Book Review

Canada and the United States

To write a biography of an African American in the early twentieth century is to confront two analytical problems. How does one fairly assess achievements of the subject in light of the racial barriers in his or her path? And how does one account for success in such an unpromising context? Sheila Tully Boyle and Andrew Bunie dodge neither of these problems as they present the first four decades of the life and career of Paul Robeson.

1

The study covers the years between 1898 and 1939, during which Robeson emerged as a college football sensation, earned a law degree, and gained world renown as a singer and actor. The authors answer the first critical question by situating Robeson in turn-of-the-twentieth-century New Jersey, where his parents, William, a former slave, and Maria Bustill, a daughter of one of black Philadelphia's oldest and most respected families, struggled against both racial segregation and black elite prejudice against dark-skinned freedmen. Much more than racial prejudice troubled young Paul and his siblings. The elite Bustills ignored them; William rose to a respected position in the church he pastored only to be felled by scandal; and Maria died tragically under circumstances brought on by the family's poverty and her declining health. As the youngest child, Paul forged a bond with his father that inspired him to excel in all endeavors. The authors' research into the New Jersey communities where the Robesons lived and their attention to father-son dynamics and class/color prejudice make Paul's story much more compelling and human than a struggle against racism. Without diminishing the obstacles before him, they present Robeson as a person shaped and driven by love, intellectual curiosity, and will.

. . .