The miners found consolation in religion, with every village dotted with chapels. At once, Robeson offered his fees for the Caernarfon concert to the fund established for the orphans and children of the dead – an important donation materially, but far more meaningful as a moral and political gesture.That was part, Humphreys said, of why Wales remembered him. He came to London with his wife Eslanda – known as Essie – partly to escape the crushing racism of his homeland. Paul Robeson's songs and deeds light the way for the fight against Trump'Would audiences walk out? The old miner talked of how stunned the marchers had been when Robeson attached himself to their procession: a huge African American stranger in formal attire incongruous next to the half-starved Welshmen in their rough-hewn clothes and mining boots.But Robeson had a talent for friendship, and the men were grateful for his support. Can you think of an athlete with a list of achievements to match the ones below?Not your average sports athlete but a true world citizen. His frequent visits to mining towns in Wales were part of that newfound political orientation.“You can see why he’s remembered around here,” Humphreys said. He came to London with his wife Eslanda – known as Essie – partly to escape the crushing racism of his homeland. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson built his career despite the segregation of the Jim Crow laws – basically, an American apartheid system that controlled every aspect of African American life. in no emediyit dangurHow Paul Robeson Found His Political Voice in the Welsh ValleysThroughout the 1930s, the analogy between African Americans and workers in Britain (and especially Wales) helped reorient Robeson, both aesthetically and politically.” The bond with Wales remained, “even after Robeson became, in Pete Seeger’s words, ‘the most blacklisted performer in America.’”While my father was working as a slave, his own father was working as a wage slave in the mills of Manchester.”Paul Robeson possessed one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century. In African American life, the black church had mattered so much because religion provided almost the only institutional stability for people buffeted by racial oppression. “We are happy that it has been possible for us to arrange that you speak and sing to us today,” he said. To that end, he was studying languages, working his way haphazardly through Russian, German, French, Dutch, Hungarian, Turkish, Hebrew, and sundry other tongues so as to perform the songs of different cultures in the tongues in which they had been written. I didn’t know I was poor and I didn’t know I was black: all I knew was that I was me.”Tiger Bay was forged by some of the worst racial attacks in British history. Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser. At the Eisteddfod, Robeson spoke of his love for Wales, saying “You have shaped my life – I have learned from you.” Robeson joined the choir in a performance of the Welsh national anthem, Land of My Fathers, before the entire audience – all 5,000 of them – serenaded him with We’ll Keep a Welcome. I didn’t know I was poor and I didn’t know I was black: all I knew was that I was me.”Tiger Bay was forged by some of the worst racial attacks in British history. Memorial at Mountain Ash to commemorate the 33 Welshmen who had died in Robeson’s links with South Wales were reinforced when in pretendin’ defrenz to Ol’ blak Schmo. What connections might the exploration of distinctive cultural traditions forge between different peoples?Significantly, it was in Wales where Robeson first articulated this new perspective. If the slave songs of the US were worth celebrating, what about the music emerging from other oppressed communities? ': trailblazing British black and Asian Shakespeare – in picturesFrom 19th-century black pioneer to cultural ambassador of CoventryWillard White on playing Othello: 'I broke down – I considered walking away' Browse 158 lyrics and 616 Paul Robeson albums. A single miner possessed no power at all; the miners as a whole, however, could shut down the entire nation, as they’d demonstrated in 1926.In particular, the cooperation mandated by modern industry might, at least in theory, break down the prejudices that divided workers – even, perhaps, the stigma attached to race. It was first shown at the National Museum in Cardiff and then toured the country.Staging that event had been a revelation for Humphreys. “We’d ask if a job was open,” he said, “and soon as they said yes, we’d say, ‘Can I come for an interview right now?’ To narrow the gap, because the minute you got there they would say, ‘Oh, the job is gone.’”“The minute they saw you were black, that was it,” said Clarke. In particular, because Jim Crow segregated the workplace, black communities struggled to form and maintain trade unions. That was the point Robeson dramatized in “It’s from the miners in Wales,” Robeson explained, “[that] I first understood the struggle of Negro and white together.”“To understand Paul’s relationship with Wales,” Humphreys told me the following day, “you need to understand Tiger Bay.”“Star or not, it was impossible to be shielded from institutional racism.”She introduced me to Lesley Clarke and to Harry Ernest and his son Ian.