DOMINIC SAMA | Stamps Series honors social activist

Paul Robeson, the celebrated crusader for social justice at home and abroad, was honored Tuesday with a 37-cent commemorative stamp that continues the Black Heritage Series.
Robeson was a talented presence as an end and a linebacker in football, twice earning All-American honors. As a powerful baritone, he was hailed at the world's premier opera houses.
But he paid dearly for speaking out against racism while segregation was tolerated. For years, many in his own country ostracized him.
Robeson (1898-1976) was born in Princeton, N.J., the son of a runaway slave preacher and an abolitionist Philadelphia Quaker mother. He was a brilliant student in high school and earned a four-year academic scholarship to Rutgers University, where he was valedictorian of his senior class.
Football career
On the football field, Robeson -- who stood about 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed about 220 pounds -- played end and blocker on offense and what is now middle linebacker on defense. He also punted, kicked off and kicked extra points and was named as All-American in 1917 and 1918. He encountered racism on the gridiron in 1916 when he was forced to sit out an important game at the insistence of the visiting Washington & amp; Lee team, which refused to play against a black man. The game ended in a 13-13 tie.
Robeson entered Columbia Law School and paid his way by playing professional football on weekends, earning a reported $500 per game. He secured a position with a New York law firm after graduation, but quit when a stenographer refused to take a memo from him. He then pursued his early love of the arts and public speaking.
Performing
In the 1920s and '30s, Robeson found small roles as an actor and moved up to leading roles, including a role in "The Emperor Jones" in 1933. After an opening-night performance of the work in London, Robeson was showered with 12 encores.
He parlayed his rich baritone into an enduring career in opera, performing before segregated audiences at home but hailed openly in Europe. After a visit to the then Soviet Union, he espoused social justice for all people, including colonized Africa. He was far ahead of his time.
Robeson sang before the troops in World War II but opposed the Cold War. He refused to say if he was a Communist (he wasn't), and in 1950, the State Department revoked his passport, and concerts were canceled.
The U.S. Supreme Court restored his passport eight years later, and Robeson left to live and perform in Europe. With his health dented by years of hardship and depression, he twice attempted suicide.
Robeson returned to the United States in 1963 and lived his final years quietly in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission and the White House have recognized his West Philadelphia home as a national historic preservation site.
A slight Robeson suffered during his gridiron days was corrected in 1995, when he was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Information on the stamp is available at www.USPS.com.
First-day requests should be sent to Paul Robeson Stamp, Postmaster, 213 Carnegie Center, Princeton, N.J., 08540-9991.
XDominic Sama is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.