The Welsh coal miners
Paul Robeson's association with
Wales began in 1928 while he was performing in London in the musical
Show Boat. There, he met a group of unemployed miners who had taken part in a "hunger march" from
South Wales to protest their situation. During the 1930s, Robeson made several visits to Welsh coal mining regions to perform in
Cardiff,
Neath and
Aberdare.
[42] In 1934, he performed in
Caernarfon to benefit the victims of a major disaster at
Gresford Colliery, near
Wrexham, where 264 miners died.
[43] Robeson remains a celebrated figure in Wales. The exhibit
Let Paul Robeson Sing! was unveiled in Cardiff in 2001, then toured several Welsh towns and cities.
[44] A number of Welsh artists have celebrated Robeson's life: the
Manic Street Preachers' song "
Let Robeson Sing" appears on the album
Know Your Enemy. The band also covered "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?"— the spiritual sung by Robeson as part of his 1957 telephone performance to the Miners' Eisteddfod in Porthcawl during the eight year period from 1950 through 1958 when the U.S. government revoked his passport, which stopped him from travelling or performing overseas. The play
Paul Robeson Knew My Father by Greg Cullen, set in the Rhondda during the 1950s, features a character with a childhood obsession for Robeson's music and films.
[45] Martyn Joseph's song "Proud Valley Boy" on his 2005 album
Deep Blue is also based on Robeson's Welsh connections. In 1940, Robeson appeared in
The Proud Valley, playing a black labourer who arrives in the
Rhondda and wins the hearts of the local people.
A tribute to an Honorary Welsh American.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEQEeNhtosg&feature=related