Paul Robeson: The Renaissance Man Vanishes

Robeson at an event honoring those killed in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, February 26, 1941. Seated to his left is former Lincoln Battalion commander Milton Wolff. Image Wikipedia.

January 23rd was the 50th anniversary of Paul Robeson’s death. As historian Gerald Horne noted in his 2016 biography of Robeson, Time magazine declared him “probably the most famous living negro” in 1943, while in 1964, an “admiring reporter…upping the ante,” referred to Robeson as the “best known American in the world.” Sports journalist Howard Bryant...