In recognition of Paul Robeson’s 128th birthday, South Jersey Quakers join the BlackQuaker Project in celebrating the life of this extraordinary Quaker descendant.
Paul Robeson—born April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey—was directly descended from over 250 years of Quakers in England and British North America. His mother, Maria Louisa Bustill Robeson, came from a prominent African American Quaker family that included educators Grace Bustill Douglass and Sarah Mapps Douglass, who were relegated to the back bench of their Arch Street Friends meetinghouse in Philadelphia despite their lifelong contributions to Quakerism and to the improvement of health and women’s rights.¹
Robeson’s father, the Rev. William Drew Robeson, was formerly enslaved. His advice to young Paul—to attain the highest possible, to pursue only worthwhile goals, and to remain loyal to his convictions—shaped the man who would become a two-time All-American football star at Rutgers, class valedictorian, Phi Beta Kappa, and later a world-renowned singer, actor, and Pan-Africanist activist.²
Yet for all his achievements, Robeson was ruthlessly persecuted during McCarthyism. The U.S. government seized his passport for eight years, imposed an industry boycott of his records, barred him from concert halls, and never allowed him to appear on television.³
For over fifty years, Dr. Harold D. Weaver Jr. —a convinced Friend and founder of the BlackQuaker Project—has worked to restore Robeson to his rightful place in history. At Rutgers University in 1970, Weaver discovered that not a single student in his introductory Africana Studies course had ever heard of Paul Robeson. He made it his mission to correct that, teaching the first course ever on Robeson, organizing the first U.S. Robeson symposium, and initiating the action that led Rutgers to award Robeson an honorary doctorate in 1973.⁴
As South Jersey Quakers, we are uniquely positioned to honor this legacy. Robeson grew up just miles from our Meetinghouses. His Quaker ancestors walked the same paths we walk. And his unwavering refusal to bow to injustice—even “one-thousandth part of an inch”—stands as a living query to us all.⁵
A Query for Reflection
Robeson was never allowed to appear on television—a total “white-out.” What voices of conscience in our own day are being silenced, and how are we called to amplify them?
For Further Reading
The full article, including all four queries, a complete bibliography, and additional resources from Dr. Weaver’s fifty years of advocacy, is available on the South Jersey Quakers website.
Peace and Blessings,
South Jersey Quakers in collaboration with the BlackQuaker Project
Footnotes for excerpt:
¹ BlackQuaker Project, “A Birthday Homage to Paul Robeson,” personal statement from Dr. Harold D. Weaver Jr.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid., “Pioneering Advocacy Activities of Prof. Weaver.”
⁵ Ibid., Weaver personal statement.
