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    Black and white photo still from the 1938 film Big Fella, showing Paul Robeson seated in a restaurant, with his wife, Eslanda Goode Robeson, standing behind him, and his pianist Lawrence Brown seated on his left. Robeson wears a white shirt with a dark tie.
    Big Fella, 1938

    Scene from motion picture Big Fella. Standing is Paul Robeson’s wife and business manager, Eslanda Goode Robeson; at right is Paul’s longstanding accompanist and musical arranger, Lawrence Brown.

    Black and white photo of Paul Robeson and his Spanish guide, Captain Castillo, at the Karl Marx School in Madrid, in 1938, with Robeson and Castillo in the middle ground and two young boys seated at a table, facing the camera, in the foreground.
    Children at the Karl Marx School, Madrid, 1938

    Robeson and Captain Fernando Castillo at the Karl Marx School in Madrid

    Black and white photo of Paul Robeson singing with freedom fighters at the Madrid battlefront in 1938. Robeson is seated in the lower-left corner of the image beside a man playing a guitar.
    Republican freedom fighters, Madrid, 1938.

    Paul Robeson with freedom fighters at the Madrid battlefront. Sometimes under artillery and machine-gun fire, Robeson visited the shifting battlefronts to bolster the fighting spirit of the Republicans and their communist allies with his songs.

    Black and white photo from 1938 showing, in the foreground, a smiling Paul Robeson, dressed in a suit, with his left hand in a pocket, wearing an English wool cap; and Robeson’s Spanish guide, Captain Fernando Castillo, dressed in a military uniform and hat, with his right hand on a walking stick.
    The Spanish Civil War

    Paul Robeson with his Spanish guide to the battlefronts, Captain Fernando Castillo. Paul supported the Republican/Loyalist cause in their war against the army of the fascist Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

    Black and white photo of Paul Robeson, shown in the foreground standing beneath a palm tree beside a young African American man who is a volunteer with the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. Robeson wears a light-colored suit with vest, striped tie, and English cap. The volunteer wears a dark, buttoned jacket. In the background is a Spanish colonial-style building with a white-wood balcony railing.
    On the battlefronts of the Spanish Civil War

    At a hospital base near Valencia, Spain, with an African American solider of the International Brigade. Sometimes under artillery and machine-gun fire, Robeson visited the shifting battlefronts to bolster the fighting spirit of the Republicans and their Communist allies with his songs. He befriended African American volunteers in the war against the fascist army of Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

    Above 30th Street Station and the Market Street El

    This 1939 aerial photo shows the relationship of the Market Street Bridge and the El between the U.S. Post Office (left) and 30th Street Station (right). Trolley tracks can be seen on the bridge. 

    Woodside Park's Segregated Pool and Beach

    Crystal Pool’s thinly veiled Whites-only membership policy and various subterfuges denied Blacks access to facilities that could accommodate 5,000 swimmers. Crystal Pool was integrated only after the City took control of its management in 1952.

    Woodside Park in 1939

    This aerial photo shows the design of Woodside Park in the late 1930s. The four-acre Crystal Pool appears in the upper-left corner of the image. From its opening in 1926.

    Black and white photo of J. Edgar Hoover shaking hands with a middle-aged woman. Hoover is dressed in a dark suit, and the woman is wearing a straight dark dress, a large oval hat, a pearl necklace, and a large sash that flows from her right shoulder to a point on her torso below her left hand.
    J. Edgar Hoover

    FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1940, on the eve of his agency beginning its surveillance of Paul Robeson. Hoover remained Robeson’s nemesis in the first two decades of the Cold War era.

    A map depicting the Italian households within West Philadelphia according to the 1940 census, showing they were mostly situated in Morris Park, Haddington, and Cathedral Park.
    Houses with Family Members Born in Italy, West Philadelphia 1940

    South Philadelphia is well-known for its population of Italian immigrants.  However, 6,600 Italians immigrants lived in West Philadelphia in 1940, second only to Russian-born Jews. They settled in two areas.  Half lived in Morris Park and the neighboring areas of Haddington west of 60th St. and southern Overbrook west of Wynnewood Rd. One-fourth of adults in this area were born in Italy; 40% were either born in Italy or had a parent born there.

     

    The other area was in Cathedral Park which was the home to another one-fifth of West Philadelphia’s Italians.  That neighborhood was split into two sections on opposite sides of Cathedral Cemetery.  South of the cemetery was predominately Irish.  North of the cemetery was predominately Italian.  Between the cemetery and Lancaster Ave., 23% of adults were born in Italy—37% were either born there or had a parent who was.

     

    Homes of Russian-Born Residents West Philadelphia 1940

    Russians were one of the largest immigrant groups in West Philadelphia in 1940.  They accounted for about 7% of adults. We know from the 1930 Census that almost all individuals in West Philadelphia who were born in Russia were Jews who spoke Yiddish.  Not all Jews in West Philadelphia were born in Russia. For example, 64% of immigrants from Poland reported speaking Yiddish.

    The Jewish population of West Philadelphia increased rapidly after the turn of the century. In 1900, there were only 241 Immigrants from Russia.  By 1920, this had increased to about 12,000 and in 1930 it was over 18,000. Most of this increase probably occurred before 1924 when Congress limited immigration from Eastern Europe. Despite the concentration of Jews in parts of West Philadelphia, more than three quarters of Yiddish-speakers in Philadelphia lived in other parts of the city.

    The largest concentration of Yiddish-speakers in West Philadelphia was in Cobbs Creek – about 6,500 in 1930. The other prominent concentrations were in Wynnefield and Wynnefield Heights (4,750) and East Parkside and northern Belmont (3,936).

    Note #1: The 1930 census asked the main language spoken by all foreign-born individuals. This was important for identifying ethnic groups because of the large number of border changes after WWI.  The 1940 census only asked this question of a sample of about 6% individuals. The data from the 1940 sample on the language spoken by Russian-born individuals is consistent with the 1930 data.
    Duke Ellington and his Orchestra
    Duke Ellington and his Orchestra

    Duke Ellington (pictured on left) frequently performed at Fay’s Theatre during its golden age.

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