Susan Robeson

Last updated
Susan Robeson
Born1953
OccupationAuthor, producer
Notable worksThe Whole World In His Hands
Relatives William Drew Robeson (great-grandfather),
Maria Louisa Bustill (great-grandmother),
Paul Robeson (grandfather),
Eslanda Goode (grandmother),
Paul Robeson Jr. (father),
Marilyn Paula Greenberg (mother)

Susan Robeson is an American author, producer and the granddaughter of Paul Robeson.

Contents

Early life

Robeson studied at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio as well as at New York University. Classes in communications, history and culture were primary areas of focus. [1]

Career

Robeson was inspired to enter the documentary journalism field by her grandfather's misrepresentation by the media and the lack of positive black character roles in film. [2]

Robeson's first work was to co-direct Teach Our Children, for Third World Newsreel. The film focuses on the 1971 prison rebellion at Attica in upstate New York. [3] [4] [5]

Robeson's book The Whole World In His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson explores many of her grandfather's accomplishments from his stage performances, to private moments and his political activist period. The book's intent is to allow Robeson to posthumously speak for himself and correct media misrepresentations. [5] The biography consists of essays written by Susan, reflections from Paul Robeson himself, such as his opinion of his film Sanders of the River, [6] and photographs from the family's library of 50,000 materials. [2] Photos from the 1949 Peekskill riots capture the beating of Eugene Bullard by two policemen, a state trooper and a concert-goer. All of which went unprosecuted. [7] The New York book party included invitations featuring Lena Horne and performances by Odetta and Pete Seeger. [8]

In the 1980s, New York's WABC-TV had a black public affairs program Like It Is , on which Robeson worked as an associate producer. [9] In 1982 the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award recognized her for her contribution to WABC-TV's "Essay on Drugs."

In the 1990s, Robeson was the executive producer for community affairs at Twin Cities Public Television. [5]

As an educator, she has taught on Paul Robeson and documentary film at Macalester College, Carleton College and Colorado College. [10]

Robeson published a children's book, Grandpa Stops a War about his peacemaking efforts on the front lines of the Spanish Civil War. [11] [12]

Legacy

In celebration of her grandfather's 100th birthday, Somerville Middle School invited Robeson as the featured speaker to honor her late grandfather as the winners of the Paul Robeson Essay Contest were awarded. [13]

Robeson has lectured often on her grandfather's opinions and accomplishments and attended ceremonies in his honor. [10] [14] She is the chair of the Paul Robeson Foundation. [15]

At the Second Annual Paul Robeson Lecture Series, a part of Paul Robeson's alma mater Rutgers University's "America Converges Here" campaign, Susan along with Harry Belafonte shared the lessons of Paul Robeson. [16] [17]

Family

Robeson has one son and is the daughter of author Paul Robeson Jr. and Marilyn Paula Greenberg, who were married in New York City in 1949 with a mob outside protesting their interracial union. She is the granddaughter of singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson Sr. and anthropologist and author Eslanda Goode Robeson. [16] [1] [18] Her great-grandfather William Drew Robeson I was an escaped slave who became a minister and married a Quaker schoolteacher, Maria Louisa Bustill, making Robeson a descendant of the Bustill family.

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Robeson</span> American singer, actor, political activist, and gridiron football player (1898–1976)

Paul Leroy Robeson was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Belafonte</span> American singer and actor (1927–2023)

Harry Belafonte was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte's career breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.

<i>Suddenly Susan</i> American television sitcom (1996–2000)

Suddenly Susan is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from September 19, 1996, to December 26, 2000. The series was created by Clyde Phillips and starred Brooke Shields in her first regular series. Shields played Susan Keane, a glamorous San Francisco magazine writer who begins to adjust to being single, and who learns to be independent-minded after having been taken care of all her life. The series was developed by Gary Dontzig and Steven Peterman, who also served as executive producers during the first three seasons, and was produced by Warner Bros. Television.

The Peekskill riots took place at Cortlandt Manor, New York in 1949. The catalyst for the rioting was an announced concert by black singer Paul Robeson, who was well known for his strong pro-trade union stance, civil rights activism, communist affiliations, and anti-colonialism. The concert, organized as a benefit for the Civil Rights Congress, was scheduled to take place on August 27 in Lakeland Acres, just north of Peekskill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Drew Robeson I</span> American clergyman

William Drew Robeson I was the minister of Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey from 1880 to 1901 and the father of Paul Robeson. The Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church had been built for its black members by the First Presbyterian Church of Princeton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Louisa Bustill</span> American Quaker schoolteacher

Maria Louisa Bustill Robeson was a Quaker schoolteacher; the wife of the Reverend William Drew Robeson of Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey and the mother of Paul Robeson and his siblings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Francis Mossell</span> American physician (1856–1946)

Nathan Francis Mossell was an American physician who was the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1882. He did post-graduate training at hospitals in Philadelphia and London. In 1888, he was the first black physician elected as member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society in Pennsylvania. He was active in the NAACP and also helped found the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in West Philadelphia in 1895, which he led as chief-of-staff and medical director until he retired in 1933. Gertrude Bustill Mossell was his wife.

Joseph Cassey Bustill was an African American conductor in the Underground Railroad, operating primarily in Philadelphia to aid refugee slaves.

Shari Lynn Belafonte is an American actress, model and singer. The daughter of the late singer and actor Harry Belafonte, she began her career as a fashion model before making her big screen debut appearing in the 1982 drama film If You Could See What I Hear. She is best known for her role as Julie Gillette in the ABC drama series Hotel from 1983 to 1988. She later went to star in the Canadian science fiction series Beyond Reality (1991–1993). Belafonte also released two studio albums in the 1980s, and acted on stage in later years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waterboy (song)</span> Song

"Waterboy" is an American traditional folk song. It is built on the call "Water boy, where are you hidin'?" The call is one of several water boy calls in cotton plantation folk tradition.

<i>Sanders of the River</i> 1935 British film by Zoltán Korda

Sanders of the River is a 1935 British film directed by the Hungarian-British director, Zoltán Korda, based on the stories of Edgar Wallace. It is set in Colonial Nigeria. The lead Nigerian characters were played by African Americans Paul Robeson and Nina Mae McKinney. The film proved a significant commercial and critical success, giving Korda the first of his four nominations for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival.

The Council on African Affairs (CAA), until 1941 called the International Committee on African Affairs (ICAA), was a volunteer organization founded in 1937 in the United States. It emerged as the leading voice of anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism in the United States and internationally before Cold War anti-communism and liberalism created too much strife among members; the organization split in 1955. The split was also precipitated by co-founder Max Yergan's abandonment of left-wing politics; he advocated colonial rule in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Robeson Jr.</span> American academic

Paul Leroy Robeson Jr. was an American author, archivist and historian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gertrude Bustill Mossell</span> American journalist, author, teacher, and activist

Gertrude Emily Hicks Bustill Mossell was an American journalist, author, teacher, and activist. She served as the women's editor of the New York Age from 1885 to 1889, and of the Indianapolis World from 1891 to 1892. She strongly supported the development of black newspapers and advocated for more women to enter journalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Lane Polk</span>

Ralph Lane Polk (1849–1923) was an American compiler of facts and publisher of directories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esther Louise Georgette Deer</span> American singer

Esther Louise Georgette Deer was a Native American dancer, singer, and activist. She was of the Mohawk tribe. She performed under the name Princess White Deer as part of The Famous Deer Brothers, a family stage act, which toured the United States, Europe and South Africa. She returned to America as the country was preparing to enter World War I, and participated in war bond rallies, where she was noticed by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. She joined his Ziegfeld Follies, and became one of its principal artists. She also lobbied to have the rights of Native Americans recognized in America.

Mary Campbell Mossell Griffin was an American writer, clubwoman, and suffragist based in Philadelphia. She led successful efforts to pass Pennsylvania's anti-lynching law. She co-founded a summer camp with Anna J. Cooper. She wrote a book about African American men and women.

<i>Freedom</i> (American newspaper) 1950–1955 monthly newspaper on African-American issues

Freedom was a monthly newspaper focused on African-American issues published from 1950 to 1955. The publication was associated primarily with the internationally renowned singer, actor and then officially disfavored activist Paul Robeson, whose column, with his photograph, ran on most of its front pages. Freedom's motto was: "Where one is enslaved, all are in chains!" The newspaper has been described as "the most visible African American Left cultural institution during the early 1950s." In another characterization, "Freedom paper was basically an attempt by a small group of black activists, most of them Communists, to provide Robeson with a base in Harlem and a means of reaching his public... The paper offered more coverage of the labor movement than nearly any other publication, particularly of the left-led unions that were expelled from the CIO in the late 1940s... [It] encouraged its African American readership to identify its struggles with anti-colonial movements in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Freedom gave extensive publicity to... the struggle against apartheid."

Anna Bustill Smith was a cousin of Paul Robeson and member of Philadelphia's prominent Bustill family. A suffragist, who was the first known African-American genealogist in the United States, she also achieved recognition as an African-American author during the 20th century. Among her most important works are biographical sketches about members of the Bustill family, as well as her Reminiscences of Colored People of Princeton, N.J., 1800–1900, which was a study of Princeton's Black community that was published in 1913.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Nussbaum</span> American actress and activist (1953–2022)

Susan Ruth Nussbaum was an American actress, author, playwright, and disability rights activist.

References

  1. 1 2 Spratling, Cassandra (Jan 22, 1982). "Settling the score on Paul Robeson: A granddaughter's book settles the score". Detroit Free Press. pp. 1B, 3B. Retrieved 2023-12-25– via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 Trescott, Jacqueline (Feb 14, 1982). "Pictorial biography tells Robeson legacy". News-Journal. pp. 1-D, 7-D. Retrieved 2023-12-25– via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Teach Our Children - Available from TWN". www.twn.org. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
  4. ↑ Trescott, Jacqueline (Feb 22, 1982). "Granddaughter pictures Robeson". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 25. Retrieved 2023-12-25– via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 3 Duckworth, Erika N. (Jun 12, 1992). "KTCA's Robeson carrying on in her grandfather's footsteps". Star Tribune. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-12-25– via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Robeson, Susan (1981). The Whole World In His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson (1st ed.). Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press. p. 73. ISBN   978-0806507545.
  7. 1 2 Robeson, Susan (1981). "Chapter 5, The Politics of Persecution". The Whole World In His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson (1st ed.). Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press. pp. 181–183. ISBN   978-0806507545.
  8. ↑ Trescott, Jacqueline (Feb 27, 1982). "Paul Robeson: Bitterness bespeaks regret and he didn't have any". The Journal Herald. p. 23. Retrieved 2023-12-25– via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Carrington, Karlynn (Dec 12, 1982). "Memories of a Big Voice Silenced by Small Minds". Hartford Courant. p. 126. Retrieved 2023-12-25– via Newspapers.com.
  10. 1 2 Chan, Kali (2014-11-12). "Susan Robeson, Granddaughter of Artist and Activist Paul Robeson, to Speak at Adelphi". Garden City, NY Patch. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  11. ↑ Carino, Jerry (Feb 24, 2019). "Robeson's legacy more than ball". Asbury Park Press. pp. 1B, 2B. Retrieved 2023-12-25– via Newspapers.com.
  12. 1 2 Robeson, Susan (2019). Grandpa Stops a War: A Paul Robeson story (Illustrated ed.). Triangle Square Press. ISBN   978-1609808822.
  13. ↑ Nesterak, Jessica Anne (Apr 10, 1998). "Robeson's legacy: Think for yourself". The Courier-News. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-12-25– via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Singer Robeson's granddaughter recalls fight against racism". BBC News. 2014-05-07. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  15. ↑ Rowe, Marcia (Jan 31, 2012). "Film-maker continues the legacy of civil rights activist". jamaica-gleaner.com. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  16. 1 2 Makin, Cheryl (Apr 7, 2017). "Robeson lectures to feature Belafonte". The Courier-News. pp. 1A, 9A. Retrieved 2023-12-25– via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Makin, Cheryl. "Susan Robeson, Harry Belafonte inspire at Paul Robeson lecture". Courier News. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  18. ↑ Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (Apr 27, 2014). "Paul Robeson Jr., Activist and Author, Dies at 86". New York Times.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.