Peekskill Riots
October 4, 2006 5:54 AM   Subscribe

Peekskill Riots The Peekskill Riots were anti-communist riots (with anti-black undertones) 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...many names you might recall were involved in this blot on American history, and Howard Fast, the novelist, recalled his involvement in his book Being Red (1990), Howard Fast's memoir of his life on the left. Additionally, some later writers recalled the involvement of relatives and/or friends.. Pete Seeger, present during the riot, wrote a song about it Later, gathering some of the rocks tossed at the lefty participants of the concert, he used the "ammo" to build a chimney on the cabin where he lived. The Lefty -sympathizing wonderful actress Judy Holliday was summoned before the congressional committe in charge of rooting out communists during the anti-communist days, and gave a lengthy testimony about herself and many others. And though the riots were sparked in part by local newspapers, editoriallizing against the "visitors" to their serene area, they and the good citizens of Peekskill quickly tried to ignore, forget, or bury lthe disgraceful riots. But the memory lives on for some, and this sad event remains memorialized, a reminder perhaps of what hate, aggression, and just plain nastiness can bring about.
posted by Postroad (30 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Isn't much of TC Boyle's World's End centered around the riots?
posted by jonmc at 6:01 AM on October 4, 2006


We had a post about this once upon a time. But it's time for another. Woody Guthrie had a song about it called "My Thirty Thousand." Billy Bragg does a decent version of it.

"Paul Robeson, he's the man/Who faced the Ku Klux Klan..."
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:08 AM on October 4, 2006


The BBC News site has a shortish article where Tony Benn recalls his memories of Paul Robeson. It makes for great reading.
posted by bouncebounce at 7:19 AM on October 4, 2006


Yeah, there's a link in the wiki page above, and jonmc has beaten me to the mention, but the Peekskill riots (along with just about everything else that happened between white settlement and the 1960s in the Hudson River Valley) play a big part in T.C.Boyle's masterpiece World's End, and this deserves its own link.
posted by escabeche at 7:21 AM on October 4, 2006




It's worth adding a little historic context. No one defends mob violence, but it's worth understanding motivations. Peekskill wan't enraged by some gentle lefties strumming guitars. People like Fast and Seeger were perceived (correctly in my opinion, but others disagree) as being active supporters of the brutal Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin, a regime widely credited with murdering 10 to 20 million. Less than a year earlier the Soviet Union had toppled the democratic government of Czechoslovakia, and had probaby murdered its President, Edvard Benes.

And I'm a little vague on this, and don't have time to look it up, but hadn't similiar riots occurred in Peekskill a few years earlier, preventing a Klan rally? If I've got that right, we're condeming that riot too, right?
posted by mojohand at 8:01 AM on October 4, 2006


Oh for God's sake. I knew this looked familiar. Senility.
posted by mojohand at 8:06 AM on October 4, 2006


jesus christ Robeson gets mentioned twice in 48 hours on the front page. I'm going to post about the Black Panthers pretty soon.

the FBI'll knock on matt's door pretty soon I guess
posted by matteo at 8:06 AM on October 4, 2006


Does anyone read the posts down here?

well, it was posted a trillion users ago, L-Hat. it was a much smaller community back then
posted by matteo at 8:08 AM on October 4, 2006


the FBI'll knock on matt's door pretty soon I guess

just for atmosphere, they'll send J. Edgar's corpse in a dress.
posted by jonmc at 8:15 AM on October 4, 2006


the FBI'll knock on matt's door pretty soon I guess

Or Horowitz.
posted by sonofsamiam at 8:20 AM on October 4, 2006


on Horowitz's door? one can only hope
posted by matteo at 8:24 AM on October 4, 2006


it was a much smaller community back then

*lights corncob pipe*

I remember. It was a simpler, more innocent time. It was y1kark back then. We posted by climbing a mountain and chiseling the words into the stone. Lost many a good poster that way...

*falls asleep*
posted by jonmc at 8:25 AM on October 4, 2006


mojohand's right, in that we shouldn't sentimentalize this event out of context. The people of Peekskill were not total fools. And neither were Howard Fast, Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger. As much as I admire Fast, Seeger and Robeson as artists, these very intellegent men were not naive about Soviet-style communism. To put it bluntly, they were actively promoting the overthrow the United States government, and the handing over of the nation to a foreign power (Russia) whose government ruled by mass murder, internal terror, censorship and repression. Obviously we should support free speech. But there is no question that the worst thing that could possibly have happened in that era, would have been for Fast, Seeger and Robeson's political dreams to have come true.
Many of us or our parents would long ago have expired in some Alaskan gulag, in the basement of secret police headquarters, or in a massive, possibly engineered famine.
Love Fast's novels. Love Seeger's songs. Love Robeson's voice. But the plain fact is, they did not want good things for you and me.
posted by Faze at 8:26 AM on October 4, 2006


you forgot Poland
posted by matteo at 8:57 AM on October 4, 2006


*steals jon's wallet*
posted by matteo at 8:58 AM on October 4, 2006


have fun with the three bucks and expired prophylactic, matteo.

(faze, as usual is overstating things, and ignores the historical context in which Seeger & Robeson's political views emerged, but he has a point in that post-Soviet etc. they seem very naive)
posted by jonmc at 9:01 AM on October 4, 2006


Obviously, we should support free speech, except when evil Stalists are involved...

And folks wonder how the US got where it is today.
posted by QIbHom at 9:44 AM on October 4, 2006


these very intellegent men were not naive about Soviet-style communism.

i believe they were naive about it ... you keep forgetting that much of the information regarding the soviet system was still unknown back then ... (you also forget that our government, which knew more than the folk singers and actors did, not only were allied with them during ww2, but repatriated millions of soviet pows in full knowledge of what was going to happen to them when they got back)

To put it bluntly, they were actively promoting the overthrow the United States government

they were actively promoting socialism/communism by the electorial process

and the handing over of the nation to a foreign power (Russia)

wrong! ... any home grown communist government would have made suitable overtures to the international nature of communism, but a russian attempt to actually control america would have been rebuffed quickly ... note that yugoslavia and china managed to get the russians to back off and at the time, they didn't have nuke

whose government ruled by mass murder, internal terror, censorship and repression.

again, our own government was more aware of this at the time than they were ... and it's quite likely that american communists naively believed that those things would not happen here under an american controlled communist government ... (for the record, i do believe these things would have happened, because i think that's what the political philosophy of communism inevitably leads to ... but, just like many of the fellow traverlers of 1917 in russia, the american communists thought it would never happen)

my vote's for naivete

(and god knows what kind of country we'd have if the extremists who were represented by the rioters had ever gotten power)
posted by pyramid termite at 10:26 AM on October 4, 2006


Perhaps this is why Pete Seeger is not a hometown hero in Dutchess and Putnam counties. I grew up about 15 miles north of Peekskill and while we were taught about Woody Guthrie and some of the other folk heroes in school, there really is no celebrity or cult of personality around Seeger, who lives there now. This was always odd to me once I got to college and started learning about Seeger. Someone who is still active in the community (does a lot of work for the Hudson River, along with R. Kennedy Jr) and was a huge part of a certain era in the country is virtually never mentioned among the locals.
posted by spicynuts at 10:54 AM on October 4, 2006


I was born in Peekskill and don't think I heard about the riots until my late teenage years. I didn't note any specific shunning of Pete Seeger but I don't much remember being taught about Woody Guthrie or anyone else.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 11:16 AM on October 4, 2006


Did you sing "This Land is My Land" in elementary school? We certainly did..all the freakin time.
posted by spicynuts at 11:35 AM on October 4, 2006


well, it was posted a trillion users ago, L-Hat. it was a much smaller community back then

Oh, absolutely... *momentarily drifts off, drools, wakes self up snoring* What was I saying?

I'm glad this got posted; it's got a lot more links than the old one. But fer Chrissake, Postroad commented in that very thread! He could at least have added "as seen previously."

And you, you over there, yes you! Get off my lawn! But first, give me back my chisel; how do you expect me to carve these here comments? Damn kids these days...
posted by languagehat at 11:43 AM on October 4, 2006


a link went bad. Here is the right one for it, about friends/relatives writing ab out Peekskill:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2004/06/16/the-peekskill-n/

and a nice write up by the blogger
posted by Postroad at 11:45 AM on October 4, 2006


i thought people reading metafilter were supposed to be more intelligent than your average yokel. but hey, who cant get together with the ku klux klan when it comes to stoning a bunch of communists and their children?
posted by mano at 11:49 AM on October 4, 2006


as not seen previously:
http://www.wtv-zone.com/lumina/FBI/testimony-4.html
posted by Postroad at 11:52 AM on October 4, 2006


Faze wrote:

To put it bluntly, they were actively promoting the overthrow the United States government, and the handing over of the nation to a foreign power (Russia) whose government ruled by mass murder, internal terror, censorship and repression.



This is such crap - propaganda driven into your brain by capitalists whose entire existence depends on the comingling of the definition of socialism with totalitarianism. Pete Seeger's crime was being naive and believing that the government that Stalin was practicing was the socialism espoused by Marx and Engels. He had no idea at the time of the brutality of his government and is no different and no more naive than a Bush supporter of today.
posted by any major dude at 12:50 PM on October 4, 2006


He had no idea at the time of the brutality of his government and is no different and no more naive than a Bush supporter of today.

Um, I see where you're coming from, but you might want to think a little more about that sentence and its implications. (Also, I presume by "his government" you mean "the government that Stalin was practicing"... WTF?)
posted by languagehat at 5:34 PM on October 4, 2006


Less than a year earlier the Soviet Union had toppled the democratic government of Czechoslovakia, and had probaby murdered its President, Edvard Benes.

Not according to Wikipedia:

"In the meantime, the KSČ garnered its forces. The communist-controlled Ministry of Interior deployed police regiments to sensitive areas and equipped a workers' militia. The communist-controlled Ministry of Information refused broadcasting time to noncommunist officials. Ministries held by democratic parties were "secured" by communist "action committees." The action committees also purged all governmental and political party organs of unreliable elements. On February 25, Beneš, perhaps fearing Soviet intervention, capitulated. He accepted the resignations of the dissident ministers and received a new cabinet list from Gottwald, thus completing the communist takeover."

Nothing to do with the Soviet Union. Benes, however, was did expel some 3 million Czechs of German origin (an action Vaclav Havel described as 'blood vengeance'), had some 250,000 - 300,000 of them killed while others were conscripted as forced labour.

Read up on the Benes Decrees sometime.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:07 PM on October 4, 2006


The Czech Communist Party had "nothing to do with the Soviet Union"?? Are you out of your tiny little mind (as my wife is fond of saying), or was that some kind of elaborate joke?
posted by languagehat at 5:20 AM on October 5, 2006


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