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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Albert Einstein is
3well-known for his contributions to the various fields of
4science; a much-less known aspect of his life was his deep
5aversion to racism and the manner in which African Americans
6were treated in the United States and his friendship with Paul
7Robeson, a famous African-American athlete, singer, actor, and
8advocate for the civil rights of people around the world; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Paul Robeson was born on April 9, 1898, in
10Princeton, New Jersey, the youngest of 5 children born to a
11runaway slave; the Robeson family knew both hardship and the
12determination to rise above it; in 1915, he received a 4-year
13academic scholarship to Rutgers and despite racism and violence
14from teammates, won 15 varsity letters in sports (baseball,
15basketball, track) and was twice named to the All-American
16Football Team; he received the Phi Beta Kappa key in his junior
17year, belonged to the Cap & Skull Honor Society, and graduated
18as Valedictorian; he attended Columbia Law School from
191919-1923, where he met and married Eslanda Cordoza Goode; he
20took a job with a law firm, but left when a white secretary
21refused to take dictation from him; he left the practice of law
22to use his artistic talents in theater and music to promote
23African and African-American history and culture; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Albert Einstein was sensitized to racism by the
2years of Nazi-inspired threats and harassment he suffered while
3in Germany; after coming to the U.S., although grateful to find
4a safe place, he did not refrain from criticizing the ethical
5shortcomings of his new home concerning the treatment of
6African Americans; and
 
7    WHEREAS, While in London, Raul Robeson earned
8international acclaim for his roles and won the Donaldson Award
9for Best Acting Performance in 1944; his travels taught him
10that racism was not as virulent in Europe as in the U.S; at
11home, it was difficult to find restaurants that would serve
12him, theaters in New York would only seat blacks in the upper
13balconies, and his performances were often surrounded with
14threats or outright harassment; in London, his opening night
15performance of Emperor Jones brought the audience to its feet
16with cheers for twelve encores; he used his deep baritone voice
17to promote black spirituals, to share the cultures of other
18countries, and to benefit the labor and social movements of his
19time; he sang for peace and justice in 25 languages throughout
20the U.S., Europe, the Soviet Union, and Africa; he became known
21as a citizen of the world, equally comfortable with the people
22of Moscow, Nairobi, and Harlem; and
 
23    WHEREAS, Albert Einstein's response to the racism and
24segregation he found in the U.S. was to cultivate relationships

 

 

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1in Princeton, New Jersey's African-American community; he paid
2the college tuition of a young man from the community and
3invited the singer Marian Anderson to stay at his home when the
4singer was refused a room in town; and
 
5    WHEREAS, During the 1940s, Paul Robeson continued to
6perform and to speak out against racism, in support of labor,
7and for peace; he was a champion of working people and
8organized labor; he spoke and performed at strike rallies,
9conferences, and labor festivals worldwide; in 1945, he headed
10an organization that challenged President Truman to support an
11anti-lynching law; in the late 1940s, when dissent was scarcely
12tolerated in the U.S., he openly questioned why African
13Americans should fight in the army of a government that
14tolerated racism; because of his outspokenness, he was accused
15by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of being a
16communist; he saw this as an attack on the democratic rights of
17everyone who worked for international friendship and for
18equality; the accusation nearly ended his career; eighty of his
19concerts were canceled, and in 1949, 2 interracial outdoor
20concerts in Peekskill, N.Y. were attacked by racist mobs while
21state police stood by; and
 
22    WHEREAS, Albert Einstein began a 20-year friendship with
23Paul Robeson when he met the singer when he came to perform at
24Princeton's McCarter Theatre in 1935; the shared a concern

 

 

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1about the rise of fascism and worked together on the American
2Crusade to End Lynching, in response to an upsurge in racial
3murders as black soldiers returned home following World War II;
4and
 
5    WHEREAS, In 1950, the U.S. revoked Robeson's passport,
6leading to an 8-year battle to reacquire it and to travel
7again; during those years, he studied Chinese, met with Albert
8Einstein to discuss the prospects for world peace, published
9his autobiography, 'Here I Stand', and sang at Carnegie Hall;
10and
 
11    WHEREAS, State law mandates that all elementary and
12secondary schools incorporate black history into their
13curriculum and a renewed focus should be put on this
14little-known aspect of Albert Einstein's life; therefore, be it
 
15    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
16NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
17we commemorate the friendship and partnership formed by Paul
18Robeson and Albert Einstein around the issue of Civil Rights
19and for it to be an example that we are more alike than we are
20different and should be used as an example of how we can work
21together to improve the lives of all citizens in Illinois; and
22be it further
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be made
2available to all elementary and secondary schools in the State
3of Illinois.