Eslanda

The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson

Barbara Ransby

• Publisher: Haymarket Books
• Year: 2022
• Edition: 2
• eBook ISBN:
  9781642596793
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson lived a colorful and amazing life. Her career and commitments took her many places: colonial Africa in 1936, the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, the founding meeting of the United Nations, Nazi-occupied Berlin, Stalin's Russia, and China two months after Mao's revolution. She was a woman of unusual accomplishment—an anthropologist, a prolific journalist, a tireless advocate of women's rights, an outspoken anti-colonial and antiracist activist, and an internationally sought-after speaker. Yet historians for the most part have confined Essie to the role of Mrs. Paul Robeson, a wife hidden in the large shadow cast by her famous husband. In this masterful book, biographer Barbara Ransby refocuses attention on Essie, one of the most important and fascinating black women of the twentieth century. Chronicling Essie's eventful life, the book explores her influence on her husband's early career and how she later achieved her own unique political voice. Essie's friendships with a host of literary icons and world leaders, her renown as a fierce defender of justice, her defiant testimony before Senator Joseph McCarthy's infamous anti-communist committee, and her unconventional open marriage that endured for over 40 years—all are brought to light in the pages of this inspiring biography. Essie's indomitable personality shines through, as do her contributions to United States and twentieth-century world history.

INDEX

ER in the index stands for Eslanda Robeson. PR stands for Paul Robeson.

AAPC (All-African Peoples’ Conference), 242–46

AAWFM (All-African Women’s Freedom Movement), 263

Abortion, 31, 58, 67, 299n13, 306–7n38, 307n41

Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 125

Acheson, Dean, 200

Africa: Alice as mission town in, 109; All-African Peoples’ Conference (AAPC) in Ghana, 242–46; authentic leaders in, 246; Bunche’s trip to, 155, 322n20; colonialism in, 72, 100, 103, 113–15, 118–21, 161, 166, 176; compared with Deep South in U.S., 103, 106, 110, 151–52, 163; decolonization in, 2, 148–52, 183, 190, 214, 242, 242–46, 257–61, 330n52; difficulties for travel in, by Black women, 100–101; English spoken in, 315n26; ER in, 2, 4, 6, 9, 99, 100–121, 143, 151, 159–75, 242–46, 279, 314n65; ER’s contacts in, 149–50; ER’s early interest in, 70–71, 74–76, 87–92, 98–99, 314n65; ER’s lectures on, 148, 151–52, 159, 176; films and movie script about, 97–98, 124, 175–76; funding for ER’s travels in, 159–60, 171; Graves in, 75–76, 92, 309n86; Herskovits’s research on, 97; independence struggles of 1960s in, 257–65; Khrushchev’s trip to, 251; missionaries in, 101, 102, 104, 108, 150, 153, 162, 163, 166, 170–71; Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia in, 101, 109, 125, 169; myths and stereotypes of, 99, 100, 108–9, 119; neo-colonialism in, 246, 261, 265; Paul Jr.’s trip to, during his childhood, 99, 100–121, 151; poverty in, 105, 108, 109, 110–11, 119; PR’s interest in, 87, 91–92, 104; sea travel and air travel to, 102–4, 160; slaves from, 103; and Soviet Union, 123, 145, 192, 193, 241–42, 264–65...

Table of contents

• COVER
• COPYRIGHT
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• ONE  Growing Up along the Color Line, 1895-1918
• TWO  A Harlem Love Story, 1919-1927
• THREE  Onto the World Stage, 1920s
• FOUR  Remapping a Marriage, Career, and Worldview, 1927-1933
• FIVE  Becoming a Writer and Anthropologist, 1930s
• SIX  Africa at Last, 1936
• SEVEN  Madrid to Moscow, Political Commitments Deepen, 1936-1939
• EIGHT  Returning Home and Finding a New Voice, 1939-1945
• NINE  Into the Congo, 1946
• TEN  American Arguments, 1946-1950
• ELEVEN  The United Nations and a World Political Family, 1950-1956
• TWELVE  Standing Tall: The Cold War and Politics of Repression, 1950s
• THIRTEEN  A Failing Body and a Hopeful Heart, 1958-1961
• FOURTEEN  Always the Fighter: A Pen as Her Weapon, 1961-1965
• EPILOGUE
• CHRONOLOGY
• ABBREVIATIONS TO THE NOTES
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SELECT WRITINGS BY ESLANDA ROBESON
• INDEX
• BACK COVER