Virginia Hamilton’s Paul Robeson: The Life and Times of a Free Black Man has several purposes. Foremost is her narrative of Robeson’s life and career in music, on the stage, and in the political arena. Second, the book is in large part a reconsideration—almost, at times, a defense—of Robeson’s political stances, stances that were to make him one of the most controversial figures of the fledgling American Civil Rights movement. Third, it is a social history describing the situation of African Americans in the middle of the twentieth century. As all these elements are combined in Robeson’s life, so Hamilton weaves each of these concerns into the tapestry of her narrative.

Hamilton describes Robeson’s refusal to accept the social strictures that bounded African Americans. At first, this attitude manifested itself upon the stage, where he played Othello despite an American audience’s difficulties with the interracial marriage that William Shakespeare depicts. Hamilton also describes his roles in those Eugene O’Neill plays that broke through color barriers, and his pioneering work on the stage was matched by his work in the concert hall. He was one of the first great singers to introduce the Negro spiritual to the concert stage as a serious art form. Hamilton’s portrayal of this courage causes the reader to see Robeson as one of the pioneers of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

Hamilton moves beyond Robeson’s cultural accomplishments, however, to show his activity in the political realm. She takes great pains to defend him, for certainly here he was at his most controversial. Robeson spent some protracted time in the Soviet Union—certainly not a popular activity among Americans of the 1950’s. He came back with praise for the Soviet system and for much of the rest of his life was associated with organizations and figures whom some—particularly the American government—claimed to be associated with the Communist Party. Hamilton works to show that Robeson was not so much interested in the Communist political system as such; he was instead much more interested in the racial equality and freedom which that system seemed to inspire.

In the end, the book becomes the story of a rise and fall. While the first half records Robeson’s growing popularity and influence, the latter half records the waning of that popularity as Robeson used his art more and more for political purposes. In some ways, the biography becomes an indictment of a society that denies racial equality and at the same time despises and warns against a society that seems to promote such equality. Hamilton’s moving preface about her own father’s stories dealing with African Americans who stood against such a system provides an important context for how a contemporary reader is to understand Robeson’s life.