The story of a successful American family which questioned the promises of democracy.
As America emerged victorious from WWII, many chose collective strategies to achieve social welfare, similar to those that helped the country survive The Great Depression. Fear of Communist domination was a way of life. In the Summer of 1949, a concert was planned in rural upstate NY to encourage a different direction. The local population's response was fierce. The lead performer was lynched in effigy and the concertgoers were beaten. A new concert was rescheduled, aided by the strength of organized labor. The second concert saw a foiled assassination, while union men protected the audience. The conflict foreshadows and stands as a lesson to our current bifurcated interpretation of the news. Judith Grusman is a dedicated teacher who believes in social justice. She is unafraid of the political conflicts that form around her, as the country descends into hysteria.
THE PEEKSKILL RIOTSInsurgency. Racial divide. Police collusion. Divided loyalties. Nuclear hysteria. As the facade of a sleepy affluent town is peeled back, a history is revealed that is little told and long forgotten.
Judith Grusman is drawn into the events of Peekskill, as she witnesses a country divided by nuclear hysteria and racism. Judith's journey, from rural Jewish-American school teacher, to participant in the bloody violence of Peekskill, is told in "They Beat Back The Fascists." The history of The Cold War and The American Labor Movement is weaved into the story, as the reader learns of the seminal but misguided Civil Rights leader Paul Robeson, and his pivotal performance at Peekskill.
The Peekskill riots of 1949 foreshadow America of today. The similarities are striking and scary. Forces representing a deeply divided country violently confronted each other, while opinions were shaped by sensationalized media sources, whose divergent messaging fed different interpretations of the events.
THE FIRST AMENDMENTThe events of Peekskill in 1949 foreshadow today's riots of Charlottesville and the killing of African-Americans like George Floyd, at the hands of the police. The story relates the lynching and attempted assassination of Paul Robeson, occurring during the same week as The Soviets tested their first atomic weapon. This is exacerbated by American hysteria over Communist spies and displaced loyalties.
"To what extent are our civil liberties protected?" "What role do we have as citizens for the collective good?" The people who came to Peekskill in 1949 were asking those same questions.
America of 1949 was a world of fear: This fear was exacerbated by those who sought to divide. The dividers chose to use other people to suit their own purpose. And in so doing, they suppressed liberty and free expression. In their defense, they felt justified in their actions, because they felt they were protecting the American way.
