Blek end uajt

A political animation film, directed by Ivan Ivanov and Vano Leonid Amairik (1932).
The film was inspired by Mayakovsky's drawings and words. In 1925, with a permission to travel abroad, Mayakovsky took a boat to the United States of America. His poem Black and White came about as a direct attack on racism that he observed in Cuba (where he landed first).
Only fragments of the film were found, without restorable sound. It was decided to underscore the fragments with excerpts from Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child as recorded by Paul Robeson in 1949 in Moscow.
Robeson, a son of an American slave who taught Russians to sing Ol’ Man River in Russian, was of course not an incidental choice.

Ol' Man River

Ol’ Man River is Joe’s song from the musical Show Boat (1927). This scene, where the song is performed by Paul Robeson, is from the 1936 film version of Show Boat directed by James Whale.
A showboat was a type of traveling theatre operating on rivers in the United States. In the musical, such a showboat operates along the Mississippi River. Show Boat showcasts, over the span of 47 years, the lives of those who lived and worked on it.
Robeson altered the original lyrics, in order to give Joe (weary an’ sick of tryin’ an’ tired of livin’ an’ skeered of dyin’) some spirit and defiance.
He jes' keeps rollin'
He keeps on rollin' along

Barge-haulers' shanty

The Song of the Volga Boatmen, by Paul Robeson (1938). This song is a genuine shanty of the Volga barge-haulers. An earlier 1922 recording, performed by Feodor Chaliapin in original Russian, is enchanting.
The original lyrics, in Russian and English both, can be found here. Please note that Robeson only in parts stayed true to the original.
Paul Robeson, in an interview, explained that "[t]he African people have an almost instinctive flair for music. This faculty was born in sorrow. I think that slavery, its anguish and separation - and all the longings it brought - gave it birth. The nearest to it is to be found in Russia, and you know about their serf sorrows. The Russian has the same rhythmic quality - but not the melodic beauty of the African. It is an emotional product, developed, I think, through suffering."