Randall Robinson

Randall Robinson (July 6, 1941 – March 24, 2023) was an American lawyer, author and activist, noted as the founder of TransAfrica. He was known particularly for his impassioned opposition to apartheid, and for his advocacy on behalf of Haitian immigrants and Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Due to his frustration with American society, Robinson emigrated to Saint Kitts in 2001.

Early life and education Robinson was born in Richmond, Virginia, on July 6, 1941, to Maxie Cleveland Robinson and Doris Robinson Griffin, both teachers. The late ABC News anchorman, Max Robinson, was his elder brother. Randall Robinson graduated from Virginia Union University, and earned a J.D. degree at Harvard Law School. He also had an older sister, actress Jewel Robinson, and a younger sister, Pastor Jean Robinson. Both sisters live and work in the Washington, D.C. area.

Career Robinson was a civil rights attorney in Boston (1971–75) before he worked for U.S. Congressman Bill Clay (1975) and as administrative assistant to Congressman Charles Diggs (1976). Robinson was a Ford fellow. He served in the capacity as TransAfrica's president until 2001.

In 2003, Robinson turned down an honorary degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

Robinson began teaching at the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University in the fall of 2008.

Emigration In 2001, Robinson quit his position as head of TransAfrica and emigrated to St. Kitts, where his wife, who is a member of a prominent Kittitian family, was born. This decision was chronicled in his book Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from his Native Land.

Robinson's decision to emigrate was caused by what he described as his antipathy towards America's domestic policies and foreign policy, both of which he believed exploit minorities and the poor.

Personal life and death Randall Robinson and Hazel Ross-Robinson, his wife of 37 years at the time of his death, had one daughter, Khalea Ross Robinson. He had a daughter Anike Robinson, and a son, Jabari Robinson, from a previous marriage.

Robinson died on March 24, 2023, in St. Kitts, the birthplace of his wife, where the couple had lived for twenty-two years. The cause of death was aspiration pneumonia. He was 81 years old.

Publications

An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President, Perseus Books Group, 2007. Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man From His Native Land, Plume Books (Reprint), 2004. The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe to Each Other, Plume (reprint), 2002. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, Plume, 2001. Defending the Spirit, Plume (1999).