Montclair Times, “Paul Robeson Receives Lithographs”
June 6, 1941
9” x 7”
A newspaper account of the evening features a photograph of artist Ruth Starr Rose and Paul Robeson comfortably together before the concert. Her admiration is evident in her wide smile and relaxed stance at his side. In the photograph, Rose presented Robeson with a gift of two of her lithographs. Interestingly, the two prints she gave him honored visionaries from the Copperville community. She holds her print Ezekiel Saw the Wheel, modeled after Hope’s enlightened gardener by the same name. In his right hand, Robeson grips Little David Play Upon Your Harp, a lithograph based on Samuel Julius Johnson, an Eastern Shore minstrel feared by locals as a powerful conjure man. Her selection of gifts to Robeson of the black-and-white lithographs underline her esteem for her friend and his role as a luminary in the civil rights movement.