Few Americans understood the needs of the working man better than Paul Robeson. In the photo above, he leads Moore Shipyard workers in singing the National Anthem in 1942. Paul Robeson was one of the most talented Americans to ever live. His gifts were so varied that it is hard to believe that one man had so many accomplishments in the many fields he mastered. He was a lawyer, nationally known athlete, internationally known singer and actor, and defender of human rights.Without a doubt, Paul Robison was one of our most gifted artists and intellectuals.

Paul's family history was intertwined with the history of our country. Paul's father ran away from slavery during the Civil War. He was a self-educated person, and was accepted into the Divinity school at Lincoln University.

While Paul's father was studying to become a Presbyterian Minister, he met a young African American schoolteacher from one of Philadelphia's oldest African American families. Ms. Maria Louise Bustill's family traced its family tree in Pennsylvania back to about 1685 when William Penn made his treaty with the Lenape Native Americans. Ms. Bustill's great-grandfather was able to purchase his freedom by becoming a master baker. During the Revolutionary War, he aided General George Washington and the Colonial Armed Forces by supplying bread to the army at Valley Forge.

Paul's mom's family did not give in to racial prejudice. When her great-grandfather's family realized that the Quakers would not accept African Americans as equal, several of them separated and joined the First African American Presbyterian Church.

As Paul grew up, his father left his church in Princeton, New Jersey, to join the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Princeton public schools would not allow African Americans to attend high school. In Somerville, NJ, Paul attended the integrated public high school and excelled. At home, his father tutored him in Greek and Latin.

Paul was accepted into Rutgers University but was alone on campus as the only African American at the school. He was a brilliant student and was named valedictorian of his class at Rutgers.

He was also a great football player. However, the members of the Rutgers football team rejected him because of his race and, on the first day of football practice, his nose was broken and his shoulder was dislocated.

But six-foot, three-inch Paul did not give up. He returned to the team and won over the other players. He was recognized as one of the best players in the nation and was accepted into the National Collegiate Football Hall of Fame.

After graduation, Paul attended Columbia University Law School. Paul and his wife Eslanda moved into the vibrant community of Harlem during its Renaissance. It was in this community that Paul's brilliant gifts in drama and music blossomed. He and his wife counted the leading intellectuals of the time among their friends. From Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois and Zora Neale Hurston to Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Lena Horne, Paul was on the inside of an elite circle of African American greats.

Paul participated in the arts in the community. While he was attending Columbia Law School, he was offered the title role in the play "Simon the Cyrenian at the Harlem Y.M.C.A. This experience led him to being offered roles in other plays. One of these, a play named Taboo, was a hit and Paul performed with the theater company in London.

After Paul received his law degree, he quickly realized that his intellectual gifts and knowledge of the law were not powerful enough to break down the walls of racism. After a legal secretary refused to take notes from him because he was black, he left the legal field. It was at this time that he turned his full energy and focus on acting and singing. His living in Harlem during its Renaissance offered him many opportunities to explore.

Once Paul focused on a performing career, he achieved it. In short time Paul was offered the lead in Eugene O'Neill's play All God's Chillun Got Wings. Later he starred in the longest running production of a Shakespeare play in Broadway's history. He made the title role of Othello his very own. Paul's ability in singing then led him to another great achievement. He played the role of Joe in the hit musical Showboat. His singing of the show-stopping song Ol' Man River was an overnight hit. He later recreated the role in the film. Robeson took the song to a level of power that equated the power of the river to that of the Black men who worked it.

Paul was not just an actor. Where he saw injustice, he stood up for the values his father gave him. A critical problem began to evolve with his growing knowledge of the world. As a performer, he could sing and act in over twenty languages. He took his creative work seriously and connected with the social environments that gave power to his roles. The racism he faced in America led him to move to England for a time. This move made him realize that while America was a great nation, it would not be as great as it could be until all of its citizens were treated as equal under the law.

Paul Robeson's demands for racial equality led many segregationists to call him a Communist. As Paul traveled the world, he did not select his friends and acquaintances by virtue of their political beliefs as much as he did by the way they embodied their humanity. If you said you loved America but that you hated African Americans, Paul would say that you were a hypocrite. You could not truly love America if you did not also love all of the citizens of your nation. He did not shy away from letting people know that in Communist Russia he was allowed to eat at any restaurant or stay in any hotel. These were rights he did not have even in his own city of New York.

Paul's political stance caused him to be attacked and threatened. Yet, he did not back down. He refused to perform in a theatre if the audience was segregated. Then in 1950, Paul carried a sign outside of the White House demanding that the government pass laws to prevent lynching and the poll tax that denied African Americans their right to vote.

Because he was an active citizen who pointed out the flaws in our nation's culture and laws, Paul was a major target of those who wanted racial segregation and injustice to continue. In 1956 during the McCarthy era, he refused to swear that he was not a Communist. He responded to the Congressional Committee saying: "Whether I am or not a Communist is irrelevant. The question is whether American citizens, regardless of their political beliefs or sympathies, may enjoy their constitutional rights." Saying this took real courage. He stood up for America's true beliefs and made those who were trying to destroy him look like fools.

In response, the government took away his passport so that he could not travel to Europe. Without the ability to respond to offers of work from overseas, Paul was placed in an economic squeeze. In America, once an actor was called a Communist, he was placed on the "Black List." This meant that no one could offer him work because if they did, they could be called Communists as well.

As always, Paul adapted to the situation. He retained his dignity and pushed on with his life. He fought the government and in 1958 he took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. They ruled in his favor, and the Court ordered the State Department to return his passport. To celebrate justice, Paul offered a concert at Carnegie Hall that quickly sold out. That year he also wrote his autobiography but was only able to publish it in England because no publishing house in the United States would publish a citizen who was on the "Black List." His book Here I Stand quickly sold out its first run and was reprinted repeatedly.

Paul Robeson was truly a person who believed in the dignity of all men and women. He challenged those who were blinded by hate to open their ears and eyes. He questioned those in power and asked them why they did not believe in their own professed faith. He reached out and touched the hearts of working men and women and encouraged them to believe in themselves. He championed the citizen's role of demanding justice from a government that declared that all men were equal. He engaged the arts with power and performed and sang without fear in spite of those who wanted him dead. He was a true American man.

In the mid 1960's, Paul retired to Philadelphia where his family gave him rest. He had sung for Presidents, Kings and Queens, but in the end, it was his love of performing for common citizens that gave him true joy. Just as his father and mother had taught him, he remained true to himself and took real pride in being an American citizen who enriched the nation and world in which he lived.