Paul Robeson honored

PAUL ROBESON HONORED: Paul Robeson, the late baritone singer and civil rights activist, was honored recently at the north London home he lived in from 1929 to 1930 while performing in the London production of Showboat. Robeson was best known for his rendition of the song Ol' Man River from the musical.

A plaque from the preservation group English Heritage was attached to the house in Branch Hill, Hampstead. Robeson graduated from Rutgers University with 15 letters in sports and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. A graduate of Columbia Law School as well, he briefly practiced in New York, but chose to pursue a career on stage. His first major success was off-Broadway in The Emperor Jones. Among his other memorable roles were Othello (1930) and Stevedore (1933). He also starred in a film version of Showboat (1936). Robeson used entertainment as a platform to protest civil rights injustices. Through his performances and rallying broadcasts, Robeson became a leading international figure in campaigns against colonialism and racism. During the anti-communist era of the '50s, his support of leftist groups led to his persecution by the U.S. government and his passport was confiscated in 1950. It was returned in 1958, but an embittered Robeson moved to Europe and later resided in Russia. He returned to America in 1963 where he announced his retirement as a performer and lived in Philadelphia until his death. Robeson's son, Paul Jr., said the plaque was "an appropriate symbolic recognition of a significant period of my father's artistic and political growth in London. It will remind us all of the deep mutual affection between my father and the peoples of the United Kingdom."