Paul Robeson, Jr.

For his father, see Paul Robeson.
Paul Robeson, Jr.
Born November 2, 1927 (1927-11-02) (age 84)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Author, historian
Nationality American
Alma mater Cornell University (1949)
Spouse(s) Marilyn Paula Greenberg (m. 1949)

Paul Robeson, Jr. (born November 2, 1927) is an American author, archivist and historian.

Contents

Biography

Robeson was born in New York City to entertainer and activist Paul Robeson and Eslanda Goode Robeson. As his family moved to Europe he grew up in England and Moscow, in the Soviet Union. In Moscow he attended an elite school. The Robesons returned to the US in 1938 to live first in Harlem, New York, and after 1941 in Enfield, Connecticut. Robeson, Jr. graduated from Enfield High School and attended Cornell University where he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1949.

Paul Robeson, Sr. legacy

See also: The Communist Party USA and African-Americans

Robeson has maintained on many occasions that his father "never joined the Communist Party or any party for that matter -- he was an independent artist and would never submit to any kind of organizational discipline."

On his own politics he has stated: "I was much more an organized political person", he said, adding that from about 1948 to 1962, he was a member of the Communist Party. "It was an instrument, a radical instrument that could help advance the interests of African-Americans. It helped build the early civil-rights movement and independent trade union movement in the 1930s, '40s and '50s." But he said he left the party in 1962 after "it became bureaucratic and corrupt".[1]

Robeson's father, Paul Sr., was one of his closest friends and protectors traveling with and living with him at intermittent points of his life. Following his father's death Robeson Jr, has worked extensively to establish The Paul Robeson Archive and the Paul Robeson Foundation. The archive, currently housed at Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center is the largest repository in the Western hemisphere of Robeson documents and articles totaling well over 50,000 items.[2] He is of Igbo descent through his father.[3]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ Arnold H. Lubasch (21 October 1993). "In Harlem With: Paul Robeson Jr.; Finding His Own Voice And Learning to Use It". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D61E30F932A15753C1A965958260. Retrieved 2009-02-16. 
  2. ^ Duberman, Martin (1989). Paul Robeson. New York: Knopf. pp. 557. ISBN 0394527801. 
  3. ^ Robeson II, Paul (2001) (PDF). The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist’s Journey, 1898–1939. Wiley. p. 3. ISBN 0-471-24265-9. http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/59/04712426/0471242659.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-27. "A dark-skinned man descended from the Ibo tribe of Nigeria, Reverend Robeson was of medium height with broad shoulders, and had an air of surpassing dignity." 

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