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Robeson performed in Mpls. 70 years ago amid controversy

Paul Robeson
American singer, actor, political activist and civil rights campaigner Paul Robeson rehearses at a piano, July, 22, 1958.
Keystone Features | Getty Images 1958

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Today's Morning Edition music is from "Native Land" by the acclaimed singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson.

Seventy years ago Wednesday, Robeson performed at the Minneapolis Auditorium Concert Bowl. That same year, 1946, he founded the American Crusade Against Lynching to put pressure on President Truman to sign national anti-lynching legislation.

The FBI considered the organization a communist front and blacklisted Robeson. When a student group tried to bring him to the University of Minnesota in 1952, University President James Morrill barred Robeson from campus.