Curio Cabinet | July 09, 2026

Art or Activism: The Career of Paul Robeson 

To be as good as someone else is no high ideal. I am myself.  

–Paul Robeson 

Paul Robeson’s acting career happened partly by accident. Late on a Saturday night in the spring of 1922, he was hanging out at a Harlem street corner talking with his friends, a group of artists and intellectuals. He was in his second year of studying law at Columbia University, but his heart wasn’t in it. He knew he’d never find more than middling success in the profession. Clients would not hire a “colored man” as a trial lawyer, and many judges would be prejudiced against him. But Paul came from a conservative family. His father, the Reverend Robeson, who was formerly enslaved, had instilled in Paul the drive for a purposeful vocation. 

Paul had graduated from Rutgers, one of three Black students to have attended the institution, and had been an admired scholar and All-American football player. He had even delivered the college’s commencement speech. Following graduation, much was expected of Paul. He’d recently married Eslanda “Essie” Goode, a successful collegian in her own right, with a BS in chemistry from Columbia University. Essie was eager to be the wife of a great man and was ambitious on his behalf. She put her energy into developing her impressive husband, which meant financially supporting him while he studied law.  

But that night on the street corner, Paul admitted to his close circle of friends that he was floundering, an unfamiliar experience for him. He had an intense sense of longing, but he was uncertain what he really wanted from life. In high school, he had discovered that he had a lovely, pitch-perfect singing voice, and since moving to Harlem, he had been performing a collection of his favorite spirituals at church fundraisers, fraternities and sororities, and private parties. But making a full-time career as a performer was unthinkable. Singing and acting seemed like a hobby, not career. Still, in the back of his mind, performing for a living had strong appeal.