College Republicans campaign to take Paul Robeson's name off library at Rutgers-Camden

THE CROWD cheered for nearly 20 minutes when Paul Robeson, filled with regret and faced with a ruined reputation, plunged a sword into his body on Oct. 19, 1943.

When the curtain dropped on Robeson's Broadway debut as Othello that night, he was arguably the world's best-known African-American.

But, like Shakespeare's ill-fated protagonist, Robeson later became an outcast whose reputation as accomplished scholar, artist, All-American athlete and civil-rights pioneer was replaced with one word - communist.

Unlike Othello, the New Jersey native and Rutgers University graduate refused to fall on his sword, even as the FBI and CIA files on him bulged and his career came to a halt.

"His legacy was pretty much erased during the Cold War," said Lindsey Swindall, author of the forthcoming book "The Politics of Paul Robeson's Othello."

Time has faded the red stain on Robeson's life. Today, buildings across the country are named after him, including the library at Rutgers University-Camden, where Erik Opczynski is a 21-year-old undergraduate finance major and president of the Rutgers-Camden College Republicans. Last month, he published a letter in the school's newspaper asking Rutgers to rename the library because of Robeson's "radical socialism."

"Although he was a very intelligent and gifted man, Paul Robeson made a very unfortunate choice. He was a personal admirer of Josef Stalin," Opczynski, of Palmyra, told the Daily News. "My problem is Rutgers placing this man, Mr. Robeson, on a pedestal considering his unsavory, almost disgraceful past."

Supporters of Robeson, including former students who championed naming the library for him in 1991 and a large contingent of history professors at the school, quickly fired back, claiming it's better to ask why Robeson felt alienated by his own country and turned to socialism, than to condemn his decades-old decisions.

"I thought the Cold War was over, so why people are trying to resurrect ghosts from the Cold War is a mystery to me," said Wayne Glasker, associate professor of history and director of African-American studies at Rutgers-Camden. "I would think people would be a little more concerned about terrorism or the economy, not whether Paul Robeson was a communist or not."