August 27 marks the 75th anniversary of the Peekskill Riots, two attacks by right wing mobs on concert-goers in Peekskill, in upstate New York. The audience was composed of union members, including UE members, and civil rights activists, and they had gathered to watch popular Black singer and actor Paul Robeson perform.
“We Shall Not Be Moved”: The First Riot
The concert was planned for the evening of August 27, 1949. Robeson was to follow the well-known folk singer Pete Seeger. A prominent American novelist, Howard Fast, was to serve as concert chairman. The concert was being held to raise money for the Civil Rights Congress, an organization that defended Black Americans sentenced to death.
When Fast and some attendees started arriving at the venue, a hostile crowd was already gathering outside. Right-wing groups, including the American Legion, attempted to have the concert canceled in the days leading up to it and showed up in an angry, violent mass.
Fast and a few dozen union members were attacked by hundreds of men. The union members were able to stand their ground thanks to some quick strategizing by Fast. The mob threw rocks and glass bottles at their heads and some hit their mark. Fast and about 30 union members were able to keep the mob from killing anyone but had to retreat to the top of the stage with the women and children. They stood with arms linked singing “We Shall Not Be Moved” as the mob screamed, “We’ll finish Hitler’s job” and threatened to lynch Robeson. The union members continued to sing and stand their ground, watching as the rioters burned chairs and pamphlets.
“As the mob descended on us, they hurled threats of: ‘Kill all the Jews and n—--s; Hitler was a good guy, we’re going to finish his job. Give us the women, we want the women," Jack Czitron, a WWII veteran and member of UE Local 155 who was in attendance, told the UE NEWS. “We locked hands to defend ourselves. Timber torn from fences and rocks were thrown. Crosses were burned.”
Upon arriving by train, Robeson was picked up by Helen Rosen, a lifelong activist and close friend of Robeson, who knew of the riot and safely hid him in her car. Robeson saw a burning cross on a nearby hill and heard the noise from the riot and tried to help but was restrained by his friends. Police did not intervene and the riot only stopped after state troopers arrived later in the night.
“I Must Keep Fightin’ Until I’m Dyin’”: The Second Concert
Following the riot, Robeson met with union members and locals who had helped plan the initial concert. Together, they decided to have Robeson back to Peekskill to perform. Rank-and-file union members, including many from UE, agreed to protect concert goers and serve as a wall of defense around the venue.
Rather than the few hundred that were expected to attend the original concert, over 20,000 people attended the rescheduled event. Over a thousand union members protected concert-goers of all races alongside veterans and volunteers. The concert went on without issue and money was successfully raised for the Harlem chapter of the Civil Rights Congress. Robeson sang labor songs and staples to the enormous crowd like “Go Down Moses” and his radical version of “Ol’ Man River” where he replaced a racial epithet in the song with “I must keep fightin’ until I’m dyin’”. Robeson also performed the Yiddish freedom anthem “Song of the Warsaw Ghetto” that night:
Never say that you have reached the very end,
When leaden skies a bitter future may portend,
For sure the hour for which we yearn will yet arrive,
And our marching steps will thunder: we survive!
The concert was a hit but at the end of the event, a large mob of white men lined the roads outside of the venue waiting to ambush the multi-racial crowd of men, women, and children. Witnesses told the UE NEWS that mobsters began “hurling foul epithets” at Black and Jewish people in the crowd while swinging ropes in lynching threats. The right-wing mob chanted “We’re Hitler’s boys – Hitler’s boys” and could also be heard singing “Roll out the commies” to the tune of the popular drinking song “Roll Out the Barrel.”
UE NEWS photo of police and troopers beating a Black air force veteran who had come to attend the concert.
Two hundred people were violently attacked and injured by the rioters while police stood by or, in some cases, beat Black concert-goers alongside the mob. Many cars were smashed, causing windows to shatter in peoples’ eyes, and rocks were launched through buses filled with men, women, and children.
Local 428 President Pat Barile told the UE NEWS, “I was one of the first few to leave the concert grounds and upon leaving we were greeted by a hail of rocks and stones that smashed our windows spraying us with glass splinters.
“This happened less than 150 feet from the exit in full view of dozens of troopers and policemen, who did nothing to stop the stone throwers but merely poked their clubs into the cars and ordered them to proceed knowing we would be stoned for the whole length of that road for about three or four miles. There was no need for this violence and it could have easily been avoided had the authorities so desired.”
“I’d Hammer Out Danger”: UE Officers Condemn Violence
“The cornerstone of American democracy is the right of men and women to free speech and assembly.” So said UE President Albert J. Fitzgerald, Secretary Treasurer Julius Emspak, and Director of Organization James J. Matles in a statement released following the riots. In the statement, the officers describe the riots as aimed at denying the right of free speech and assembly to the union members and Robeson supporters. They went on to explain that the violence directed at men, women, children, and even babies in arms is part of a pattern of increasing assaults by “forces of reaction through mobs as well as the police themselves.”
The UE officers pointed out the lack of action by officials in the area. Explaining that police and troopers stood by and even participated in the violence, they questioned if law enforcement personnel were under instruction from a higher authority to do so. They pointed out that this was a pattern of violence being used more and more freqently on trade unionists, Black people, and any group which questioned the increasing corporate control of society.
The officers went on to point out the similarities between the violence of the rioters and lack of police intervention at Peekskill and the violence many union members face while on strike. “It is the logical extension of Taft-Harvey methods of police violence and mob hysteria deliberately provoked by newspapers and radio commentators and the powerful interests which control them. Union members — who have had to go on strike to protect their jobs — are familiar with such tactics.”
In the conclusion of their statement, UE officers said, “The interests of labor and the entire American people demand that the right of speech and assemblage be protected; and that those who instigated and participated in Peekskill violence be punished.” The officers then went on to demand the prosecution of the mob and the dismissal of local and state officials that permitted the rioting to occur.
The Peekskill riots marked a violent beginning to years of attacks against militant unions. UE faced many attacks as part of the Red Scare anti-communist hysteria. Many UE leaders were fired, blacklisted, and even arrested, and the federal government attempted to deport Matles. The union lost half its members to raids by other unions during the 1950s. But like the attendees of the benefit concert at Peekskill, union members fought back with perseverance and resistance. Steady organizing during the 1960s and 1970s and aggressive organizing from the 1990s through today have rebuilt some of what was lost during the anti-communist violence of the 1950s. As Seeger sang while opening for Robeson:
I’d hammer out danger
I’d hammer out warning
I’d hammer out love between all of my brothers
All over this land.