Nicole Hill

So this is Jason Reynolds.

This is my guest for today.

You have a beautiful and very impressive resume.

I'm not going to thank you.

I won't do that to you.

So I'm going to tell Jason a story.

I want you to imagine we're going to do this little exercise here.

If somebody were to be given a black history report, like the average American on the street, any age, you give them a black history report, you say, I want you to do it on Paul Robeson.

What do you think that they would say?

Yeah, I think people know he's an important figure, but they probably don't know why.

So Jason, I'm going to tell you Paul's story in four parts.

This is how he came to know, to love, to fear, and to forget the revolutionary Robesons.

So first, how he came to know the Robesons.

The year is 1920.

We're in Harlem.

It's summertime, and 24-year-old Eslanda Cardoza-Good, or Essie as everyone calls her, she lives with her best friend, Minnie Sumner, in a tiny studio near all the action.

They're like in it in Harlem.

By day, Essie is a level-headed chemistry major at Columbia University.

She's studying to be a doctor at the Teachers College.

She's also dating a doctor at Harlem Hospital.