High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Paul Leroy Robeson (pronounced /ˈroʊbsən/, ROHB-sən; April 9, 1898 - January 23, 1976) was an American concert singer (bass), recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century. He gained international attention for his work in the arts and he merged his artistic career with political activism to speak out for the equality of minorities and the rights of workers throughout the world. His affiliation with the Soviet Union and criticism of the lack of progress in civil rights in the United States at the outset of the Cold War and during the age of McCarthyism brought scrutiny, conflict and retribution from the American government and led to his public persona becoming diminished, him becoming economically blacklisted, and him being eschewed by the Civil Rights Movement in the second half of the twentieth century. He endured through the end of McCarthyism and was briefly returned to the artistic spotlight, but the events in the 1950s had taken a physical and mental toll on him and he lived out the last years of his life privately.