It was so contrary to the lively spirit manifested by the Russian workers going happily about their daily tasks with no thought of tomorrow's loss of job or eviction. Everyone looked so listless and discontent, that a pall of gloom descended over and enshrouded me. The minute I arrived at 125th street all the desire to be back in America vanished. After the incident the Soviet press turned him into a minor celebrity, publicising his case as an example of American racism. The only African American among a contingent of workers from the United States, Robinson was beaten by two white American workers shortly after his arrival. He arrived in Stalingrad on July 4, 1930, to begin working in a tractor factory. At 23, fearing he could be laid off at any moment due to the effects of the Great Depression and the institutionalised racism in the United States, and taking into account that a cousin of a friend had recently been lynched in the South, Robinson accepted. They were promised free rent in a grand apartment, maid service, and a car. The delegation leader offered him and others a one-year contract in the Soviet Union. In 1930, a Russian delegation visited the Company, where Robinson worked as a toolmaker. In 1929 Ford and the Soviet Union agreed to cooperate on a car plant in Gorky to turn out Model T cars. He went to local schools and became a skilled toolmaker at the Ford Motor Company during the expansive years in the auto industry. He and his mother emigrated to the United States and settled in Detroit. His mother was born in Dominica and had gone to Jamaica while employed by a doctor. He and his mother were abandoned by his father when he was six. He finally gained re-entry to the United States in 1986, and gained attention for his accounts of his 44 years in the Soviet Union.īorn in Jamaica, Robinson moved with his parents to Cuba, where he grew up. He married an African-American professor working there. His repeated attempts to visit outside the USSR finally resulted in an approved trip to Uganda in 1974, where he asked for and was given asylum. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering. After the publicity of his assault, he felt unable to return to the US and accepted Soviet citizenship. Starting with a one-year contract to work in the Soviet Union, Robinson twice renewed his contract. Shortly after his arrival in Stalingrad, Robinson was racially assaulted by two white American workers, both of whom were subsequently arrested, tried and expelled from the Soviet Union with great publicity. At the age of 23, he was recruited to work in the Soviet Union. Robert Nathaniel Robinson (J– February 23, 1994) was a Jamaican-born toolmaker who worked in the auto industry in the United States.

Black on Red by Robert Robinson