Robeson's signature clipped from a London concert program together with US Press Photograph of Robeson holding congratulatory telegrams

London & New York, 1958. Robeson has signed the cover of a London concert program at The Lord Melchett Hall, Maccabi House, Compayne Gardens, N.W.6. It is trimmed to 5x3". On the verso is a partial listing of the concert, including "Group of Negro Spirituals and of English Songs Paul Robeson. At the Piano: Lawrence Brown."

It is accompanied by a United Press Telephoto dated 4/10/58, captioned - CHICAGO- Singer Paul Robeson is shown here 4/9 as he holds congratulatory telegrams for his 60th birthday. During a later press conference, he said he believes his "10-year exile" from the American people is over. He reminisced about 10 years of controversy which began when, at the height of his career, he became the center of charges of Communist sympathies. "Everybody is nice to me now," he said. "I can't explain why." It is stamped 23 April 1958 and 2 Jun 1958 with print cropping indications. 7 1/2 x 6 3/4", one corner with a slight cease o/w very good.

Robeson was an American bass baritone concert artist and stage and film actor who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political activism. Educated at Rutgers College and Columbia University, he was a star athlete in his youth. His political activities began with his involvement with unemployed workers and anti-imperialist students whom he met in Britain and continued with support for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War and his opposition to fascism. In the United States he became active in the civil rights movement and other social justice campaigns. His sympathies for the Soviet Union and for communism, and his criticism of the United States government and its foreign policies, caused him to be blacklisted during the McCarthy era. (Wikipedia). He is remembered locally in the Hudson River valley as his 1949 concert at the Hollowbrook Drive-in resulted in what came to be known as the Peekskill Riots.