James Herman Robinson
| James Herman Robinson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 24, 1907 Knoxville, Tennessee, US |
| Died | November 6, 1972 (aged 65) New York City |
| Alma mater |
Lincoln University Union Theological Seminary |
| Occupation | Clergyman, humanitarian |
| Spouse(s) | Helen Brodie (1938-1954, divorce) Gertrude Thomas (1957-1972, his death) |
| Parent(s) | Henry and Willie Belle Robinson |
James Herman Robinson (January 24, 1907 – November 6, 1972) was an African American clergyman and humanitarian, best known as the founder of Operation Crossroads Africa (OCA), a cross-cultural exchange program considered a forerunner of the Peace Corps. Robinson served on the Corps' first National Advisory Council, and advised the U.S. State Department on African affairs. He also organized Harlem's Morningside Community Center, cofounded the African Academy of Arts and Research, and advocated independence for African nations.
Robinson was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, one of six children of Henry and Willie Belle Robinson. He spent his early childhood in "The Bottoms," a polluted slum that lay along First Creek in downtown Knoxville. Disenchanted by racism and poverty, Robinson joined a gang that skulked about the intersection of Vine and Central, in what is now the Old City. He found inspiration in his grandfather, a former slave who had fought for the Union during the Civil War, and a charismatic Baptist minister named Jim Haywood.
When Robinson was about 10, his family moved to Cleveland to find work in the city's war-time era factories. Following his mother's death, he lived with his grandparents for a brief period in Youngstown, Ohio, before returning to Cleveland during the recession that followed World War I. In spite of his family's opposition to education, Robinson managed to finish high school and enroll in Western Reserve University. He completed two semesters before the Reverend C. Lee Jefferson of the St. Mark's Presbyterian Church offered to pay for him to train as a minister if he joined the Presbyterian Church.
Robinson enrolled in Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, in 1931. During the summer of 1933, while staying with his aunt in Knoxville, he was tasked with overseeing a small black congregation in Bearden, then a rural community on the outskirts of the city. He encouraged his congregation to vote and become more politically active, agitating Bearden's white residents, and was eventually chased out of the community by a lynch mob.
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