"The Most Persecuted, the Most Ostracized, the Most Condemned Black Man in America, Then or Ever" I [View all]

[monmouth3]

This is only a small snippet of a wonderful article on Paul Robeson, "The Paul Robeson Riots of '49." This one particular snippet is about Pete Seeger..

Pete Seeger was to perform at the concert, along with several folk singers and musicians, before Robeson appeared. Seeger arrived early, at 11 a.m. The line of 2,500 union members was forming around the field like a human wall...

"It may sound silly now, but we were confident law and order would prevail," said Seeger in an interview. "I had been hit with eggs in North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi, but this was New York State. "We heard about 150 people standing around the gate shout things like 'Go back to Russia! Kikes! Ni**er-lovers!' It was a typical KKK crowd, without bedsheets," Seeger said.

The police confiscated some baseball bats from the concert guards, and prevented a few clashes during the concert, which went on peacefully. Seeger sang folk songs, playing his banjo, and the program ranged through Mozart and Handel before Robeson came on... Seeger left the concert grounds with his wife and children, his wife's father and another couple. One of the concert guards told them to roll up their windows. A policeman in the road waved them south toward Peekskill. Around the corner was a man standing next to an immense pile of baseball-sized rocks. He took aim and hit the Seegers' car.

The stones came faster, and Seeger told everybody to get down. The windows smashed inward. A woman in the car was hit. Danny Seeger, 2, was huddled under the Jeep seat. He was covered with glass... South of Peekskill, the rock-throwing continued through Buchanan, Montrose and Croton along Route 9 as the smashed and dented cars and buses headed back to New York City.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/27/1182605/--The-Most-Persecuted-the-Most-Ostracized-the-Most-Condemned-Black-Man-in-America-Then-or-Ever-I