Paul Robeson and 20th Century U. S. History Born in Princeton NJ
in 1898, Paul Robeson was the son of a former slave who
graduated from Rutgers College and later rose to world-wide
prominence as an actor, athlete, singer, civil and human rights
advocate and political activist. During his lifetime, Paul
Robeson both witnessed and participated in some of the most
significant political and social movements of the twentieth
century, including the struggle by African-Americans for civil
rights and social equality, the international struggle to end
colonialism, the anti-fascist struggle both before and during
World War II, efforts by labor movements around the globe to end
exploitation and improve working conditions and compensation,
and the struggle between opposing ideologies during the Cold
War. The relationship between Robeson’s artistic expression and
his political principles became a source of intense conflict
during the post World War II period, when in 1950 the U. S.
government revoked his passport and effe