<human>: Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (May 25, 1878 - November 25, 1949) was an American tap dancer and actor, the best known and most highly paid African-American entertainer in the first half of the twentieth century. His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology. He started in the age of minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway, the recording industry, Hollywood, radio, and television.

Robinson was successful despite the obstacle of racism. A favorite Robinson anecdote is that he seated himself in a restaurant and a customer objected to his presence. When the manager suggested that it might be better if Robinson leave, he smiled and asked, "Have you got a ten-dollar bill?" Politely asking to borrow the manager's note for a moment, Robinson added six $10 bills from his own wallet and mixed them up, then extended the seven bills together, adding, "Here, let's see you pick out the colored one". The restaurant manager served Robinson without further delay.  Despite earning and spending a fortune, his memories of surviving the streets as a child never left him, prompting many acts of generosity. In 1933, while in his hometown of Richmond, he saw two children caught between the heat of traffic to retrieve their ball. There was no stoplight at the intersection: Robinson went to the city and provided the money to have one installed. In 1973, a statue of "Bojangles", sculpted by Jack Witt, at the intersection of Adams and West Leigh Streets was established in a small park at the intersection.  Robinson co-founded the New York Black Yankees baseball team in Harlem in 1936 with financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler. The team was a successful member of the Negro National League until it disbanded in 1948, after Major League Baseball was desegregated.  In 1989, a joint U.S. Senate/House resolution declared "National Tap Dance Day" to be May 25, the anniversary of Bill Robinson's birth.  Robinson was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987. CANNOTANSWER

Ask a question about this article.
<bot>: what did he do ?