Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson excelled as an athlete, actor, singer, and activist, making him a contemporary renaissance man. His early accomplishments as a professional football player, Columbia law school graduate, and an actor on Broadway in the 1920s seemed but a prologue to even greater achievements to come. Involvement with the political left in the 1940s, however, led to a confrontation with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the late '40s. He was blacklisted, his passport was revoked, and his career came to a halt. Robeson was born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New...