By Howard Fast. In the late summer of 1949, a racist mob in upstate New York fiercely assaulted working class blacks and whites at an outdoor concert featuring African-American singer Paul Robeson. Howard Fast, a noted American novelist, was vacationing in the Peekskill area at the time and was appointed chairman of the concert. He was at the scene when concert-goers were attacked by men throwing broken bottles and rocks; swinging clubs and fence posts; and wielding knives and brass knuckles. Shouting racial epithets, the mob was held off only by a show of black and white unity.