On August 15th, the Hamilton Hill Culturefest '98 celebrated the centennial birthday of the great Paul Robeson.  Born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1898, the son of an ex-slave, Robeson graduated with honors from Someville High School at the age of 16 and entered Rutgers University on an academic scholarship, becoming the third African-American student in the college's history.  At Rutgers, he won the class oratorical prize four years in a row, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Cap and Skull.  Robeson 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 honor.  He delivered the commencement address, titled "The New Idealism," as class valedictorian in 1919.  It was while studying law at Columbia University in 1921 that he first appeared on stage in Harlem YMCA production.  In 1924, Eugene O'Neill cast him in the lead role of Jim in his new play, "All God's Chillun Got Wings," and shortly thereafter in the title role in a revival of his play "The Emperor Jones."  In 1925, Robeson gave his first full-length recital and soon was acclaimed as one of the world's greatest interpreters of spirituals, an evaluation that stands today.

    In the 1930's and '40s, Robeson performed in drama and concerts in Europe and America.  His major theater credits included Jerome Kern's "Showboat," George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" and the title role of shakespeare's "Othello," opposite Jose Ferrer and Uta Hagen in the 1943 production in New York.  Robeson also established himself in film, beginning with "Body and Soul" in 1924 and later in "The Emperor Jones," "Showboat" and the British "King Solomon's Mines" and "Song of Freedom," among others.  In 1972, he was the only African-American to become a charter member of the National Theater Hall of fame.

    At the pinnacle of his artistic career in the 1940s, Paul Robeson also turned his attention to human rights, becoming an eloquent and forceful spokesperson against racism and discrimination.  In 1946, as a leader of the Anti-Lynching Crusade, he met with President Truman to demand the protection of blacks from lynchings.  He espoused several leftist causes, which made him a controversial figure for more than two decades; he and his wife, Eslanda, lived outside the United States, in East Berlin, Moscow and London, during much of this time.  They returned to the United States in 1963 and Robeson again began making public appearances.  He died in Philadelphia on January 23, 1976, at the age of 77