Editing Peekskill riots (section)

==Second concert==
The rescheduled September 4, 1949 concert was free from violence, but marred by the presence of a police helicopter overhead and the flushing out of at least one sniper's nest. The concert was located on the grounds of the old Hollow Brook Golf Course in [[Cortlandt Manor]], near the site of the original concert. 20,000 people showed up. Security was organized by the Communist Party and Communist-dominated [[labor unions]]. The men were directed by the Communist Party and some unions to form a line around the outer edge of the concert area and were sitting with Robeson on the stage. They were there to fight any protestors who objected to Robeson's presence. They effectively kept the local police from the concert area. The musicians performed without incident.

===Setlist===
{{incomplete list|date=January 2015}}
* Sylvia Kahn: "[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]"<ref>[[Peter Blecha|Blecha, Peter]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mtl9tLA0ghQC&pg=PA146 ''Taboo Tunes: A History of Banned Bands & Censored Songs'', p.&nbsp;146.] Backbeat Books (San Francisco), 2004.</ref><ref name=nyer>Wilkinson, Alec. [http://www.peteseeger.net/new_yorker041706.htm "The Protest Singer: Pete Seeger and American Folk Music" in ''The New Yorker''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025053430/http://www.peteseeger.net/new_yorker041706.htm |date=2007-10-25 }}. 17 April 2006. Accessed 25 January 2015.</ref>
* Piano performances by [[Leonid Hambro]] and [[Ray Lev]]<ref>Cohen, Ronald D. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BVqlULnfhy0C&pg=PA63 ''Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940&ndash;1970'', p.&nbsp;63.] University of Massachusetts Press (Amherst), 2002.</ref> including works by Chopin and Bach,<ref name=rob2>Robeson, Paul Jr. [https://books.google.com/books?id=MzFhJ5v0TL0C&pg=PA173 ''The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: Quest for Freedom, 1939&ndash;1976'', p.&nbsp;173.] John Wiley & Sons (Hoboken), 2010.</ref> [[Prokofiev]]<!--hambro--><ref name=nyer/> and [[Ravel]]<ref name=rogbobs>Williams, Roger M. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090107121951/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1976/3/1976_3_72.shtml "A Rough Sunday at Peekskill" in ''American Heritage Magazine'', Vol.&nbsp;XXVII, No.&nbsp;3.] April 1976. Hosted at the Internet Archive. Accessed 25 January 2015.</ref>
* Singing by soprano [[Hope Foye]]<ref>Reuss, Richard A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EycS7FSTAyUC&pg=227 ''American Folk Music and Left-Wing Politics, 1927&ndash;1957'', p.&nbsp;227.]</ref>
* [[Pete Seeger]]: "[[T For Texas]]", "[[If I Had a Hammer]]",<ref name=nyer/> and another song<ref>Frillmann, Karen. [http://www.wnyc.org/story/87258-today-in-history-peekskill-riots/ "Today in History: Peekskill Riots"]. WYNC (New York), 4 September 2009. Accessed 25 January 2015.</ref><!--Lowell Person Beveridge claims Seeger & the Weevers played before Lev-->
* [[Paul Robeson]]: "[[Go Down Moses]]", the English ballad "No John No", and "Farewell, My Son, I'm Dying" ({{lang|ru|«Прощай, мой сын, умираю...»}}, ''Proshchay, moy syn, umirayu...''), the final aria from ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]''<ref name=rogbobs/>
* Appeal for funds<ref name=rogbobs/>
* Paul Robeson: Seven other songs,<ref name=rob2/> including "[[America the Beautiful]]"<ref>Lynskey, Dorian. ''[[33 Revolutions per Minute (book)|33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs]]''. Faber & Faber (London), 2011.</ref> and [[Negro spiritual]]s ending with "[[Ol' Man River]]"<ref name=rogbobs/>

Robeson's accompaniment was provided by Larry Brown.<ref>Adams, Janus. ''Freedom Days: 365 Inspired Moments in Civil Rights History'', pp.&nbsp;4&nbsp;ff. Wiley, 1998. {{ISBN|0471192120}}.</ref>

===Aftermath===
The aftermath of the concert, however, was far from peaceful. After some violence to south-going buses near the intersection of Locust Avenue and Hillside Avenue,<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/09/05/86783084.pdf 48 Hurt In Clashes at Robeson Rally]</ref> Hillside Avenue having since been renamed Oregon Road,<ref>[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=64829 Hillside Cemetery Info]</ref> concertgoers were diverted to head northward to Oregon Corners and forced to run a gauntlet miles long of veterans and their families, who threw rocks through windshields of the cars and buses. Much of the violence was also caused by anti-Communist members of local [[Veterans of Foreign Wars]] and [[American Legion]] chapters.<ref name="Robeson, Susan, p. 181">Robeson, Susan. ''Paul Robeson:The whole World in His Hands'' Chapter 5, The Politics of Persecution, p. 181</ref> Standing off the angry mob of rioters chanting "go on back to Russia, you niggers" and "white niggers", some of the concertgoers and [[trade union|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.<ref>[http://bravenation.com/pete_seeger_majora_carter.php Seeger, Pete. Brave Nation video; Police inaction, at 10:00 minutes in.]</ref> {{coord|41|19|36.75|N|73|52|54.52|W|region:US}}

;Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie
One car carried [[Woody Guthrie]], [[Lee Hays]], [[Pete Seeger]], Seeger's wife [[Toshi Seeger|Toshi]], and his infant children. Guthrie pinned a shirt to the inside of the window to stop it shattering. "Wouldn't you know it, Woody pinned up a red shirt," Hays was to remember.<ref>[http://www.bencourtney.com/hays/ Courtney, Steve; So Long to Lee Hays.] ''[[North County News]]'', 2–8 September 1981.</ref> Seeger used some of the thrown rocks to build the chimney of his cabin in the [[Fishkill (town), New York|Town of Fishkill]], New York, to stand as a reminder of the incident.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E6D61F39F930A25755C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all To Pete Seeger, It's Still the Song of the River.] Reisler, Jim. ''New York Times'', 13 June 1999.</ref>

;Eugene Bullard
[[Eugene Bullard]], the first black combat pilot and decorated World War I veteran, was knocked to the ground and beaten by the mob, which included white members of state and local law enforcement. The beating was captured on film and can be seen in the 1970s documentary ''[[The Tallest Tree in Our Forest]]'' and the [[Academy Award|Oscar]]-winning, [[Sidney Poitier]]-narrated documentary ''[[Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist]]''. Despite recorded evidence of the beating, no one was prosecuted for the assault. Graphic photos of Eugene Bullard being beaten by two policemen, a state trooper and concert-goer, were published in ''The Whole World in His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson'', by [[Susan Robeson]].<ref>Robeson, Susan. ''Paul Robeson:The whole World in His Hands'' Chapter 5, The Politics of Persecution, pp. 182–183</ref>

===Protests afterwards===
Following the riots, more than 300 people went to Albany, New York to express their indignation to Governor [[Thomas Dewey]], who refused to meet with them, blaming communists for provoking the violence.<ref>Duberman, Martin. ''Paul Robeson'', 1989, Peekskill, p. 367.</ref> Twenty-seven plaintiffs filed a civil suit against Westchester County and two veterans' groups. The charges were dismissed three years later.{{citation needed|date = September 2013}}

===Reactions in the U.S. House of Representatives===
[[File:John E. Rankin (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Representative [[John E. Rankin]] in 1938]]
Following the Peekskill riots, Democratic House Representative [[John E. Rankin]] of Mississippi condemned Robeson on the house floor. When New York Congressman [[Jacob Javits]], a liberal Republican, spoke to the [[United States House of Representatives]], deploring the Peekskill riots as a violation of constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and free assembly,<ref name="Duberman, Martin 1989, p. 373">Duberman, Martin. ''Paul Robeson'', 1989, Peekskill, p. 373.</ref> Rankin replied angrily: "It was not surprising to hear the gentlemen from New York defend the Communist enclave." Rankin said that he wanted it known that the American people are not in sympathy "with that [[Nigger]] Communist and that bunch of Reds who went up there."<ref name="Duberman, Martin 1989, p. 373"/> On a point of order, [[American Labor Party]] House Representative [[Vito Marcantonio]] protested to House Speaker [[Sam Rayburn]] that "the gentlemen<!--plural?--> from Mississippi used the word 'nigger.' I ask that the word be taken down and stricken from the RECORD inasmuch as there are two members in this house of Negro race." Rayburn claimed that Rankin had not said "nigger" but "Negro" but Rankin yelled over him saying "I said Niggra! Just as I have said since I have been able to talk and shall continue to say."<ref>United States Congressional Record, September 21, 1949, p. 13375,</ref> Speaker Rayburn then defended Rankin, ruling that "the gentlemen<!--plural?--> from Mississippi is not subject to a point of order...referred to the Negro race and they should not be afraid of that designation."<ref name="United States Congressional Record 1949">United States Congressional Record, September 21, 1949, p. 13375</ref> Then Democratic Representative [[Edward E. Cox]] of Georgia denounced Robeson on the House floor as a "Communist agent provocateur."<ref name="United States Congressional Record 1949"/>

===Aftermath===
Within a few days, hundreds of editorials and letters appeared in newspapers across the nation and abroad by prominent individuals, organizations, trade unions, churches and others. They condemned the attacks and the failure of Governor Dewey and the State Police to protect the lives and property of citizens as well as called for a full investigation of the violence and prosecution of the perpetrators. Despite condemnation from progressives and civil rights activists, the mainstream press and local officials overwhelmingly blamed Robeson and his fans for "provoking" the violence. Following the Peekskill riots, other cities became fearful of similar incidents, and over 80 scheduled concert dates of Robeson's were canceled.<ref name="Robeson, Susan, p. 181"/>

On September 12, 1949, in response to Robeson's controversial status in the press and leftist affiliations, the [[National Maritime Union]] convention considered a motion that Robeson's name be removed from the union's honorary membership list. The motion was withdrawn for lack of support among members. Later that month, the All-China Art and Literature Workers' Association and All-China Association of Musicians of Liberated China protested the Peekskill attack on Robeson. On October 2, 1949, Robeson spoke at a luncheon for the National Labor Conference for Peace held at the [[Ashland Auditorium]] in  Chicago, referred the riots in his remarks.