With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Paul Robeson
Music, Theatre/Dance/Film
1898 – 1976
Robeson, the son of a former enslaved man, achieved great intellectual, athletic and artistic success. He also became an internationally known actor and singer. One of his first roles was in a 1930s traveling production of Eugene O’Neill’s 1920 “Emperor Jones” made possible by the New Deal Federal Theatre Project.
- Biography/Description of Work
Paul Robeson was an All-American football player, a Phi Beta Kappa scholarship student at Rutgers University and a graduate of the Columbia University Law School. An African American, he was also an actor, singer, and activist in civil rights causes. Robeson purchased this Enfield house during the height of his popularity, and owned it from March 1940 until December 1953. Robeson’s refusal to remain silent about racism in the United States, along with his ardent desire for human justice, resulted in his being ostracized by American society and persecuted by the forces of anti-Communism in the post-World War II years. He was barred from appearing at concert halls, had his passport revoked and saw his name removed from the football records he had established. He spent the last 15 years of his life in exile abroad and as a recluse in Philadelphia, dying in January 1976. In 1995, Robeson was posthumously inducted into the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame.
- Sources view
- CT Freedom Trail. http://www.ctfreedomtrail.org/trail/concept-of-freedom/sites/#!/paul-robeson-house .
Connecticut Museumquest blog. Accessed at http://www.ctmuseumquest.com/?page_id=4383 .
New York Times:
Fitzsimmons, Emma G. 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/arts/activist-and-author-paul-robeson-jr-dies-at-86.html?_r=0
Lubasch, Arnold H. 1993. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/21/garden/in-harlem-with-paul-robeson-jr-finding-his-own-voice-and-learning-to-use-it.html
Tuhus, Melinda. 1998. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/05/nyregion/celebrating-a-marvel-named-robeson.html?pagewanted=1 .
Robeson, Paul: Biography. Accessed at http://www.biography.com/people/paul-robeson-9460451#activism-and-a-curtailed-career .
Robeson, Paul. 1958. Here I Stand. Boston: Beacon Press. Reissued in 1971, 1988. - Associated Resource(s)