By Giorgio Migliavacca

9 April 1998 marked the centennial of the birth of one of America's most famous black personalities " Paul Robeson [1898-1976]. The son of an ex-slave who ran away from Virginia at the age of 15, Paul Robeson graduated with honours from Somerville High School at 16 and entered Rutgers where his many talents became quite apparent.

At Rutgers College (now University), Robeson won many prizes and earned 15 varsity letters in football, basketball, track and baseball and became Rutgers' first All-American football player in 1917, the first African-American player to achieve the honour. While studying law at Columbia University in 1921,

Robeson made his stage debut in a Harlem YMCA production of Torrence's "Simon the Cyrenian". In 1924, Eugene O'Neill gave him the leading role of Jim in his new play "All God's Chillun Got Wings". O'Neill was highly impressed and shortly thereafter gave Robeson the title role of his play "The Emperor Jones".

Meanwhile, in 1923 Robeson had graduated with honours and was admitted to the Bar of New York; he worked for a short while in a New York law firm, but because opportunities for blacks in that profession were severely limited, he turned to the stage. His lead role in "The Emperor Jones" won the general acclaim from both critics and public.

During the following years he appeared in several plays including "Porgy" (1928), "Show Boat" (1928), "Othello" (1930) and eleven films, including "Body and Soul" (1924), "Borderline" (1929), "Show Boat" (1936), "Song of Freedom" (1937), "Proud Valley" (1939), and "Tales of Manhattan" (1942).

Robeson's rendition of "Ol'Man River" in "Show Boat" is an all-time classic of music-theatre. Hisprofessional singing career began in 1925 with a highly successful concert in New York. In a short time his records became popular all over the world; his concert tours took him to Britain, Russia, and throughout Europe in the 1930s. During this time he met and became a friend of many international intellectual figures and political personalities such as Kwame N'krumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Ernest Hemingway, W.E.B. Du Bois, Pablo Neruda, Bertolt Brecht, Dmitri Shostakovic, as well as India's Nehru, and historians and writers from China and Russia. Robeson used his deep bass-baritone voice to promote black spirituals and sang for peace and justice in 25 languages throughout the world. His travels taught him that racism was not as rampant in Europe as it was in the USA; in London Robeson's opening night performance of "Emperor Jones" brought the audience to its feet with cheers for twelve encores, but in New York Robeson would have difficulties in finding a restaurant that would serve him, and in theatres, blacks would be relegated to the upper balconies.

In New York his performances were often the target of threats and outright harassment. During the 1940s Robeson became more vocal against racism and after the war worked tirelessly for friendship between the USA and Russia. In 1945, Robeson headed an organisation that challenged president Truman to support an anti-lynching law. In due course he began receiving death threats from the Ku Klux Klan; the House Un-American Activities Committee accused Robeson of being a communist; the allegation nearly ended his career and 80 of his concerts were canceled. NAACP leaders and prominent African-American figures were coerced to disassociate themselves from Robeson. In 1950 his passport was revoked; during the McCarthy era Robeson engaged in an up-hill legal battle to resecure his travel documents, but in the interim he studied Chinese, met with Albert Einstein to discuss world peace, and wrote his autobiography - "Here I Stand".

After retiring in 1963, he continued his support to civil rights movements. He died on 23 January 1976 in Philadelphia.

In earlier years he had received honourary degrees from Rutgers University, Hamilton College, Lincoln University, Morehouse College, Howard University and Moscow State Conservatory. In 1972, Robeson was the only African-American to become a charter member of the National Theatre Hall of Fame; and in 1995 he became a member of the National College Football Hall of Fame. A major exhibit of objects depicting Robeson's life and legacy was inaugurated on 5 April at the Zimmerli Museum, Rutgers; the exhibit will travel to several venues in the USA.