The powerful voice of Paul Robeson

"It means so little when a man like me wins some success. Whereis the benefit when a small class of negroes makes money and can livewell? It may all be encouraging, but it has no deeper significance.I feel this way because I have cousins who can neither read norwrite. I have had a chance. They have not. That is thedifference."

Paul Robeson, 1941

Those are a few of the guiding principles that I adopted formyself years ago, and they were enhanced after having met PaulRobeson in living color.

Monday was the birthday of late Robeson, who in my judgment wasone of the few Renaissance men of this century.

Paul Robeson, scholar, athlete, actor, …