Paul Robeson, one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century, was also one of the most persecuted public figures of his day. Because of his strong support of the Soviet Union, strong public stance on human rights at home and abroad, and refusal to sign an affidavit declaring that he was not a Communist, Robeson’s passport was withdrawn by the U.S. State Department in 1950, during the height of anti-communist sentiments in the U.S. His right to travel outside the U.S. was not restored until Robeson won an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court eight years later.

Before his battle with the U.S. government, Robeson had distinguished himself in multiple arenas – as a scholar, athlete, attorney, actor, singer, and social activist. During the 1930s and 1940s, his was one of the most recognized names in United States and around the world. Once his passport and right to travel were restored, he never completely recovered from the systematic social ostracism that had been initiated and sustained by the government. Robeson eventually fell into ill health and died in 1976 at the age of 77.

Robeson’s relationship with the spirituals was not only motivated by his extraordinarily warm and powerful bass-baritone voice, but also by his conviction that songs – particularly the songs of the downtrodden and dispossessed, were important instruments in the world-wide struggle for social justice. Eventually Robeson learned many of the folk songs of poor and oppressed people around the world, and sang in at least 20 languages. However, he retained a particular fondness for the music of his own roots – the spirituals. His feelings were strongly influenced by his father, a minister and former escaped slave who kept spirituals alive in his church in Princeton, New Jersey, where Robeson grew up. On many occasions the young Paul Robeson sang spirituals with his father. In his 1957 political autobiography Here I Stand, Robeson wrote:

The power of spirit that our people have is intangible, but it is a great force that must be unleashed in the struggles of today. A spirit of steadfast determination, exaltation in the face of trials – it is the very soul of our people that has been formed through the long and weary years of our march toward freedom. . . . That spirit lives in our people’s songs – in the sublime grandeur of “Deep River,” in the driving force of “Jacob’s Ladder,” in the militancy of “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho,” and in the poignant beauty of all of our spirituals.

Paul Robeson’s poignantly resonant bass-baritone voice was a perfect match for the art song arrangements of Harry T. Burleigh and other composers who followed the approach to composition that Burleigh began. In 1925, encouraged by his wife Eslanda, Robeson was the first professional artist to perform a concert devoted entirely to spirituals, utilizing many of the piano/vocal arrangements of Burleigh and other contemporary composers. The concert took place at the Greenwich Village Theatre in New York City. Robeson was accompanied on piano by his composer-pianist collaborator, Lawrence Brown, who added some of his own arrangements, written explicitly for Robeson. In subsequent years, Robeson developed a well-earned reputation as one of the finest interpreters of the spirituals, which he performed both in formal concerts and spontaneously in many of his public appearances around the world as a spokesperson for social justice.