Political activism is something that has been around for centuries. Ways of being and activist can include writing letters to politicians, boycotting businesses, and protesting on streets for a cause. Perhaps one of the most well-known example of activism is the civil rights movement, specifically African American people fighting for their rights as citizens of the United States. Few names are linked to activism as much as Martin Luther King Jr. and Paul Robeson. Both of these men-though they lived in different times-fought for their people relentlessly and with pride. Paul Robeson, an African American man born in New Jersey in 1898, was a very talented athlete, singer, actor, and scholar. He began his higher education at Rutgers University, and after graduating as valedictorian, he enrolled in Columbia law school. He then realized that instead of becoming a lawyer, he wanted to pursue a more artistic lifestyle in order to use his talents as a voice for African American culture and history. Robeson traveled all around the world in order to really see what life was like for other black individuals, and he used those experiences to become an activist for people like him everywhere. Perhaps his most well-known musical form of political activism is the song "Ol ' Man River", written specifically for him, from the musical Show Boat. The song is sung from a dockworker 's perspective, and it compares the endless flow of the Mississippi River to the struggles of being an African