A world-famous singer and actor, a trained lawyer, an early star of American professional football and a polyglot who spoke over a dozen languages: These could be the crowning achievements of a life well-lived. Yet for Paul Robeson the higher calling of social justice led him to abandon both the NFL and Hollywood and become one of the most important political activists of his generation, a crusader for freedom and equality who battled both Jim Crow and Joseph McCarthy.
In Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary, the prolific scholar Gerald Horne discovers within Robeson’s remarkable and revolutionary life the story of the twentieth century’s great political struggles: against racism, against colonialism, against poverty—and for international socialism. His critical and searching biography provides an opportunity for readers to comprehend the triumphs and tragedies of the revolutionary progressive movement of which Robeson was not just a part, but perhaps its most resonant symbol.
The New Haven Free Public Library presents Dr. Horne in an author talk about Robeson on Wednesday, September 9, 7-8:30 pm ET. Join via Zoom.
Dr. Gerald Horne holds the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. His research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations and war. His study Blows Against the Empire: U.S. Imperialism in Crisis was published by International Publishers, which is also shortly releasing a new title by Dr. Horne on the history of boxing, particularly in the United States. He is the author of the highly controversial and influential book The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America, which argues that the American revolution for independence was motivated primarily by the desire to maintain slavery in the face of growing abolitionism in Britain.
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