Paul Robeson, The Peekskill Riots And Public Fears In 2009

The infamous Peekskill Riots, perpetrated by mobs at Paul Robeson concerts in 1949, were “long ago, so long that community and religious groups in town caused nary a stir when they put together plans for a concert to be held Friday, 60 years later. … [W]hat those long-ago events mean today, what resonance the fears and angers of 1949 have for the fears and angers of 2009, well that’s a subject as rich and complicated as the man who set the events in motion.”