Paul Leroy Robeson (1898-1976) was an American singer, actor, and political activist. He crusaded for equality and justice for African Americans.

Paul Robeson made his career at a time when second-class citizenship was the norm for all African Americans, who were either severely limited in, or totally excluded from, participation in the economic, political, and social institutions of America.

Robeson was born on April 9, 1898, in Princeton, New Jersey. His father was a runaway slave who fought for the North in the Civil War, put himself through Lincoln University, received a degree in divinity, and was pastor at a Presbyterian church in Princeton. Paul's mother was a member of the distinguished Bustill family of Philadelphia, which included patriots in the Revolutionary War, helped found the Free African Society, and maintained agents in the Underground Railroad.

At 17 Robeson won a scholarship to Rutgers University, where he was considered an athlete...