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01
Able to speak and write in over 20 languages, Robeson was a noted polyglot.
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02
In 1942, he announced he would not make any further films until better roles for blacks were available.
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03
Robeson was only the third black person to attend Rutgers University.
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04
He attempted suicide at a party in 1961; his son believed his father had been drugged by the CIA.
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05
He was valedictorian of his senior class at Rutgers in 1919.
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06
The 1943 Robeson Othello could not have been filmed due to the racial climate of the era; a black man could not play a love scene with a white woman in a 1940s motion picture.
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07
Robeson was the first black person to play football for Rutgers University.
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08
A black tomato variety named after him was allegedly named so by Russian growers because he was extremely well liked in that country.
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09
He was a graduate of Columbia University School of Law.
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10
Although he changed the lyrics of Ol’ Man River in 1938 for his recordings, he always sang the original lyrics in stage productions of Show Boat.
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11
He was awarded the 1953 Stalin Peace Prize by the Soviet government, the last person to receive it before it was renamed the Lenin Peace Prize.
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12
In 1925, he sang the first concert recital consisting solely of black spirituals at the Greenwich Village Theatre in New York.
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13
The 1943 Broadway production of Othello is the longest-running non-musical Shakespeare play in U.S. history.
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14
He was captain of the Rutgers debating team.
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15
He played professional football for the Akron Pros and Milwaukee Badgers.
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16
In 1952 and 1953 he sang in defiance of the U.S. government at the Peace Arch Concerts, attended by over 40,000 people.
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17
He was elected into the 2008 New Jersey Hall of Fame for his contributions to history.
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18
According to a co-star, Robeson was a lovely man who laughed easily and was gentle in his arguments.
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19
According to his son’s biography, he had a long-term extramarital relationship with Fredi Washington, his co-star in The Emperor Jones.
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20
In December 1937 he sang a whole night for Spanish Republican troops fighting to take the town of Teruel.
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21
He was twice named All-American Football Player for Rutgers at end, in 1917 and 1918.
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22
He appeared in a World War II-era U.S. Government War Department propaganda film called Easy to Get aimed at combating venereal diseases among black soldiers.
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23
He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Rutgers in 1919.
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24
Inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame.
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25
The role of Joe in Show Boat was written for him, but due to schedule conflicts he played it in London five months after the Broadway premiere.
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26
In stage productions of Othello, he changed the famous line to ‘one that lov’d full wisely, but too well’ in his concert recitals.
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27
He nearly died from double pneumonia and a blocked kidney in 1965.
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28
He was investigated by the California Senate’s Fact Finding Committee on Un-American Activities.
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29
He played professional football for three years 1920-1922 with the Akron Pros and Milwaukee Badgers.
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30
He was portrayed by James Earl Jones in a 1976 theatre production about his life.
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31
Inducted into the Rutgers Football Hall of Fame.
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32
Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Black Heritage series issued January 20, 2004.
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33
He was the subject of the song Paul Robeson Born To Be Free by the Celtic rock group Black 47.
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34
He made only one stereo recording, a two-volume set of his 1958 Carnegie Hall recital, his only appearance there.
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35
Portrayed by Avery Brooks in a 1982 revival of the theatre production about his life.
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36
His father was William Drew Robeson, a minister; his mother was Maria Louisa Bustill.
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37
Although he gave a few television interviews, he never played dramatic or musical roles in that medium.
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38
His name is pronounced as two syllables: Robe-son.
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39
After visiting the Soviet Union, he denied the existence of the Holodomor and the Great Purge.
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40
An article he wrote praising Stalin on the dictator’s death in 1953, entitled To You Beloved Comrade, caused immense controversy.
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41
He courted great controversy by praising the Soviet Union as an anti-colonial force despite its occupation of eastern Europe and the Baltic States.
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42
Some in the civil rights movement felt his overt support for Stalin damaged their cause, but he remained unrepentant.
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43
He blamed the UK and France for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
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44
He graduated from Somerville High School in New Jersey in 1915.
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45
He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
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46
Despite evidence of the Rootless Cosmopolitan Campaign, he refused to criticize Stalin and denied Jews were being persecuted in the Soviet Union.
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47
Robeson was often criticized for continuing to support the Soviet Union after learning of state-sponsored persecution of Jews.
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48
He was the subject of the 2001 Manic Street Preachers single Let Robeson Sing.
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49
He was the subject of the World/Inferno Friendship Society song Paul Robeson.
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50
He stopped publicly praising Stalinism after Khrushchev’s 1956 speech, but continued to praise the Soviet Union and compared the Hungarian uprising to the overthrow of the Spanish Republican government.
