Can't Play in Peoria
Paul Robeson's Canceled Concert, Civil Rights Unionism, and the Second Red Scare
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3642160 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Cole (0000-0003-2637-5014), Ricky Newcomb |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 107 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 548-574 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1548-1867 • E-ISSN: 2153-5086 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/721748 |
| OpenAlex | W4312635523 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 6 |
In 1947, Peoria banned Paul Robeson from performing due to his leftist politics, the first American city to do so. The “Peoria Affair” signaled a key front in the newly emerging domestic Cold War that involved silencing the world’s most popular Black figure for advocating on behalf of racial equality, socialism, and unionism as well as against imperialism and fascism. Peoria’s canceling Robeson paved the way for the subsequent defeat of a radical, interracial union that had gained a foothold in downstate Illinois’s most powerful corporation, Caterpillar. While the far better-known Peekskill Riot occurred in 1949, the Peoria Affair foreshadowed and predicted the later event. Peoria set the national agenda as captured in the quote associated with the city—namely, will it play there? In rejecting Robeson, Peoria lived up to its reputation and literally set the table for the Second Red Scare
Left-wing politics · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · American Political and Social Dynamics · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Law · Race, History, and American Society
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |