WHEREAS, Robeson was born the son of a runaway slave and is now considered by many as the quintessential 20th Century Renaissance Person; and

WHEREAS, As a scholar, Paul Robeson went to Rutgers University on an academic scholarship where he was the only African American student; and

WHEREAS, At Rutgers he was a member of the Intercollegiate Debating Association, was inducted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society, and was nominated as Class Valedictorian in 1919, and he went on to earn a law degree at Columbia Law School; and

WHEREAS, As an athlete, Robeson earned 15 varsity letters at Rutgers in football, basketball, baseball, and track, was a two-time All-American in football, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and went on to play football in the NFL in order to pay his tuition, while also attending law school; and

WHEREAS, As an artist for nearly four decades, Robeson achieved worldwide acclaim as a vocalist and actor on stage and screen; and

WHEREAS, He performed Shakespeare's Othello at Stratford-On-Avon and was summoned for a Royal Command Performance at Buckingham Palace, starred in film performances in Show Boat and other productions, and released recordings of some 276 songs; and

WHEREAS, As a global citizen, Robeson was a brilliant scholar of languages and world cultures, fluent in over 20 languages, including Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese, German, Yiddish, Arabic, and a number of African languages, and was able to perform in over 50 languages; and

WHEREAS, Robeson connected the struggle for social justice with people around the world who also were fighting for political rights, cultural recognition, and economic justice; and

WHEREAS, As an activist, Robeson advocated for Western decolonization, raised money for Welsh miners, and lobbied the federal government to integrate Major League Baseball and pass anti-lynching legislation; and

WHEREAS, He wrote a thesis titled, "The Fourteenth Amendment, the Sleeping Giant of the American Constitution" and called for its use "to ensure equality before the law (so) the American people shall develop a higher sense of constitutional morality"; and

WHEREAS, As a civil rights and social justice activist, Robeson was a towering figure in the African American struggle for human dignity and democratic rights; and

WHEREAS, He fearlessly supported labor and social movements, fighting for freedom, equality, and human rights, both domestically and internationally; and

WHEREAS, Robeson cofounded, with W. E. B. Du Bois, a monthly newspaper called Freedom, which was critical of U.S. policies and resulted in persecution by the McCarthy Commission; and

WHEREAS, He told McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee, "I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist; I am being tried for fighting for the rights of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America. You are the non-patriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves." He further said he fought for the freedom of African Americans and for "millions of white workers caught in the same serfdom as their black brothers and sisters" and "brothers and sisters from Mexico, the Philippines, from the lands of Asia, from the West Indies, from Latin America"; and

WHEREAS, In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban imposed by the U.S. Government in May 1952, labor unions in the United States and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington state and British Columbia attended by 40,000 people where Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and did two more concerts over the next two years; and

WHEREAS, Coretta Scott King said that Paul Robeson had been "buried alive" for espousing civil rights and human dignity decades before her husband, the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Washington State Senate celebrate the life of Paul Leroy Robeson, encourage us all to reflect on the life and times of this great American and patriot, and rededicate ourselves to his vision of our global collective humanity and his mission to protect our freedoms and liberty and to live as a global society in peace and prosperity for all.