“My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part in it just like you. And no fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear?”--Paul Robeson.
He was a keen student. He was an All American athlete. He won a scholarship to Rutgers University. He graduated Columbia Law School. He was an advocate of Communism.
He suffered a deep rooted depression. All of this living and so much more commenced on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey.
Find out what's happening in South Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Paul Robeson was a brilliant yet complicated man. His father Reverend William Robeson was a runaway slave who became a preacher. His mother, Maria Bustill, was a Quaker from Philadelphia.
Born the youngest of five children, Paul stood out academically and socially at Somerville High School where he played halfback on the football team.
Find out what's happening in South Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In 1915, Robeson graduated high school and attended Rutgers University. He was the third African American to attend the university, earning a four year scholarship.
Robeson later became a member of the prestigious Cap and Skull Honor Society, while also playing four varsity sports, baseball, basketball, track and football. He earned fifteen varsity letters.
Throughout his schooling, Robeson managed to win speech and debate tournaments, and finally in 1919, graduated valedictorian of his class while attaining the Phi Beta Kappa award. He finished first in his class.
Robeson met his wife at Columbia Law School, Eslonda Cordoza Goode, where he began to perform in plays and would graduate in 1923.
