The Peekskill Riots Episode 2: The Friendly Town by the River

To understand Peekskill during the Riots, we must first understand the forgotten past of the “Friendly Town” by the River. The influence of the Ku Klux Klan on Peekskill in the early 20th century shaped the region for decades, striking terror into the hearts of African Americans, Catholics, and Jewish people. Yet Peekskill was also home to a progressive movement of summer colonies, scattered throughout the region. Made up predominantly of working-class Jewish families and influenced by a diverse assortment of leftist ideologies, their goals were to create small-scale, utopian communities in the countryside of the Hudson Valley. Their presence was considered a threat to the conservative culture of Peekskill.

This second episode of a 5-part docu-series, exhibited by Jon Scott Bennett, presents the duality of Peekskill’s long-lost history to contextualize the atmosphere of hate and those who would eventually become victim to it.