Peekskill riots

The Peekskill Riots were anti-communist riots in the city of Peekskill, New York in 1949.

The catalyst for the rioting was an announced concert by black singer Paul Robeson, who was well known for his strong stand on civil rights and his communist sympathies. The concert, organized as a benefit for the Civil Rights Congress, was scheduled to take place on August 27. Before Robeson arrived, a mob of locals attacked concertgoers with baseball bats and rocks. Thirteen people were seriously injured before the police interfered. The concert was postponed until September 4.

The rescheduled concert itself was free from violence. 20,000 people arrived at the site, which was actually in Lakeland Acres, just north of Peekskill. Security, organized by labor unions, was tight, and Robeson, along with musicians such as Pete Seeger, performed without incident. The aftermath of the concert, however, was far from peaceful. As they drove away, concertgoers were forced to run a gauntlet miles long of hostile locals, veterans, and outside agitators, who threw rocks through windshields of the cars and buses (Seeger used rocks thrown in his car carrying his wife and infant children to build the chimney of his cabin in Beacon, NY, to stand as a reminder of that incident). Standing off the angry mob of rioters some of the concertgoers, and union members along with writer Howard Fast and others assembled a non-violent line of resistance, locked arms and sang the song "We Shall Not Be Moved." Some people were reportedly dragged from their vehicles and beaten. Over 140 people were injured and numerous vehicles were severely damaged as police stood by.

Following the riots, more than 300 people went to Albany to voice their indignation to Governor Thomas Dewey, who refused to meet with them, blaming communists for provoking the violence. Twenty-seven plantiffs filed a civil suit against Westchester County and two veterans groups. The charges were dismissed three years later.

Causes of the riots

The roots of the hostile reaction to the concerts deserves scrutiny, particularly as three Robeson concerts had previously been performed in Peekskill without a incident. Certainly over the previous years Robeson had been increasingly vocal against the Ku Klux Klan, and there was a racial element to the riots (the KKK had an active chapter in the area). Most importantly, perhaps, is Robeson's transformation from someone who was primarily a singer into a political persona. Robeson had appeared before HUAC to oppose a bill that would require communists to register as foreign agents, and, just months before the concert in 1949, he had appeared at the World Peace Conference in Paris, stating "it is unthinkable that American Negroes will go to war in behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations . . . against a country which in one generation has raised our people to the full dignity of mankind." In the midst of the Cold War such a comment was seen as appallingly anti-American. The local paper, The Peekskill Evening Star, condemned the concert and encouraged people to make their position on communism felt, but fell short of espousing violence.

The Peekskill Riot in fiction

• The Peekskill Riot appears in E.L. Doctorow's novel The Book of Daniel - Paul Isaacson leaves the bus to reason with the mob, and is beaten up by them.
• The riot also figures prominently in T.C. Boyle's World's End. The protaganist's parents serve as local organizers of the concert.

The Peekskill Riot in Audio & Video

-Song "Hold the Line" recorded by Pete Seeger and The Weavers.

-Song "My Thirty Thousand" written by Woody Guthrie and later recorded by Billy Bragg and Wilco.

-Video: "The Robeson Concerts"