A straightforward autobiographical story about the Peekskill Riots of 1949. Paul Robeson was a singer, athlete, and Civil Rights Activist who arranged a concert for the benefit of the Civil Rights Congress in Peekskill, New York. Woody Guthrie was one of the participants. Once the concert was finished the singers and the audience were assaulted by the police and members of the local VFW post.
The crowd that attended was somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand people in size. Here Woody is casting them as his friends and allies, those who stood for equality and justice. "You can't bash the brains out of thirty thousand" is a rallying cry against oppression.
A straightforward autobiographical story about the Peekskill Riots of 1949. Paul Robeson was a singer, athlete, and Civil Rights Activist who arranged a concert for the benefit of the Civil Rights Congress in Peekskill, New York. Woody Guthrie was one of the participants. Once the concert was finished the singers and the audience were assaulted by the police and members of the local VFW post.
The crowd that attended was somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand people in size. Here Woody is casting them as his friends and allies, those who stood for equality and justice. "You can't bash the brains out of thirty thousand" is a rallying cry against oppression.