The son of a slave, Robeson was one of the towering figures of the 20th century. If Satchmo and the Bomber were each famous for one supreme skill, Robeson was celebrated for several - athlete, actor, singer and leftwing political activist. His classmates at Rutgers voted that by 1940 he would be "the leader of the coloured race in America", and no African-American except Martin Luther King ever endured greater harassment from the American state. In Europe he sang for the Prince of Wales, the Welsh miners and the International Brigade in the Spanish civil war. Gershwin wrote the role of Porgy with him in mind. Pandit Nehru and James Joyce were among his friends. Peggy Ashcroft became his lover.
In the second half of his life, his pro-communist views made him a pariah in his own land. He was a complex and controversial figure. Yet he was one of the most multi-talented Americans of all time and, after suffering some years in obscurity, it is right that Paul Robeson's genius and overwhelming personality should never be neglected again.