Paul Robeson

Area of Achievement

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Paul Robeson

Summary of their achievements:

Jeff Sparrow summarised Paul Robeson as a man who ‘possessed one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century. He was an acclaimed stage actor. He could sing in more than 20 different languages; he held a law degree; he won prizes for oratory. He was widely acknowledged as the greatest American footballer of his generation. But he was also a political activist, who, in the 1930s and 1940s, exerted an influence comparable to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in a later era.’ Robeson had a great bond with the labour movement and especially with Welsh miners; a relationship some acclaim to have shaped Robson’s politics. “It’s from the miners in Wales,” Robeson explained, “[that] I first understood the struggle of Negro and white together.”

Jeff Sparrow summarised Paul Robeson as a man who ‘possessed one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century. He was an acclaimed stage actor. He could sing in more than 20 different languages; he held a law degree; he won prizes for oratory. He was widely acknowledged as the greatest American footballer of his generation. But he was also a political activist, who, in the 1930s and 1940s, exerted an influence comparable to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in a later era.’ Robeson had a great bond with the labour movement and especially with Welsh miners; a relationship some acclaim to have shaped Robson’s politics. “It’s from the miners in Wales,” Robeson explained, “[that] I first understood the struggle of Negro and white together.”

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