The Life of Paul Robeson: A Celebration of Black History

Affirming the young man's athletic prowess, legendary Yale coach Walter Camp then put Robeson on his All-American team, calling him a veritable superman. He was named to the All-American team again in 1918. In four years at Rutgers, he won 15 varsity letters in four sports--football, baseball,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLos Angeles sentinel Vol. 65; no. 47
Main Author Dungee, Ron
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, Calif Los Angeles Sentinel 23.02.2000
Subjects
African Americans
Black culture
Black people
Civil law
Civil rights
Culture
Entertainment
Football
Law
Minority & ethnic groups
Motion pictures
Music
Personal profiles
Recreation
Robeson, Paul (1898-1976)
Singing
Sports
Theater
Traditions
United States > US
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Summary:Affirming the young man's athletic prowess, legendary Yale coach Walter Camp then put Robeson on his All-American team, calling him a veritable superman. He was named to the All-American team again in 1918. In four years at Rutgers, he won 15 varsity letters in four sports--football, baseball, basketball, and track. Robeson dominated more than the playing ield--he became Rutgers' star scholar, orator, and singer and be elected to all the honor societies. Robeson was a scholar. Robeson lived and performed in Europe from the late 1920s until 1939. In London, Robeson earned international acclaim for his lead role in "Othello," for which he won the Donaldson Award for Best Acting Performance (1944), and performed in Eugene O'Neill's "Emperor Jones" and "All God's Chillun Got Wings." He is known for changing the lines of the "Showboat" song "Old Man River" from the meek "... I'm tired of livin' and `feared of dyin' ... "to a declaration of resistance, "... I must keep fightin' until I'm dying ..." Robeson became known as a citizen of the world, equally comfortable with the people of Moscow, Nairobi and Harlem. His friends included future African leader Jomo Kenyatta, India's Nehru, historian Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, and writers James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. In 1933, Robeson donated the proceeds of "All God's Chillun" to Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler's Germany.
ISSN:0890-4340