Paul Robeson by Lindsey R. Swindall

Author:Lindsey R. Swindall [Swindall, Lindsey R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2013-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Paul Robeson as Othello on Broadway. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW331-054944-ZC.

Most importantly, numerous reviewers noted the significance of a black actor playing this African leading role for the first time. It was a “victory for democracy” and a “tribute to art that transcends racial boundaries” to see an interracial cast in a Shakespearean play on Broadway. Robeson had successfully broken a racial barrier at the highest level of an almost all-white profession. Reporters in the black press believed Robeson’s pioneering performance would open the way for more black actors on Broadway. In addition to race relations, the production shed light on the current global conflict. In an article on the play, Robeson connected Othello’s themes to the present circumstances of World War II. He noted how audiences found the play to be “painfully immediate.” Just as “Othello’s world was breaking asunder,” Robeson pointed out, “we stand at the end of one period in human history and before the entrance of a new.” Still, he hoped that this could be “the final war” that would solve the issues of human poverty and equality “once and for all.”

The Othello revival played in New York for a record 296 performances during the 1943 to 1944 season. The troupe then traveled across the country from September 1944 to April 1945 and finally closed the show in New York. Robeson, and the rest of the cast, refused to perform in segregated venues, so the tour did not stop in the South. Theaters in the North and Midwest, where segregation was the norm, were desegregated for the Othello shows. The play was extremely popular and attracted diverse audiences. For instance, Robeson recollected that the opening in Detroit was unique in that many of the seats were taken by black and white autoworkers who sat alongside wealthy theater regulars. The play was Robeson’s main focus during these months, but he also made political appearances even while portraying Shakespeare’s Moor up to seven times a week. Significant world events that could not be ignored were unfolding as Othello meandered from from city to city. The Red Army was marching west toward Berlin even as a second front was inaugurated by the Allied landing in France. Italy was invaded, and the Japanese faced the United States in the Philippine Islands. By the time the play closed, the United States was mourning the death of President Roosevelt and the war was winding down.

Robeson’s political appearances during the Othello run included an address on African Americans in the War at the New York Herald Tribune Forum on current problems in November 1943. In his speech, he stressed the need to defeat fascism, and he underscored issues such as economic insecurity, disfranchisement, and segregation as impediments to full African American participation in the war effort. In December 1943, Robeson contributed to a meeting with baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis on the issue of integrating black players into the Major Leagues. Interestingly, at this session Robeson cited his warm reception in Othello as evidence of progress in the fight against racial segregation.

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