ealism," a discourse which revealed a faith that a lone individual can achieve victory no matter what the obstacles. In Robeson's words, "On ourselves alone will depend the preservation of our liberties and the transmission of them in their integrity to those who will come after us" (S. Robeson 29).
After graduation from Rutgers, Robeson's initial career choice was law, and he moved to New York City to live in Harlem and enter the Columbia University Law School. To help pay for law school, he played professional football on weekends. In Harlem, Robeson met his future wife Eslanda Cardozo Goode (Essie), a young woman from a family that valued education as much as Robeson's family did. Essie married Robeson while he was still a law student; although he had other managers over the years, Essie often directed her husband's financial and business affairs. Robeson graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923, and even secured a position in a white law firm, but racial prejudice blocked this career path: "the firm's wealthy white clients were unlikely ev
...