Edwina Hart: Guest speaker

Mr Robeson Jnr will address the conference entitled Challenging Racism - an Agenda for Wales.

The weekend includes a tribute concert on Sunday to Robeson, who starred in the film Proud Valley.

TUC Wales president Derek Gregory said: "Wales has not been immune from racism, discrimination, inequality or hysteria created by some parts of the media and politics."

Oppressed miners

He added: "Wales has not been immune from racism, discrimination, inequality or hysteria created by some parts of the media and politicians."

He said negative images portrayed Britain's reputation "as a safe pair of arms for brutalised, often war-exhausted people" as something to be "sneered" at rather than to be celebrated.

Robeson Snr was an untiring champion of Welsh miners for more than 40 years.

The plight of oppressed miners in the 1920s struck a chord with him.

He promised a delegation of colliers from south Wales who visited him in London that he help them and visited and supported them on many occasions over the years.

House arrest

He walked away from a successful entertainment career in 1947 to pursue his desire to fight racism and campaign for civil rights.

His passionate support for the miners was repaid in kind at the 1951 Miners Eisteddfod at Porthcawl.

Placed under house arrest in New York as a suspected Communist - and denied the right to free speech - Robeson's booming voice was broadcast from his apartment to delighted miners via a cable link.

The act of defiance effectively scuppered the intended aim of the McCarthy hearings in the United States.