Eslanda Goode Robeson
Eslanda ("Essie") Cardozo Goode Robeson (December 15, 1895 – December 13, 1965) was an American anthropologist, author, actor and civil rights activist. She was the wife and business manager of singer and actor Paul Robeson.
Biography
Early years and marriage
Eslanda Cardozo Goode was born in Washington, DC on December 15, 1895, mostly descended from Black slaves. Her paternal great-grandfather was a Sephardic Jew whose family was expelled from Spain in the 17th century. Her grandfather was Francis Lewis Cardozo, the first Black treasurer of South Carolina. Her father, John Goode, was a law clerk in the War Department who later finished his law degree at Howard University. Eslanda had two older brothers, John Jr. and Francis.
Eslanda attended the University of Illinois and later graduated from Columbia University in New York with a B. S. degree in chemistry. She first became politically active during her years at Columbia, when her own interest in racial equality was reinforced by young intellectuals in New York. When then she started to work at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, she soon became the head histological chemist of Surgical Pathology, the first Black to hold such a position.
