Taboo is a play first performed in 1922, written by Mary Hoyt Wiborg.
It is set on a plantation in Louisiana before the American Civil War and in Africa. It opened on April 4, 1922, in the Sam Harris Theater, Harlem. It starred Margaret Wycherly, the only white member of the cast, Paul Robeson, other African American actors, and African students at Columbia University. An African dance was performed by Columbus Kamba Simango, a Mozambican student at Columbia. This was one of Robeson's first stage opportunities and his performance was praised by critics. [1]
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.
Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard was an American professional football player and coach. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first two African-American players in the NFL in 1920. Football pioneer Walter Camp called Pollard "one of the greatest runners these eyes have ever seen."
"Let Robeson Sing" is a song by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released in September 2001 by record label Epic as the fourth and final single from their sixth studio album, Know Your Enemy. It reached number 19 in the UK Singles Chart.
"Ol' Man River" is a show tune from the 1927 musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the song in 1925. The song contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River. It is sung from the point of view of a black stevedore on a showboat, and is the most famous song from the show. The song is meant to be performed in a slow tempo; it is sung complete once in the musical's lengthy first scene by the stevedore "Joe" who travels with the boat, and, in the stage version, is heard four more times in brief reprises. Joe serves as a sort of musical one-man Greek chorus, and the song, when reprised, comments on the action, as if saying, "This has happened, but the river keeps rolling on anyway."
Roy Ottoway Wilkins was an American civil rights leader from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most notable role was his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in which he held the title of Executive Secretary from 1955 to 1963 and Executive Director from 1964 to 1977. Wilkins was a central figure in many notable marches of the civil rights movement and made contributions to African-American literature. He controversially advocated for African Americans to join the military.
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.
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.
The American Crusade Against Lynching (ACAL) was an organization created in 1946 and headed by Paul Robeson, dedicated to eliminating lynching in the United States. A strong advocate of the Civil Rights Movement, Robeson believed "a fraternity must be established in which success and achievement are recognized and those deserving receive the respect, honor and dignity due them." In his speech "The New Idealism", delivered as a Rutgers College valedictory address, Robeson supported the idea that all – both colored and white people – need to take part in the creation of the new "American Idealism"; which led to the development of the American Crusade Against Lynching.
"Ballad for Americans" (1939), originally titled "The Ballad for Uncle Sam", is an American patriotic cantata with lyrics by John La Touche and music by Earl Robinson. It was written for the Federal Theatre Project production, Sing for Your Supper that opened on April 24, 1939. Congress abolished the project on June 30, 1939. The "Ballad of Uncle Sam" had been performed 60 times.
Leon Bibb was an American-Canadian folk singer and actor who grew up in Kentucky, studied voice in New York City, and worked on Broadway. His career began when he became a featured soloist of the Louisville Municipal College glee club as a student. He lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, after 1969.
Charles Sidney Gilpin was a stage actor of the 1920s. He played in two New York City debuts: the 1919 premier of John Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln and the lead role of Brutus Jones in the 1920 premiere of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. In 1920, he was the first black person to receive The Drama League's annual award as one of ten people who had done the most that year for American theatre. He also appeared in films.
"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.
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.
Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson was an American anthropologist, author, actress, and civil rights activist. She was the wife and business manager of performer Paul Robeson.
Paul Robeson High School was a public four-year high school located in the Englewood neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in September 1977, Robeson was a part of the Chicago Public Schools district. The school was named in honor of African-American entertainer and athlete Paul Robeson. After years of declining enrollment and low academic performance, the school closed after the 2017–2018 school year and was later demolished in September 2018.
The Department of African American Studies (AAS) at Syracuse University is an academic department supporting Africana studies. It is located at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. It is part of the Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences. The Department supports an external community based unit that is a part of the department and has played a central role in shaping culture and arts in the Syracuse city community - Community Folk Art Center (CFAC). It has also supported the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company (PRPAC) in the past. These are both independent units that were housed or founded by the department The department also houses the award-winning library, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. It currently oversees the internationally recognized university wide initiative "Africa Initiative". Its other projects include the nationally recognized "Paris Noir" and the Ford Foundation Environmental Justice and Gender Project. It has had a long history of activism within the university, surrounding community, and abroad through its strong international network. The AAS department has housed many renowned scholars in African, Afro-Caribbean, African-American, Afro-Latin American, and Afro-European studies.
Lawrence Benjamin Brown was an American singer, composer and pianist born in Jacksonville, Florida. He is best known for his arrangements of Negro spirituals, many of which he performed as accompanist for Paul Robeson, performing on piano and singing harmony.
William Warrick Cardozo (1905–1962) was an accomplished private physician and pediatrician who also served as an instructor at the Howard University College of Medicine and as a school medical inspector for the District of Columbia Board of Health. He is best known for his research on sickle cell anemia, but also published articles about Hodgkin's disease, the gastrointestinal health of children, and the physical development of African American children. Cardozo was an early African-American contributor in the healthcare profession.
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."
Rita Romilly Benson was an American stage actress, acting teacher, and an early proponent of Gurdjieff's teachings in America.