Peekskill USA

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The platform for the concert was sheltered under a tree. The men standing behind Paul Robeson took their places with the full knowledge that they were providing a barrier of human flesh between him and the snipers. The eagerness with which they accepted this post is an unusual tribute to the love progressive America bears for Paul Robeson.

A section of the defense line and a portion of the sudience gathered for the second Peekskill concert. Remember that this defense line stretched all around the concert grounds and held its position in the hot sun for many hours. It was on the ridge in the background that two snipers were concealed.

A smashed car of some concert-goers and the hoodlums who did the smashing. These are obviously too young to have been veterans and were probably recruited for the occasion by neighborhood fascist organizations.

Eugene Bullard, one of the great war heroes of the Negro people, is struck to the ground by the clubs of state troopers and deputy sheriffs. The attack was without any provocation, as both bystanders and Mr. Bullard testified.

It was on such buses as this that the worst injuries occurred. In the crowded bus there was no room to hide. The story of Sidney Marcus in the Appendix tells what it was like to be inside these buses as they ran the gauntlets.

A car of concert-goers runs the gauntlet to the Parkway. This was one of the worst death traps of the various exits. The cars moved slowly and there was no escape from the rocks. Further down the road, at the right, you can see a policeman standing calmly and ovserving the work of the fascist hoodlums.

This group of young hoodlums, gathered around one of Governor Thomas E. Dewey's state troopers, gives clear pictorial evidence of the dignity and the courage with which the super-patriots defend America.

To appreciate this scene you must understand that the people in the cars were blinded by flying glass. Notice the girl hanging over the back seat.

Three of the most important participants in Peekskill: Paul Robeson, to the left, Leon Straus of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union, standing center, and Howard Fast, on the right. The injured man who is seated is Wilson McDowell who was hurt in one of the buses. Paul Robeson holds one of the rocks which crashed into the bus, over a smashed auto window.

William L. Patterson, one of the great leaders of the Negro people and the national head of the Civil Rights Congress. It was under Mr. Patterson's leadership that the Golden Gate meeting referred to in the book was organized. During the concerts and since then Wiliam L. Patterson has been in the vanguard of the struggle to halt this kind of growing fascism.