1. Paul Robeson
By Belinda Odawa

2. Who is Paul Robeson? Born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New york
His father was born of a slave who ran away from his slave master.
Height 6’3- Weight 217 pounds
His mother died when he was a young boy.
Died in 1976 in Pennsylvania
He was a big man who had a huge stage presence when performing.
He was the fifth child of Maria Louisa Bustill and William Drew Robeson.
As you can see he was quite a big man but as his son said in the book Paul Robson The Great Forerunner Paul was ‘very fast’

3. Things Accomplished
Through Paul Robeson's life he accomplished so many things
A singer
Actor
American athlete
A lawyer
A writer
Trade unionist
A member of the early civil rights movement
And also a peace activist.
He was an accomplished linguist speaking five languages fluently.
Paul did all this because his dad was very motivating towards him. Not sure about the phrasing of this see my note on the He would tell him that “he is just as good as any white man and there was nothing he couldn’t do if he set aside something” and this was Paul’s mantra through out his life.
He made a mark in history due to his involvement in many inspiring activities all around the world.
He mastered “over 20 languages and taught himself not just to speak, but also to write in Chinese” (wow) but this was only because no matter where he went he would study whilst traveling and he would have a book with him of what he is was studding studying at that time.
So from this list you can see what a significant figure he was in the development of the afro American fight for civil rights and cultural recognition.

4. Famous American athlete (American football)
In Pauls won a scholarship to university. He went to an all white people university where he firstly became a great American football player.
He was also known as one of the greatest football players of all his time.
Two years running Paul was named the most famous of all the American teams selected by Walter Camp.
he was great at passing and receiving the ball.. He was also good at offensive blocking who would move to tackle.
In this area of his life he was known to be the best middle line backer blocker of his era.
His first achievement was a great American football player.
(Wow)
Even though Robeson was named the greatest football player twice in a row he was still excluded from the hall of fame book. This was only because at Robeson's time the white Americans had ruling class (more power) . This means that if the whites said no then it was final.

5. One of his passions was the significance of the ‘Negro spirituals’
Paul Robeson was ‘the singer who fought for justice and paid with his life’
Through out his life he gave many concerts of a program of negro spirituals and classical music. For example songs like “Go Down, Moses” and “Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho”
During his life and time black people couldn't get a meal in a New York cafe, let alone walk safely in the south, where lynching was not a crime. Paul used his songs as a way of humanising black people by showing their pain and suffering through his lyrics.
When Paul first announced that he would be performing negro spirituals for English people he was mocked. He was asked questions like “how would songs like that attract an audience?”
- (The documentary) Here I Stand (time -14:15) as you can see from the video Paul didn’t ignore the negro spiritrials like most black Americans did. He actually embraced it and showed the world what the negro spiritualists felt ( conveyed – is a better word) emotionally, through his music.
He did this by not just singing in English, but he also sang in various other languages. What Paul said in one of his interviews was that “all men are brothers through music” Here I Stand (time - 16:40)

6. Famous world renowned performer
Robeson turned to the arts because he felt that “whether singing or acting, race and colour prejudices are forgotten. Art is one form against which such barriers do not stand.” – Paul Robeson The Great Forerunner (P87)
In 1930s to 1940s Paul was the leading concert singer in the whole of the world but is not very well known today.
In New York (1925) is where Paul Robeson did his very first concert.
Robeson's singing career went on for 35 years from s. He stated that “I want to sing, to show the people the beauty of Negro folk songs and work songs”- Paul Robeson The Great Forerunner (P88)
Paul regarded music as a way of educating and convincing an audience of what it means to be human through this he felt a great sense of power whilst preforming on stage.
By the “people” Paul also meant his own people because he felt that many of them did not think that old spirituals were not keeping with the new modern Negro. He believed that they didn’t want to remember the hardships of slavery.
Could you add a not here about how he has been something a forgotten hero – perhaps overshadowed by the civil rights movements of the 60’s

7. Songs sang
Paul Robeson:Ballad for Americans

8. Model
Many artists were very fascinated in Robeson as an artistic object. This was because they thought that Paul Robeson was a perfect image for black people. So they made sculptures and took pictures of him.
They always put him in constricted places to show the authority and power the whites had over Afro-Americans Who was the artist – wasn’t it just a specific artist ??
Also there are political and cultural fears about the sexual power of the black afro American and the prejudice that black people were intelligently inferior beings

9. Famous Actor (theatre)
Paul stared in 10 main plays in both the U.S, and England.
His most successful and greatest achievement in theatre was his amazing role in the Broadway production of Othello.
Many critics seemed to think that casting a black actor was a really historic event. Every where Paul went he would hear people say "Why should a black actor be allowed to kiss a white actress?"
And because of this role he received a reword for the best acting performance in and not just that he also received a gold medal for the best delivery in the American theatre.
1- including his role of a clown in the Prosy ( spelling – its --Porgy ) and Bess.
And three plays from Eugene O'Neil Emperor Jones, The Hairy Ape and
All God's Chillun Got Wings written in 1924 about miscegenation.(mixing of genes)
Paul Robeson performed in the premiere,[1] in which he portrayed the black husband of an abusive white woman who, resenting her husband's skin colour, destroys his promising career as a lawyer.[2]
But the most successful and
 2-This was very uncommon for a black actor in those days.
3-because if was a shocking thing to hear black people could not sit at the front of the buses they had to sit at the back of the bus. They were not even allowed to eat at the same café as the whites. As you can see this must have caused a lot of conflict between the white and blacks a black man kissing a white lass. (Should be) woman
4- through this play paul started having feelings for the young actress who played Desdemona and she felt the same way. They wanted to get ,married but because of the colour difference this would have been hard and if would have put both Paul and young woman in danger. So they didn’t marry in the end this just shows that Paul was willing to give up love for what he believed in.

10. Fight for the Negros
During the time of Black American slavery seeing Negros being beaten by white mobsters, beaten ministers, bombed Negro schools, threatened children and imprisoned mothers were some of the norm in everyday society.
Paul believed that with all the talents he had, he could do great good to change the world and use his talents as a weapon against racism and other terrible social injustices around the world. He believed that he was an activist struggling for civil rights for African Americans.
So in 1946 Paul led a group called 'the American crusade to end lynching.’ They were convinced that asking the president (Truman) for sponsorship –that this would end lynching, however Truman refused.
Lynching - this was a group ‘ of people who would kill for an alleged offence without a legal trial, especially by hanging.’ – Oxford Dictionary
You could say that lynching was quite common in some of the southern states

11. Harlem Renaissance
This movement occurred as a result of freeing the African American slaves.
This lead to white supremacist groups forming such as the infamous Klu Klux Klan (KKK) which was lead by Tennessee veterans of the confederate army. The group believed that they were restoring whites power over blacks in the aftermath of the civil war.
Their methods involved lynching's, torture and hangings hence Robeson's need to form his group 'the American crusade to end lynching.’
There was a growth of north eastern cities such as New York due to Blacks migrating from the south to escape the constant fear posed by groups such as KKK.
It was in the north Black artists found success through the development of jazz and the blues and what was known as the “New Negro Movement” or “ Black Renaissance” built by Marcus Garvey and Alaine Lock.
The KKK pushed Negros out of the south and into the north through the constant state of fear that they posed.
Also there was the boll weevil infestation which damaged the cotton crop causing unemployment – the north was very industrial and there was more opportunities to find work
In the north the Negros were happy at the chance to express themselves freely through the arts such as music which saw a development in jazz and blues which was music that showed the hardships of life. This type of music saw people like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong rise to fame.
Robeson however felt that this “ New Negro Movement” was allowing Blacks to forget their history of suffering. This is what made him turn to performing slave work songs as a reminder to his people of what they had been through.

12. Paul Robeson the political activist
Robeson's political views stemmed from the belief that “awareness is born of yearning for freedom an oppression that has predated fascism, but victory could be gained through the forces of democracy.”
Pauls involvement in politics began in America as he became involved in groups such as 'the American crusade to end lynching.’ and several others in the Freedom Movement.
After achieving his goals within the Freedom movement in America, Paul broadened his horizon and started looking at the rest of the world where political injustice was present.
He felt that the Chinese, Ethiopians and Russians and the people of Europe who had seen murder and destruction heaped on them knew what they were fighting for. He believed that they alone knew what a fight for liberation was.
As his friend William L. Patterson said In the book Paul the Great forerunner ‘He is the consummate fighter for genuine democracy of the people the world around.’ Meaning that Paul’s fight for democracy wasn’t just based in his own country, it was a world wide effort.
Paul believed that in the struggles of the American Negro he saw the similarity between his suffering and those of people being oppressed abroad in other countries (.He felt that this was input into them through their daily struggles to get full American citizenship rights as blacks. ) Bit of a confusing phrase – do you mean he felt that the struggles of the African American were the same – it was a fight for socal and economic justice
This is what led Robeson to world wide politics. – also note he was interested in more socialist leaning politics of some parts Europe –
(This leads you very well into the next slide )

13. Paul Robeson and the Soviet Union
Paul Robeson did not encounter any of the soviet people till 1931 in a night club in Harlem, it was here that he met Eduard Tisse a soviet camera man who would later invite Robeson to Moscow in 1934.
Upon arriving in Moscow Robeson was shocked by the sheer happiness of the Muscovites and their acceptance of him regardless of his race.
Robeson saw how the influence that great philosophers of Marxism had brought equality and freedom to the soviet people.
His hope for Black American freedom was heightened as he saw a socialist system that worked for the soviet union.
His frequent visits to the soviet capital between saw the beginning of his political views as he disregarded the shackles of class formations in society. He then arrived in Spain in 1938 with the antifascists who fought for the Spanish republic.
He sang the Russian soviet song “Wide IS My Native Land” across the Spanish fields in the midst of a war.
Paul was often in the first ranks within the war against fascism whether it was in the soviet union or in Spain.
He risked making enemies in his own country by fighting for peace within the soviet union, although he lost much support in America he gained many friends and supporters in the soviet union.
The soviet people saw Robeson as a hero and wrote plays and stories about him and how he was very dear to them.

14. Paul Robeson's Legacy
Paul believed in that “ personal integrity was inseparable from the quest for maximum human fulfilment”
This can be seen in all the achievements that he has made in his life. He did things that were previously unthinkable of for Blacks e.g. being the third Afro-American to attend Rutger since 1766, being the only black person at the school in 1915 and after his introduction to the English stage in 1928 Robeson found himself in the company of famous writers such as H. G. Wells.
Every time Robeson achieved his goals he moved on to his next target and it was this mentality that saw him reach the ultimate “human fulfilment.”

15. Bibliography
Nicole Steinke. (2013). Paul Robeson: the singer who fought for justice and paid with his life. Available: robeson/ Last accessed 12/02/15.