“Hold the Line”
July 12, 2014 · by davidkdunaway@gmail.com
THE PEEKSKILL RIOTS were an unsubtle threat that drew leftists together. “The people in Peekskill were calling out to the rest of America,” said Seeger, remembering his alarm. “Whenever you find a Commie around, do something about it-don’t wait for the long process of the law, do it right away, because our country is in danger.”
Two weeks after the event, Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, and friends had worked up a new song, “Hold the Line.”
Let me tell you the story of a line that was held,
And many men and women whose courage we know well;
As they held the line at Peekskill on that long September day, We will hold the line forever till the people have their way. Hold the line! Hold the line!
As we held the line at Peekskill we will hold it everywhere.
Which line was really held? The one separating radicals from the rest of America? The Party’s? Or perhaps the barrier separating civil liberties from mob rule-but this line had broken down.
At first glance, “Hold the Line” seems a bluff. The cold war was heating up, and only a few months later the junior senator from Wisconsin, Joe McCarthy, would begin waving his list of secret Communists. But Seeger was terribly serious about the song; optimism and perseverance were the bedrock of his art, a music born of political adversity. His songs were blunt weapons, but he lanced them with all his might.
Darrell Davis July 15, 2014 at 8:14 am · Reply →
Just six short months before his death, Pete was in Peekskill again as my speaker for a fundraiser. We were standing up against racism and gentrification and as usual, Pete was on the frontline!
I love the song, but I was looking this page up hoping to find a little background on the Peekskill riots. I’ve always been interested in labour’s struggle fir decent wages and working conditions. I was hoping to find out what state the Peekskill in the song “Hold the Line” is located in (I’ve just moved to a town in New Jersey that is probably close to Peekskill N.Y., but didn’t see anything about the Peekskill “Line that was Held” on the Wikipedia Peekskill N.Y. page, so I’ll try some other search terms and I’ll try to remember to share my findings in a future comment back on this page.
I found a good, trustworthy link with more background on the Peekskill Riots at https://www.hrmm.org/history-blog/paul-robeson-and-the-peekskill-riots. This is the link for the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, N.Y. (Yes, according to this link, the Peekskill Riots took place in Peekskill N.Y. in the context of a concert featuring Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and many other great singers and activists of the time.) The “rioters” were NOT, (as I had mistaken supposed) strikers or people otherwise expressing solidarity with the working class,, but rather KKK-membees and several racists within more mainstream organizations such as veterans groups like the American Legion and Veterans if Foreign Wars.
That was then – in 1949. I trust that today’s American Legion and VFW would denounce any such bigotry. However it may have been considered “acceptable” at the time of the “Red Scare” and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early days if the Cold War Era, in which Robeson – like many pro-Civil Rights and pro-Union people- was accused of having Communist sympathies.
Anyway, I hope everyone will enjoy the link I’ve offered, as well as finding it informative. (I love doing good solid research, especially when I’m about to draw erroneous conclusions like thinking that the pro-labor side started the riots at Peekskill. According to this link “Paul Robeson and the Peekskill Riots” the singers and activists remained peaceful throughout. I’d love to research or read more about the so-called “Peekskill Riots” of 1949 in Peekskill N.Y. in the beautiful Hudson River Valley.