Through song and speech, singer and teacher Anthony Brown tells the story of Paul Robeson, the 20th-century African-American artist and social activist.
Robeson was arguably the most well-known African-American entertainer in the world before World War II. Learning to advocate for the oppressed through music and theatrical performance, Robeson toured the world while investing himself in the plight of others. But his social ties to the Soviet Union led to his blacklisting by the entertainment industry, obscuring a long legacy of activism for social justice.
“His outspoken courage and his unrelenting advocacy for human rights around the world are truly remarkable,” Brown said in a Nov. 4 forum at Bluffton University.
Brown, an internationally known baritone vocalist who promotes peace and reconciliation through his music, currently serves as artist in residence and a faculty member in sociology at Hesston (Kan.) College. He performed his 90-minute musical tribute to Robeson, “I Go on Singing: Paul Robeson’s Life in His Words and Songs,” Nov. 3 at Bluffton.
The son of a pastor, Robeson was born in Princeton, N.J., in 1898, after Jim Crow segregation laws had been enacted nationwide. Although his father was born and raised a slave—but later escaped via the Underground Railroad—he taught his son to respect all people and to treat others equally.
His father “was a man of principle and compassion, and Paul would see how his father lived, and it left an indelible imprint on his life,” Brown told the audience. “There was no one else in his life who would impact him so profoundly.”
Being a high achiever throughout his grade-school years, Robeson earned a full scholarship to attend Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he was valedictorian of his graduating class, winner of an oratorical contest, a popular singer in the glee club and a two-time All-American football player.
“He won the scholarship to Rutgers and, perhaps more profoundly, proved to himself that he was not inferior to everyone,” Brown said of Robeson, who at the time was one of three black students to have ever attended the university, according to Brown.
Robeson went on to Columbia Law School, but stints in the National Football League and in off-Broadway productions postponed his studies.
He first became invested in social activism after graduating from law school in 1922 and, the same year, traveling to England to star in a play. He took interest in the mistreatment of Welsh coal miners who were working in poor conditions for low pay. Combined with the values instilled by his father, Robeson’s time in England marked his transition to using the arts to promote human rights throughout the world.
Unfortunately, Brown said, most Americans are unaware of Robeson’s legacy because the U.S. government and the entertainment industry dismissed him as a communist due to his friendly relations with the Soviet Union—an accusation that he forever refuted.
“Lots of people don’t know who Paul Robeson was,” said Brown, adding that “a prophet is never honored in his own country.”
“Robeson was a man who really did support the common people. He was able to use his own narrative, his own stories, to connect with the suffering of people all over the world.”
Photo cutline: Tony Brown performs as Paul Robeson at Bluffton University.
