Paul Robeson: Possibly The Most Accomplished Person…Ever
Social activist, award-winning athlete, linguist, civil rights leader, bass-baritone concert artist, and stage (specifically Shakespearean), and film actor.
Paul Leroy Robeson (April 9, 1898 — January 23, 1976) was an American social activist, award-winning athlete, athlete, civil rights leader, bass-baritone concert artist and stage (specifically Shakespearean), and film actor.
He is known both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political activism. Educated at Rutgers College and Columbia University, he was also a star athlete in his youth. He also studied Swahili and linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in 1934.
Robeson’s political activities began with his involvement with unemployed workers and anti-imperialist students whom he met in Britain and continued with support for the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War and his opposition to fascism. In the United States, he also became active in the Civil Rights Movement and other social justice campaigns. His sympathies for the Soviet Union and for Communism, and his criticism of the United States government and its foreign policies, caused him to be blacklisted during the McCarthy era.
