Nicole Hill

Paul is labeled the most dangerous man in America by the State Department.

And other institutions are like, all right, let's go.

And they try to make it so the Robesons never existed.

Like, literally.

Paul's university, Rutgers, erases any record of his football or sporting career.

Newspapers destroy archival materials that mention Paul.

The NAACP denounces them.

The concert halls that Paul had once filled, they won't book him.

He writes a memoir.

The mainstream white press refuses to promote or even review it.

His films and recordings get taken out of circulation.

He's blacklisted from the radio, movie screens, and he becomes one of the first artists to be blacklisted from television.

He's banned longer than any other performer from this era.

Black churches and unions around the world send their support, but it's not nearly enough to make up for so much lost income.

Paul and Essie have to sell their home and move in with Polly.

And all of this is what erasing them from the history books looks like.

So Paul's actually going to live into the 1970s, but he is hidden from view.

And let me just say that when I tell white people this next part of the story, they're usually like, what?

But as a black person, I'm like, obviously, because none of this feels unbelievable to a black person.

Right.