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Definition: Paul Robeson |
Paul RobesonNoun1. United States bass singer and an outspoken critic of racism and proponent of socialism (1898-1976). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Synonyms: Paul RobesonSynonyms: Paul Bustill Robeson (n), Robeson (n). (additional references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898 - January 23, 1976) was an American actor, athlete, singer, writer, and political and civil rights activist.
Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey. After the early death of his mother, he was raised by his father, a preacher and escaped slave, who impressed upon him the need for self-improvement through education. Taking this to heart, he won a scholarship to Rutgers University where he excelled in both academics and sports (he made All-American in American Football), and went on to earn a law degree at Columbia University. He was in the same law school class as William O. Douglas. He quit the legal profession after a secretary refused to take dictation from a Black man.
It was as an actor and singer that Robeson found fame, including acclaimed performances in Emperor Jones, Porgy and Bess and, in 1930, as Othello in England, when no US company would employ him for the role. He reprised the role in New York in 1943. At the time the Broadway run of Othello was the longest Broadway run of any Shakespeare play. He won the Spingarn Medal in 1945 for his performance. Uta Hagen played Desdemona, and José Ferrer played Iago. Robeson's repertoire of African-American folk songs helped bring these to much wider attention both inside the US and abroad - in particular his stunning rendition of "Go Down Moses".
On his frequent trips overseas he was highly critical of the conditions experienced by black Americans, especially in the segregated southern states, and this outspokenness, together with sympathies expressed towards the people of the Soviet Union (which largely stemmed from his belief that the African-American slaves shared a common bond with the pre-revolutionary serfs of Russia) found him branded a communist by the McCarthyiteite HUAC committee, and the US State Department denied him a passport. Undeterred, he still occasionally sang overseas, including a performance at the Welsh National Eisteddfod conducted over the telephone.
In 1949, Robeson gave a concert in Peekskill, New York. After the concert, organized anti-communist and racist vigilantes attacked departing concertgoers, while local police stood by and did nothing. The local newspaper was accused of encouraging the attacks.
Prior to his passport's return in 1958, Robeson wrote a book, Here I Stand, which eloquently makes an impassioned case for concerted action to right the inequities of the Jim Crow system. After he got back his passport he spent five years touring the world, playing Othello again at Stratford-upon-Avon, and singing throughout Europe and in Australia and New Zealand. His health broke down and he spent time in Russia and East Germany in hospitals. The remainder of his life was plagued by ill health and depression, and his appearances were relatively few. His 75th birthday was celebrated in Carnegie Hall where a taped message from him was played.
Paul Robeson died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1976 where he had been living with his sister. He was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. His wife Essie Cardozo Goode (who was related to Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo) preceded him in death.
Although Robeson is one of the "Great Forerunners" in Black equality, the McCarthy era virtually erased his memory from the consciousness of younger Americans. He was a brilliant, indominatable man who was conversant in over 20 languages, and at one time carried enough clout to be considered for a vice presidential spot on Henry A. Wallace's 1948 ticket. His singing voice was a sonorous bass-baritone once described thus: "If God should come to earth and sing, He would sound something like Paul Robeson."
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Paul Robeson."
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Paul Robeson (1979) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Le 5 octobre 1960, le Président du Conseil d'Etat de la R.D.A., M. Walter Ulbricht, a décemé à Paul Robeson l'ordre "Etoile de l'amitié des peuples".Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Au cours d'une manifestation de la Jeunesse Libre Allemande, Paul Robeson, d'une action spontanée, danse avec un groupe culturel amateur d'Afrique la danse de la libération.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | General view of the crowds unable to gain admittance to see Paul Robeson, at the Golden Gate Hall, 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, New York City.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Spingarn Medal, awarded annually for the highest achievement of an American Negro, by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, thirtieth award to Paul Robeson, Hotel Biltmore, October 18, 1945 / Standard Photographers.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Portrait of Camilla Williams, with Jacob Epstein's bust of Paul Robeson.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Light parted from darkness, day from night, earth from the primal waters, and the voice of Paul Robeson was divided from the silence.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Paul Robeson portrait superimposed on body which includes outline of skull and possibly a country boundary or river.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Youth Salute to Paul Robeson.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
paul robeson | 138 |
paul robeson picture | 5 |
paul robeson high school | 4 |
biography paul robeson | 3 |
paul robeson tomato | 3 |
paul robeson photo | 2 |
lyrics paul robeson | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-e-l-n-o-o-p-r-s-u" | |
-3 letters: aleurons, apolunes, bloopers, borneols, burnoose, neurosal, personal, polarons, pourable, prunable, psoralen, purslane, rubeolas, subpanel, subpoena, subpolar, supernal. | |
-4 letters: aerosol, aleuron, apolune, arenous, blooper, blouson, boleros, boranes, borneol, bournes, burlaps, espanol, labours, leprous, loaners, loopers, nebular, nebulas, onerous, operons, parlous, paroles, pelorus, persona, perusal, planers, pleuras, pleuron, polaron, prolans, puberal, pueblos, reloans, replans, reposal, robalos, ropable, roseola, roubles, rubeola, saprobe, slurban, snooper, soprano, sporule, suboral, subpena, unbears, unloose, unrobes, unsober, upbears, upborne. | |
-5 letters: abuser, anoles, aprons, arouse, arpens, arseno, aslope, balers, barons, beanos, blares, blears, bloops, blouse, bolero, bolson, boners, borals, borane, boreal, borons, boules, bourne, bourns, bourse, burans, burlap, bursae, bursal, enrols, ensoul, labors, labour, lanose, lapser, learns, loaner, loners, looper, loosen, looser, lopers, lorans, loupen, loupes, lunars, nebula, nerols, neural, nobler, nobles, nooser, nopals, obelus, oboles, obolus, operas, operon, orlops, paeons, panels, pareos, pareus, parles, parole, parols, parous, parson, pauser, pearls, person, planer, planes, pleura, polars, polers, pornos, porose, porous, poseur, probes, prolan, proles, prunes, pueblo, pulers, pulsar, pulser, reason, rebops, reloan, replan, robalo, robles, rouble, rouens, rubles, saloon, saloop, sapour, saurel, senora, sloper, soaper, solano, sooner, splore, sporal, suable, suborn, subpar, superb, ulpans, unable, unbars, unbear, unreal, unrobe, unseal, upbear, upbore, uprose, upsoar, urbane, usable. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-e-l-n-o-o-p-r-s-u" | |
+4 letters: subprofessional, uncompromisable. | |
+5 letters: subprofessionals. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 61 75 6C 52 6F 62 65 73 6F 6E |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01100001 01110101 01101100 00100000 01010010 01101111 01100010 01100101 01110011 01101111 01101110 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P a u l   R o b e s o n |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0061 0075 006C 0052 006F 0062 0065 0073 006F 006E |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)50678778252816871858180 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Anagrams | 9. Orthography 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
