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Peekskill USA
- Inside the Infamous 1949 Riots
- Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
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Peekskill USA
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Editor reviews
Howard Fast was a prolific writer and outspoken liberal who once served a three-month prison sentence for refusing to furnish Congress with a list of "communist" names. Not long before that, in 1949, he attended a late summer concert by Paul Robeson in Peekskill, New York. This audiobook is Fast's unforgettable firsthand account of the two riots unleashed against the African-American singer and his audience. Fast is rightfully enraged against the right-wing vigilantes who perpetrated these violent acts against a Civil Rights Congress benefit concert, but actor Christopher Kipiniak lays the scene calmly and then lets the events (and the outrage) build on their own. His emotional restraint is commendable, for the author is clearly angry, as any listener will be as well.
Summary
Howard Fast's firsthand account of the infamous 1949 Peekskill riots, including historical documents, photos, and newspaper reports. In 1949, author Howard Fast found himself in the middle of a violent and terrifying anticommunist riot in Peekskill, New York. Fast was the master of ceremonies at a civil rights benefit concert featuring Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, and others. But local newspapers stoked anticommunist anger, and the event was besieged by a mob armed with rocks, clubs, fence posts, and knives. Fast's Peekskill, USA is a blow-by-blow account of the bloody riots, which led to the beating of the first black combat pilot in the US Air Force, Eugene Bullard.