Eslanda "Essie"
Cardozo Goode Robeson lived a colorful and amazing life. Her career
and commitments took her many places: colonial Africa in 1936, the
front lines of the Spanish Civil War, the founding meeting of the
United Nations, Nazi-occupied Berlin, Stalin's Russia, and China two
months after Mao's revolution. She was a woman of unusual
accomplishment—an anthropologist, a prolific journalist, a tireless
advocate of women's rights, an outspoken anti-colonial and antiracist
activist, and an internationally sought-after speaker. Yet historians
for the most part have confined Essie to the role of Mrs. Paul
Robeson, a wife hidden in the large shadow cast by her famous
husband. In this masterful book, biographer Barbara Ransby refocuses
attention on Essie, one of the most important and fascinating black
women of the twentieth century.
Chronicling Essie's
eventful life, the book explores her influence on her husband's early
career and how she later achieved her own unique political voice.
Essie's friendships with a host of literary icons and world leaders,
her renown as a fierce defender of justice, her defiant testimony
before Senator Joseph McCarthy's infamous anti-communist committee,
and her unconventional open marriage that endured for over 40
years—all are brought to light in the pages of this inspiring
biography. Essie's indomitable personality shines through, as do her
contributions to United States and twentieth-century world history.