Paul Leroy Robeson (/ˈroʊbsən/ ROHB-sən;[3][4] April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances.

[21] In 1912, Robeson began attending Somerville High School in New Jersey,[22] where he performed in Julius Caesar and Othello, sang in the chorus, and excelled in football, basketball, baseball and track.

[27] He tried out for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team,[28] and his resolve to make the squad was tested as his teammates engaged in excessive play, during which his nose was broken and his shoulder dislocated.

[30] Robeson joined the debating team[31] and he sang off-campus for spending money,[32] and on-campus with the Glee Club informally, as membership required attending all-white mixers.

[40] His father, who was the "glory of his boyhood years"[41] soon died, and at Rutgers, Robeson expounded on the incongruity of African Americans fighting to protect America in World War I but not having the same opportunities in the United States as whites.

[133] Despite negative reactions from the press, such as a New York Amsterdam News retort that Robeson had made a "jolly well [ass of himself]",[134] he also announced that he would reject any offers to perform central European (though not Russian, which he considered "Asiatic") opera because the music had no connection to his heritage.

[162] He permanently modified his renditions of "Ol' Man River" – initially, by singing the word "darkies" instead of "niggers"; later, by changing some of the stereotypical dialect in the lyrics to standard English and replacing the fatalistic last verse ("Ah gits weary / An' sick of tryin' / Ah'm tired of livin' / An skeered of dyin'") with an uplifting verse of his own ("But I keep laffin' / Instead of cryin' / I must keep fightin' / Until I'm dyin'") – transforming it from a tragic "song of resignation with a hint of protest implied" into a battle hymn of unwavering defiance.

[189] After an appearance in Tales of Manhattan (1942), a production which he felt was "very offensive to my people" due to the way the segment was handled in stereotypes, he announced that he would no longer act in films because of the demeaning roles available to blacks.

During the same period, he addressed a meeting with Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and team owners in a failed attempt to convince them to admit black players to Major League Baseball.

[195] He toured North America with Othello until 1945,[196] and subsequently, his political efforts with the Council on African Affairs to get colonial powers to discontinue their exploitation of Africa were short-circuited by the United Nations.

However, when the organizers offered tickets on generous terms to the National Negro Congress to help fill the larger venue, both sponsors withdrew, objecting to the NNC's Communist ties.

[221] Robeson refused to bow to public criticism when he advocated in favor of twelve defendants, including his long-time friend, Benjamin J. Davis Jr., charged during the Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders.

It called for support from the leading African-American organizations, and asserted that "Negroes, [and] all Americans who have breathed a sigh of relief at the easing of international tensions... have a stake in the Paul Robeson passport case".

[248] In December 1951, Robeson, in New York City, and William L. Patterson, in Paris, presented the United Nations with a Civil Rights Congress petition titled We Charge Genocide.

[264] In 1956, in the United Kingdom, Topic Records, at that time part of the Workers Music Association, released a single of Robeson singing the labor anthem "Joe Hill", written by Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson, backed with "John Brown's Body".

In 1956, after public pressure brought a one-time exemption to the travel ban, Robeson performed two concerts in Canada in February, one in Toronto and the other at a union convention in Sudbury, Ontario.

Du Bois, compared the anti-Soviet uprising in Hungary to the "same sort of people who overthrew the Spanish Republican Government" and supported the Soviet invasion and suppression of the revolt.

[281] In October 1960, Robeson embarked on a two-month concert tour of Australia and New Zealand with Essie, primarily to generate money,[282] at the behest of Australian politician Bill Morrow.

[291] Back in London after his Australia and New Zealand tour, Robeson expressed a desire to return to the United States and participate in the civil rights movement, while his wife argued that he would be unsafe there and "unable to make any money" due to government harassment.

[293] Three days later, under Soviet medical care, he told his son, who had received news about his condition and traveled to Moscow, that he felt extreme paranoia, he thought that the walls of the room were moving and, overcome by a powerful sense of emptiness and depression, he tried to take his own life.

[298] Martin Duberman wrote that Robeson's health breakdown was probably brought on by a combination of factors including extreme emotional and physical stress, bipolar depression, exhaustion and the beginning of circulatory and heart problems.

[312][304] Numerous celebrations were held in honor of Robeson over the next several years, including at public arenas that had previously shunned him, but he saw few visitors aside from close friends and gave few statements apart from messages to support current civil rights and international movements, feeling that his record "spoke for itself".

[313] At a Carnegie Hall tribute to mark his 75th birthday in 1973, he was unable to attend, but a taped message from him was played that said: "Though I have not been able to be active for several years, I want you to know that I am the same Paul, dedicated as ever to the worldwide cause of humanity for freedom, peace and brotherhood.

Historian Penny Von Eschen wrote that while McCarthyism curbed American anti-colonialist politics in the 1940s such as Robeson's, "the [African independence movements] of the late 1950s and 1960s would vindicate his anti-colonial [agenda].

[337] In 1930, while performing Othello in London, Robeson was painted by the British artist Glyn Philpot; this portrait was sold in 1944 under the title Head of a Negro and thereafter thought lost, but was rediscovered by Simon Martin, the director of the Pallant House Gallery, for an exhibition held there in 2022.

In the same year, another Kurdish poet, Cegerxwîn, also wrote a poem about him, Heval Pol Robson ("Comrade Paul Robeson"), which was put to music by singer Şivan Perwer in 1976.

[371] At the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, British-Nigerian actor Tayo Aluko, himself a baritone soloist, premiered his one-man show, Call Mr. Robeson: A Life with Songs, which has since toured various countries.

[374] Tom Rob Smith's novel Agent 6 (2012) includes the character Jesse Austin, "a black singer, political activist and communist sympathizer modeled after real-life actor/activist Paul Robeson.

[380] Hazarika based his iconic Assamese song "Bistirno Parore" ("Of the wide shores") on Robeson's "Ol' Man River",[381][382][383] later translated into Bengali, Hindi, Nepali and Sanskrit.

"[380][383] A jazz poetry opera, "Paul Robeson: Man of the People" by Lasana Katembe and Ernest Dawkins debuted at The Cabaret in Indianapolis, Indiana on May 31, 2024, and will have its Chicago premiere on June 7, 2024.