseball club owners, demanding they admit Black players to major league baseball. It is largely due to Robeson's efforts, on this and other occasions, that Jackie Robinson is finally able, two years later, to break the "color bar" in baseball.
July 28, 1946
As Chairman of Council on African Affairs, sends telegram to President Truman on the lynching of four African Americans in Georgia, demanding "that the Federal Government take immediate effective steps to apprehend and punish the perpetrators of this shocking crime and to halt the rising tide of lynch law. Only when our government has taken such action toward protecting its own citizens can its role in aiding the progress of peoples of other countries be viewed with trust and hope."
September 23, 1946
Heads a protest of 3,000, at the Lincoln Memorial, for the American Crusade to End Lynching, a coalition of some fifty organizations from thirty-eight states and dozens of celebrities, including Albert Einstein. Following the rally, leads a multi-racial delegation to the White House to present a legislative and educational program to President Truman aimed at ending mob violence; demands that lynchers be prosecuted and calls on Congress to enact a federal anti-lynching law. Warns Truman that if the government doesn't do something to end lynching, "the Negroes will," and points out that the United States cannot logically take the lead in prosecuting Nazis at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial while permitting African Americans to be lynched at home. Truman rejects the program and refuses Robeson's request for him to issue a formal public statement against lynching, using the excuse that it is not "the right time" for such action, meaning, in reality, that it would not be politically expedient. Robeson also gives address on radio, calling on all Americans of all races to demand that Congress
November, 1947
— Meets with 18 leaders of NAACP, to form coalition to coordinate anti-lynching efforts.
February 27, 1948
Sings and speaks at 2nd Baptist Church, Los Angeles, under auspices of CIO United Public Workers, the Los Angeles Civil Rights Congress and Local 558 of the State, County & Municipal Employees, AFL. Purpose of mass meeting and concert is to launch a community campaign against job discrimination, for passage of the federal Fair Employment Practices Act, anti-lynching and anti-poll tax legislation, and citizens' action to defeat the witch-hunting county "loyalty purge."
May-September, 1948
Seeks appointment with Presiden1 Truman to again confer on anti-poll tax, anti-lynching and fair employment legislation, but repeated requests are rejected.
