31/01/2024
New Haven Author Dr Andrew Norman got a lovely review letter for his book Paul Robeson: A Song for Freedom. Paul Robeson sang Old Man River, but was so much more. Dr Norman's book is the official biography for Robeson turning 100 if he had lived awarded by the Robeson museum and Princeton University. Here is the review. Sorry its a bit long:
My name is Professor Stephen A. Bess, and Paul Robeson was my great-great uncle. My father, the Reverend Dr Thomas L. Bess is the great-grandson of Ezekiel Roberson, a brother of Paul Robeson’s father, the Reverend William Drew Robeson. Ezekiel, William, their family, and others, were enslaved on the Roberson Plantation in Robersonville, North Carolina, located in Martin County. After emancipation, William dropped the ‘r’ in his surname, for reasons that seem obvious to me.
Through painstaking research for his biography entitled Paul Robeson: A Song For Freedom, a copy of which he has kindly presented me with, Dr Norman has not only identified the exact location of the Roberson Plantation (and much else besides), he has also made contact with Mrs Tammy Roberson James, who is the great-granddaughter x2 of the plantation owner, George O. Roberson.
When Dr Norman first encouraged me to meet with Tammy, I was, at first, apprehensive. How am I supposed to handle such a meeting? How do I receive her? How would she receive me? Tammy and I first corresponded over email, and she enthusiastically expressed an interest
in both meeting and speaking with me. My initial reluctance faded, and I reciprocated with a phone call.
During the phone call we learned that we were not only the same age, but we knew some of the same people. I graduated from Williamston High School in 1985 and Tammy graduated from Robersonville High School that same year. She also knew my cousin, who was in the same graduating class at Robersonville High School. This is further proof that we were living blindly with history in plain sight. Both the descendants of the enslaved and the descendants of the slave masters attended Friday pep rallies and football games; we sang in the high school chorus and took part in school plays; we marched together in the high school band, and we crossed the finish lines together in the track meets. During the holiday season, we stood on Main Street together and sang Christmas carols as the holiday floats fluttered by with smiling faces. When I informed Dr Norman about my meeting with Tammy, which took place in an atmosphere of reconciliation and goodwill, he was overjoyed!
I believe that Paul Robeson’s son and namesake, the late Paul Robeson Jr, with whom I had several conversations, would have greatly appreciated the details of his family’s history which Dr Norman has unearthed from primary sources. I myself regard the book as a worthy companion to my own family research. I have no hesitation in recommending Paul Robeson: A Song For Freedom (published by New Haven Publishing Ltd).