Paul Robeson was born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the youngest son of a minister who had been a slave. Robeson felt the pain of racial prejudice early in life while playing football at Rutgers College. The hatred did not stop him from becoming an All-American football star, a linguist, an actor and singer. Some of the famous plays that Paul acted in were Showboat, The Emperor Jones, and Othello.