Thread by @doctorow

1949 - Paul Robeson was scheduled to sing in Peekskill, New York when a riot was staged by hundreds of members of the Ku Klux Klan, American Legion, and New York State Troopers.

It was later revealed that the local police helped coordinate the mass assault on African-American attendees. The violence, it was said, was “tolerated – if not organized – by local police and FBI.”

Some of the white mob chanted, “We’re Hitler’s boys. We’re going to get Robeson. Lynch Robeson!” Among them was the police chief’s son.

That evening several crosses were lit in the hills above the fair grounds and the American Legion bragged that they had run “that [N-word] Robeson” out of town.

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