On August 27, 1949, before a concert by the singer Paul Robeson in Westchester County, outside New York City, a mob attacks ticket holders with baseball bats and rocks. They lynch an effigy of Robeson — a black man with communist affiliations and an outspoken supporter of civil rights and trade unions — and burn crosses. The concert is rescheduled for September 4.

This time, union members and local communists form a line of defense around the venue, but protesters attack people as they leave, throwing rocks through windshields, dragging people from cars, and beating them while police stand by. Over 140 people are injured. A decorated black WWI veteran is filmed being beaten. However, nobody is arrested or held accountable. Eighty Robeson concerts are canceled around the country.