Eslanda Goode Robeson
Encyclopedia
Eslanda Goode Robeson, (December 12, 1896 - December 13, 1965) the wife and business manager of Paul Robeson
, was an American anthropologist
, author, actor and activist.
, the first Black treasurer of South Carolina. Her father, John Goode, was a law clerk in the War Department who later finished his law degree at Howard University
. Eslanda had two older brothers, John Jr. and Francis. She attended the University of Illinois and later graduated from Columbia University
in New York with a B. S. degree in chemistry. When then she started to work at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, she soon became the head histological chemist
of Surgical Pathology, the first Black to hold such a position. In 1920, Paul Robeson and Eslanda attended summer school at Columbia. One year later they married. Eslanda gave up her intentions to study medicine and supported her husband as his business manager. Eslanda worked at the hospital until 1925, when the career of her husband took more and more of her time. She spent time between Harlem
, London and France in the following years.
The only child of the Robesons, Paul Jr, "Pauli" was born on November 2, 1927; Robeson was on a tour in Europe at that time. The marriage was strained and Eslanda suffered under the affairs of her husband that reportedly started with a relationship with Freda Diamond in 1925. Other affairs affecting their relationship were those with actresses Fredi Washington
and Peggy Ashcroft
Robeson’s long-term liaison with Yolanda Jackson almost broke up the marriage, and Eslanda even agreed to a divorce at a time. Yet despite all the setbacks and separations, the marriage endured, as each of the two had needs that only the other could fill. Eslanda chose to "rise above Paul's affairs", but to stay married to him and pursue her own career.
In 1930 Eslanda published her first book, a first biography of her husband: Paul Robeson, Negro. Robeson himself who had given no direct input was “deeply angered” by it. He resented that she put words into his mouth and depicted him as lazy and immature, needy of her guidance. In the book, Robeson complains, "she treats me just as a ... small child", to which she replies "..perhaps when you grow up I'll treat you as a man." She also addresses the issue of his infidelity which he neither confirms or denies; she assures him that she feels that they have such a deep level of love that past events could not affect it, "No matter what other women have done to you, or you to them, they have in no way walked in my garden." Harry Hanson, a New York critic, gave the book a positive review and called it inspiring and that it was written with "rich understanding" and "deep pride". He recommended that the book should be read by white America. W. E. B. Du Bois placed it in the 'must read' category in The Crisis
, the NAACP magazine. Other views, however, were negative, so Stark Young
in the New Republic
called it "biographical rubbish".
in anthropology and graduated there in 1937. In England she learned more about Africa and started the first of three journeys to the continent touring South and East Africa with her son in 1936. With the signs of war imminent in Europe, the Robesons moved back to Harlem in 1938. Three years later they moved to Enfield, Connecticut
, to their estate, "The Beeches", and she earned her Ph.D. at the Hartford Seminary
in 1945. Using her diary notes of her Africa trip she completed her second book African Journey the same year. The book was unusual as few books in those days dealt with Africa in the first place, and her perspective as an African American woman on women in black Africa was unique. The book's publication was endorsed by Pearl Buck whose husband was the head of the John Day publishing house. The book argued that Blacks should take pride in their African heritage. Both the white and black reviews were favorable.
Buck and Eslanda continued to work together, and as a result American Argument was published in 1949, a book of dialogues and comments edited by Buck that lets Eslanda speak on society, politics, gender role, and race relations. While the book contained a critique of cold war politics, its reception, in general, was positive but it was a financial flop.
the life of the Robesons changed dramatically. The couple had first visited the Soviet Union
in 1934 and were impressed by the apparent absence of racism
, and agreed with the stance of communism
against racism, colonization, and imperialism
. While aware of the Great Purge
by or before 1938, they accepted this (as Robeson explained to his son, ” (S)ometimes… great injustices may be inflicted on the minority when the majority is in a pursuit of a great and just course”) and did not speak out against it. By 1938, however, they helped Eslanda’s brother Francis to escape, her brother John had already departed the year prior, and Paul Jr. did not continue with his education at a Moscow “model school”. With their pro-Soviet views both became targets during the McCarthy days
. Robeson’s career came to a standstill, their income dropped dramatically, and the Connecticut estate had to be sold. On July 17, 1953 Eslanda, like her husband, was called to testify before the US Senate; asked if she was a communist she took the Fifth Amendment
and challenged the legitimacy of the proceedings. Her passport was revoked until the decision was overturned in 1958. Fighting for the decolonization of Africa
and Asia she continued to work for the Council on African Affairs
and to write as the UN correspondent for the New World Review, a pro-Soviet magazine.
Once the passports had been returned to the Robesons, they flew to London and the Soviet Union. Eslanda made her third and final trip to Africa attending the first postcolonial All-African Peoples' Conference
in Ghana
in 1958. In 1963 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She returned from Russia to the US and died in New York in 1965.
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, was an American anthropologist
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, author, actor and activist.
Early years and marriage
Eslanda Cardozo Goode was born in Washington, DC in 1896. The Cardozo family descended from Black slaves and wealthy Jews expelled from Spain in the 17th century. Her grandfather was Francis Lewis CardozoFrancis Lewis Cardozo
Francis Lewis Cardozo was a clergyman, politician, and educator. He was the first African American to hold a statewide office in the United States...
, the first Black treasurer of South Carolina. Her father, John Goode, was a law clerk in the War Department who later finished his law degree at Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
. Eslanda had two older brothers, John Jr. and Francis. She attended the University of Illinois and later graduated from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York with a B. S. degree in chemistry. When then she started to work at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, she soon became the head histological chemist
Histology
Histology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of cells and tissues of plants and animals. It is performed by examining cells and tissues commonly by sectioning and staining; followed by examination under a light microscope or electron microscope...
of Surgical Pathology, the first Black to hold such a position. In 1920, Paul Robeson and Eslanda attended summer school at Columbia. One year later they married. Eslanda gave up her intentions to study medicine and supported her husband as his business manager. Eslanda worked at the hospital until 1925, when the career of her husband took more and more of her time. She spent time between Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, London and France in the following years.
The only child of the Robesons, Paul Jr, "Pauli" was born on November 2, 1927; Robeson was on a tour in Europe at that time. The marriage was strained and Eslanda suffered under the affairs of her husband that reportedly started with a relationship with Freda Diamond in 1925. Other affairs affecting their relationship were those with actresses Fredi Washington
Fredi Washington
Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington was an accomplished dramatic film actress, most active in the 1920s- 1930s. Fredi was a self-proclaimed Black woman, who chose to be identified as such, and wished for others to do so as well...
and Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
Robeson’s long-term liaison with Yolanda Jackson almost broke up the marriage, and Eslanda even agreed to a divorce at a time. Yet despite all the setbacks and separations, the marriage endured, as each of the two had needs that only the other could fill. Eslanda chose to "rise above Paul's affairs", but to stay married to him and pursue her own career.
In 1930 Eslanda published her first book, a first biography of her husband: Paul Robeson, Negro. Robeson himself who had given no direct input was “deeply angered” by it. He resented that she put words into his mouth and depicted him as lazy and immature, needy of her guidance. In the book, Robeson complains, "she treats me just as a ... small child", to which she replies "..perhaps when you grow up I'll treat you as a man." She also addresses the issue of his infidelity which he neither confirms or denies; she assures him that she feels that they have such a deep level of love that past events could not affect it, "No matter what other women have done to you, or you to them, they have in no way walked in my garden." Harry Hanson, a New York critic, gave the book a positive review and called it inspiring and that it was written with "rich understanding" and "deep pride". He recommended that the book should be read by white America. W. E. B. Du Bois placed it in the 'must read' category in The Crisis
The Crisis
The Crisis is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , and was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois , Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, W.S. Braithwaite, M. D. Maclean.The original title of the journal was...
, the NAACP magazine. Other views, however, were negative, so Stark Young
Stark Young
Stark Young was an American teacher, playwright, novelist, painter, literary critic and essayist.-Biography:Stark Young was born in Como, Mississippi to Mary Clark Starks and Alfred Alexander Young, a local physician....
in the New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
called it "biographical rubbish".
Anthropologist
In 1931 the couple now living in London became more estranged, and Eslanda resumed her own career. Eslanda took acting parts in three movies over the next couple of years. She enrolled at the London School of EconomicsLondon School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
in anthropology and graduated there in 1937. In England she learned more about Africa and started the first of three journeys to the continent touring South and East Africa with her son in 1936. With the signs of war imminent in Europe, the Robesons moved back to Harlem in 1938. Three years later they moved to Enfield, Connecticut
Enfield, Connecticut
Enfield is a town located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 45,212 at the 2000 census. It sits on the border with Longmeadow, Massachusetts and East Longmeadow, Massachusetts to the north, Somers to the east, East Windsor and Ellington to the south, and the...
, to their estate, "The Beeches", and she earned her Ph.D. at the Hartford Seminary
Hartford Seminary
Hartford Seminary is a theological college in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.-History:Seminaries in the city of Hartford date back to 1833. In 1913, the current Hartford Seminary came into existence through the combination of three Hartford-based schools affiliated with the city's Congregationalist...
in 1945. Using her diary notes of her Africa trip she completed her second book African Journey the same year. The book was unusual as few books in those days dealt with Africa in the first place, and her perspective as an African American woman on women in black Africa was unique. The book's publication was endorsed by Pearl Buck whose husband was the head of the John Day publishing house. The book argued that Blacks should take pride in their African heritage. Both the white and black reviews were favorable.
Buck and Eslanda continued to work together, and as a result American Argument was published in 1949, a book of dialogues and comments edited by Buck that lets Eslanda speak on society, politics, gender role, and race relations. While the book contained a critique of cold war politics, its reception, in general, was positive but it was a financial flop.
During the Cold War
With the development of the cold warCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
the life of the Robesons changed dramatically. The couple had first visited the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in 1934 and were impressed by the apparent absence of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, and agreed with the stance of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
against racism, colonization, and imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
. While aware of the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
by or before 1938, they accepted this (as Robeson explained to his son, ” (S)ometimes… great injustices may be inflicted on the minority when the majority is in a pursuit of a great and just course”) and did not speak out against it. By 1938, however, they helped Eslanda’s brother Francis to escape, her brother John had already departed the year prior, and Paul Jr. did not continue with his education at a Moscow “model school”. With their pro-Soviet views both became targets during the McCarthy days
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
. Robeson’s career came to a standstill, their income dropped dramatically, and the Connecticut estate had to be sold. On July 17, 1953 Eslanda, like her husband, was called to testify before the US Senate; asked if she was a communist she took the Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...
and challenged the legitimacy of the proceedings. Her passport was revoked until the decision was overturned in 1958. Fighting for the decolonization of Africa
Decolonization of Africa
The decolonization of Africa followed World War II as colonized peoples agitated for independence and colonial powers withdrew their administrators from Africa.-Background:...
and Asia she continued to work for the Council on African Affairs
Council on African Affairs
The Council on African Affairs , until 1941 called the International Committee on African Affairs , was a volunteer organization founded in 1937. It emerged as the leading voice of anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism in the United States and internationally before Cold War anti-communism and...
and to write as the UN correspondent for the New World Review, a pro-Soviet magazine.
Once the passports had been returned to the Robesons, they flew to London and the Soviet Union. Eslanda made her third and final trip to Africa attending the first postcolonial All-African Peoples' Conference
All-African Peoples' Conference
The All-African Peoples' Conference was a conferenceof political parties and other groupsin the late 1950s and early 1960s in Africa.It was attended bydelegates from independence movementsin areas still under European colonial rule,...
in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
in 1958. In 1963 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She returned from Russia to the US and died in New York in 1965.
Awards and honors
- Clara ZetkinClara ZetkinClara Zetkin was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and fighter for women's rights. In 1910, she organized the first International Women's Day....
Medal (Clara-Zetkin-Medaille), GDRGerman Democratic RepublicThe German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
Books by EGR
- Eslanda Goode Robeson: Paul Robeson, Negro. Harper Brothers, 1930 http://www.archive.org/details/paulbobesonnegro000645mbp
- Eslanda Goode Robeson: African Journey, John Day Co., 1945
- Pearl S. Buck with Eslanda Goode Robeson: American Argument, John Day Co., 1949
Filmography
- Jericho (1937) (aka Dark Sands), as a Tribal princess
- Big Fella (1937), (uncredited)
- Borderline (1930 film)Borderline (1930 film)Borderline is a 1930 film, written and directed by Kenneth Macpherson and produced by the Pool Group in Territet, Switzerland. The silent film, with English inter-titles, is primarily noted for its handling of the contentious issue of inter-racial relationships, using avant-garde experimental...
, as Adah, a Negro Woman
External links
- Essay by G. M. Austin about EGR's journalistic writings http://www.cedu.niu.edu/cahe/news/newsDocuments/AALA08_Web/AALA08_Papers/Austin.pdf