Eslanda “Essie” Cardozo Goode Robeson lived a colorful and amazing life. Her career and commitments took her many places: colonial Africa in 1936, the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, the founding meeting of the United Nations, Nazi-occupied Berlin, Stalin’s Russia, and China two months after Mao’s revolution. She was a woman of unusual accomplishment–an anthropologist, a prolific journalist, a tireless advocate of women’s rights, an outspoken anti-colonial and antiracist activist, and an internationally sought-after speaker. Yet historians for the most part have confined Essie to the role of Mrs. Paul Robeson, a wife hidden in the large shadow cast by her famous husband. In this masterful book, Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson, biographer and university professor Barbara Ransby, Ph.D, refocuses attention on Essie, one of the most important and fascinating black women of the twentieth century.

Join IPS, and Teaching for Change bookstore as we celebrate Women’s History Month in a discussion with Professor Barbara Ransby to be followed by a book signing. Dr. Greg Carr of Howard University, will deliver an introduction to the book and speakers. Then Clarence Lusane, Ph.D, Professor at American University and author of The Black History of White House, will interview Ms. Ransby before opening into discussion with the audience.