A Legacy Preserved in Bronze: New Brunswick Unveils Robeson Sculpture at Feaster Park

The city on Tuesday unveiled a life-sized, life-like statue of Paul Robeson, detailed down to the stitches in his shoes, the buttons on his shirt, the ripples in his hair, and the veins in his hands.

Immortalized in bronze, the late author, athlete, actor, and activist is depicted in his early 50s, sitting on a bench at the corner of Handy Street and, naturally, Paul Robeson Boulevard.

In the past five years alone, the city renamed Commercial Avenue in his honor and unveiled a mural at Recreation Park on Pine Street. That’s in addition to the Robeson Plaza that Rutgers opened just off College Avenue and the mural at SHI Stadium that is scheduled to be unveiled this weekend when the Scarlet Knights play host to UCLA. The school honored the 100th anniversary of his graduation at its commencement ceremonies in 2019.

And although it may seem to some as if that’s a lot of tributes to one man – even a renaissance man and trailblazer – longtime residents such as Ed Spencer remember a time not so long ago when Robeson’s contributions as Phi Beta Kappa scholar, All-American football player, world-renowned singer and Shakespearean actor, spellbinding orator and passionate activist and humanitarian had been largely forgotten.

Or worse, Robeson had been deemed persona non grata by the university and the country that revoked his passport in the 1950s partly on accusations of harboring communist sympathies and partly because of sheer racism.

Spencer, who has served on the city’s Board of Education for 30 years, said New Brunswick has played a large role in redeeming Robeson’s legacy. Tuesday’s unveiling might just be the final touch.

“It’s great, especially for this area, because there are not too many notable people like Paul Robeson when you think about it,” Spencer said. “So, he stands out as the representative for the area.”

And if you need further proof that Robeson’s good name has been restored in New Brunswick, consider that on Tuesday, four students – Wesley Cedillo, Byron Portio, Madeline Avila, and Janeece Robinson – from Paul Robeson Community School of the Arts, showed off their knowledge of Robeson when quizzed by principal Violet Robinson.

They knew that he came to Rutgers after being denied entry to Princeton because of the color of his skin. They knew he was a great football player. They even knew his middle name was Leroy.

A committee committed to creating a statue of Robeson can trace its efforts back about six years ago.

An initial call for artists was put out, but COVID-19 soon forced the project to be put on the back burner. A second call for artists was made when the city started moving forward a few years ago with a multimillion-dollar reimagining and re-engineering of Feaster Park.

Eventually, the Chicago-based husband and wife team of Jeffrey Varilla and Anna Koh Varilla were selected. They created a clay sculpture, then a wax one. The wax one was sent to Colorado, where it was used to pour the statue.

From there, it was (carefully) trucked to New Brunswick.

Greg Ritter, the longtime owner of George Street Camera and a member of the committee, said this tribute stands out because it puts a face to the legacy. He pointed out the great detail that went into the sculpture, down to the Greek tragedy and comedy faces that adorn the bench on which Robeson rests and the copy of “Here I Stand” in his hand.

That’s when Ritter produced his personal dog-eared copy of Robeson’s biography that had been stuffed in his pocket.

“I still get people who come into my shop who have never heard of Robeson,” he said.

Keith Jones II, director of the city’s Department of Human and Community Services as well as a member of the sculpture committee, said, “We have a physical example, a physical monument of somebody that was larger than life. The fact that we’ve been working on this for six years and most of the people here know, I mean you have people that are well within their seasoned ages that remember Paul Robeson, so you can see people’s faces light up. This means a lot to a lot of people.”