Paul Robeson, an African American singer and Civil Rights activist who spoke up against lynching and other atrocities in the 1930's and for many years after that, is most famous for his rendition of "Old Man River," in the 1936 movie Showboat. In this showstopper song, his rich operatic voice commands the scene as he sings of the hard life of a dock worker.

He also performed in concert, often singing Negro spirituals, and his trademark song was "Go Down Moses," the spiritual in which Moses declares to the Pharoah about this enslaved brothers and sisters, "Let my people go."

Robeson suffered greatly for his decisions to speak out against racial injustice, and yet he continued to for
decades. I am sure that as our new President is inaugurated tomorrow, Robeson will be there as will each slave he sang about and each victim of lynching. Many heroes of our past will haunt the ceremonies, there to celebrate an event they could not imagine once not that long ago.

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