Not only that, the public research institution’s Paul Robeson Centennial Celebration is lifting up Robeson’s extraordinary life to inspire students and to advance the causes of diversity, inclusion, equity and excellence.
“You can’t change the past, but you can know and learn from it,” says Dr. Felicia E. McGinty, executive vice chancellor for administration and planning at Rutgers-NB and chair of the centennial committee.
“We want to help students really make meaning of his legacy. He stood up for oppressed people, he broke boundaries, he led with courage and integrity. All of those are values we want our students to embody. Over the next year there will be many events across the campus, but more importantly than celebrating, this has really been a call to consciousness for us.”
Dr. Felicia E. McGinty
Rutgers has determined to delve into and be transparent about an institutional history intertwined with slavery and racism, an uncomfortable step that some of America’s most revered colleges and universities increasingly are having to take. Honoring Robeson’s legacy has opened up more opportunities for broader work on diversity and inclusion and reengaged Black alumni who were students at a time when they may have felt that they loved their alma mater more than it loved them.
Regardless of how Robeson felt at Rutgers as indignities were heaped upon him because of his black skin, he excelled in many ways: lending his rich bass voice to the school glee club, excelling on the football and debate teams, graduating as a Phi Beta Kappa and valedictorian, and getting inducted into the university’s exclusive Cap and Skull honor society for seniors. The Princeton, N.J. native went on to become an attorney, world-renowned scholar and humanitarian, global rights activist and international entertainer.
