Archive for the ‘Early Life’ Category
Paul Leroy Robeson was born the youngest of seven children on April 9, 1898, in Princeton, New Jersey. His mother, of mixed African, Cherokee, and Caucasian ancestry, was a teacher; his father, a minister, was a former slave who escaped from a plantation near Raleigh, North Carolina. When five-year-old Paul’s mother was killed in a fire, the child developed a very close, though sometimes strained, relationship with his strict father. Robeson was exposed to the Negro spiritual at his father’s church, and he sang them with his father and brothers at home.
Paul's Mother Maria Louisa Bustill
Paul's Father William Drew Robeson
His family also encouraged his interests in cultural history, education, and sports. In high school, Robeson played fullback for the football team, studied singing and Latin, was on the debate team, and gave his first reading of Shakespeare’s Othello. He earned a scholarship to Rutgers College in 1915. Among his honors, he was selected for the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society, won numerous sports honors, and was twice named a Collegiate All-American in football. When Robeson was chosen as class valedictorian, he spoke on “The New Idealism:”
We of the younger generation especially must feel a sacred call to that which lies before us. I go out to do my little part in helping my untutored brother. We of this less favored race realize that our future lies chiefly in our own hands. On ourselves alone will depend the preservation of our liberties and the transmission of them in their integrity to those who will come after us. And we are struggling on attempting to show that knowledge can be obtained under difficulties; that poverty may give place to affluence; that obscurity is not an absolute bar to distinction, and that a way is open to welfare and happiness to all who will follow the way with resolution and wisdom; that neither the old-time slavery, nor continued prejudice need extinguish self-respect, crush manly ambition or paralyze effort; that no power outside of himself can prevent man from sustaining an honorable character and a useful relation to his day and generation. We know that neither institutions nor friends can make a race stand unless it has strength in its own foundation; that races like individuals must stand or fall by their own merit; that to fully succeed they must practice their virtues of self-reliance, self-respect, industry, perseverance and economy.1
Robeson moved to the Harlem section of New York after his graduation and worked various odd jobs to save money for school. He then matriculated to Columbia Law School. During this period, he also continued acting in stage productions and playing professional football. Upon his graduation in 1923, he accepted a position at a prestigious New York law firm. He left the firm due to an incident involving a white staff member.