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The Conversation
The Conversation
Politics
Nina Silber, Professor of History, Boston University

75 years ago, the KKK and anti-communists teamed up to violently stop a folk concert in NY

Paul Robeson KKK NY Donald Trump World War II New York Communism Hudson Valley Ku Klux Klan United States
Fighting rages in Peekskill, N.Y., on Aug. 27,1949, as veterans break up a scheduled concert by singer Paul Robeson. AP Photo

Few Americans today know about the events that occurred 75 years ago in the small Hudson Valley community of Peekskill, New York. That’s where a riot broke out at a folk concert that marked a significant turning point in the political landscape of the post-World War II era.

The riot sharpened the dividing lines and raised the stakes in the coming anti-communist Red Scare that would dominate the political climate of the 1950s and beyond.

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