The Peekskill Riots: Episode Three “Up on the Hillside, Down in the Hollow”

Jon Scott Bennett Productions is dedicated to creating films that explore complex topics, events, and individuals, while entertaining you from beginning to end. By covering topics not commonly discussed, we hope to provide a unique insight into the stories we feel deserve to be told.

Jon Scott Bennett

Screening of the third episode of The Peekskill Riots docu-series and Q&A at the Butterfield Library.

Julia L Butterfield Memorial Library

The Riot of August 27th, 1949 - The Peekskill Riots Ep. 3: "Up on the Hillside, Down in the Hollow"On August 27th, 1949, a Paul Robeson concert was violently attacked outside Peekskill, NY. The concert was for the benefit of the Civil Rights Congress and advertised to the Jewish and Black working-class, summer residents in the Hudson Valley. The Peekskill Evening Star and local veteran's groups - harboring disdain towards Robeson and the summer residents - organized a protest parade to stop the concert from taking place. What transpired was a horrific riot, in which innocent men, women, and children hoping to attend Paul Robeson's concert were attacked. Years of bubbling hatred in Peekskill, NY finally burst. This third episode of a 5-part docu-series focuses on the first of the two Peekskill Riots and the unprecedented level of violence that turned Peekskill from a small riverside city, into the center of national controversy.