Paul Robeson - Actor, Artist, Athlete is a 1943 Office of War Information profile panel drawn in pencil by Charles Henry Alston. A large portrait sits among small scenes of football, the stage and a microphone, with captions saying Robeson now sings at bond rallies and for the armed forces (NAID 535624).
What it shows
This is a biographical panel, not a gag cartoon. A large pencil portrait of Paul Robeson anchors the drawing. Around it are smaller scenes: a football player, Robeson in costume as the Emperor Jones, and Robeson singing at a microphone in front of servicemen and civilians. Four blocks of capital-letter text tell his story.
PAUL ROBESON
ACTOR, ARTIST, ATHLETE.
LONG BEFORE THE WORLD KNEW HIM AS AN ARTIST, YOUNG ROBESON HAD ACHIEVED FAME AS AN ATHLETE. ONE OF THE GREATEST FOOTBALL PLAYERS OF ALL TIME, HE WAS SELECTED ALL AMERICAN END BY THE LATE WALTER CAMP.
NO "DUMB ATHLETE", PAUL WAS AN HONOR STUDENT, AND PHI BETA KAPPA MAN AT RUTGERS.!
INTERNATIONALLY FAMOUS AS A CONCERT ARTIST, PAUL LOVES TO SING THE SONGS OF THE PEOPLE. ALWAYS IN DEMAND FOR THE STAGE, SCREEN AND RADIO, HE NOW DEVOTES HIS TALENTS TO THE WAR EFFORT, BY SINGING AT BOND RALLIES, AND FOR THE BOYS IN THE ARMED FORCES.
PROBABLY BEST KNOWN FOR HIS BRILLIANT PORTRAYAL OF THE MAD RULER, IN O'NEILL'S "EMPEROR JONES" ROBESON HAS LONG BEEN A GREAT FAVORITE ON THE STAGE AND SCREEN.
[signature] Alston OWI
Who made it
The panel is signed "Alston OWI," and the archive names the artist as Charles Henry Alston, working for the Office of War Information. It is held with the artworks and mockups for the office's war effort cartoons in Record Group 208 at the National Archives. The record does not say where or whether the panel was printed.
A résumé that ends in war work
Testimonial and glittering generalities are the archive's labels here. The structure is a résumé that ends in a war job: athlete, scholar, singer, actor, and now a performer at bond rallies and for "the boys." A famous name is attached to the war effort, and his talents are counted as a contribution to it.
As testimonials go, this one is mostly factual in form. It names Walter Camp's All-American selection, a college, an honor society and a play, and it lets the achievements carry the argument. The sentence that opens NO "DUMB ATHLETE" is the one line that answers a stereotype out loud. None of the panel's text is in Robeson's own words; the government speaks about him rather than quoting him.
The OWI's 1942 poster Pvt. Joe Louis Says does quote its subject, and Above and Beyond the Call of Duty honors Dorie Miller. Alston's editorial cartoons for the same office include A Second Emancipation Proclamation!!. The Office of War Information hub covers the agency.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Paul Robeson - Actor, Artist, Athlete, 1943. Office of War Information, cartoon artwork, artist Charles Henry Alston.
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 208, Artworks and Mockups for War Effort Cartoons, NAID 535624, local id 208-COM-80, catalog record, retrieved by the archive 3 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
