CHAPTER EIGHTEEN—FAMILY POLITICS, SEN. McCARTHY, AND PAUL ROBESON RIOTS

    

Paul Robeson, 1942. Image credit, Wikipedia.

      In the Palmer family political discussions were usually conducted and reserved for adults. Children were not excluded due to age or immaturity; rather they were excluded by lack of interest. But children usually listened to these discussions.

     During the presidential debates of 1947 my parents were vocal in support of Gov. Thomas Dewey who was challenging incumbent President Harry Truman. I don't remember why. I suppose it had something to do with Dewey's platform. My parents were registered working-class Democrats. Truman was a Democrat and Dewey was a Republican. However, during the final days of the election campaign, my parents changed their minds about Dewey and placed their support and votes with Truman. "Harry is a fighter," I heard my step-father say. "I don’t think Dewey can deliver on his promises," my mother said.

     Truman won the election largely because of similar last minute voting decisions by many voters. There was a famous photo of Harry Truman holding a morning newspaper which showed headlines of Dewey beating Truman. Everyone had a good laugh, including disillusioned Republicans.

     My parents often discussed the real and fearful threats of communism. They were both practicing Catholics after my step-father's conversion from the Lutheran faith. The underlying concern of Catholics was that communism was a godless creed which intended to wipe out organized religion. Neither my mother nor my step-father had read the Communist Manifesto but they had heard all about it at church sermons. They had heard or read about state control of production and redistribution of wealth, and although they were of working class stock they wanted no part of it. "Not my cup of tea," I heard my mother say.

     When the Paul Robeson riots occurred near Peekskill, my parents thought that the liberal supporters of Paul Robeson were all communist sympathizers. They did not think that the Robeson concerts were about civil rights and justice for African-Americans. I remember seeing pickup trucks on Oregon Road loaded with rocks and bottles, many of these trucks with young white drivers under 20 years old, on their way to the Paul Robeson concert at Lakeland Acres. Also I saw ¾ ton trucks, similar to the one Mr. Zeliph drove to pick up garbage in Continental Village. These larger trucks had the name of a construction company marked on the cab doors and they were carrying young white men to the concert. 

     Heard on the streets of Peekskill: "The niggers and communists are starting trouble." Many years later I read Howard Fast's description of the riots and I wondered how so many white people could be misled and deluded, and easily persuaded to break the law. Even the police looked the other way. Some people said it was a blot on the history of Peekskill.

     The McCarthy era brought anti-communist politics to a head. My parents supported and believed Wisconsin's Sen. McCarthy when he said that the Pentagon and State Department had been infiltrated by communists and communist sympathizers. My aunt Katheryn argued with my parents about this. I listened attentively and I remembered the gist of the discussions and arguments.

     Katheryn was my mother's youngest sister. Although she was a Catholic, she had an open and independent mind. In the late 40's and early 50's her husband, Col. Harmon Reardon, was stationed at the Pentagon. He was a career army officer. With a sweet smile she often referred to him as a "Pentagon office boy to generals and other top brass."

    Katheryn and Harmon were childless at the time. With permission from my mother Katheryn frequently took my brother John and me on tours of New York City while her husband was stationed in Germany in 1946. We visited the Empire State building, Rockefeller Center, Statute of Liberty, Central Park, Staten Island by ferry, Museum of Natural History, and other places of interest. Subway, bus and ferry fares were five cents. Later, when her husband was transferred to the Pentagon, she flew John and I to Alexandria, Virginia, for short summer vacations. She took us to museums, monuments, battlefields, parks, zoos, and historic public buildings. We visited all of the Washington, D. C., monuments, the Smithsonian, the Treasury building, George Washington's home at Mount Vernon, Manassas battlefield, etc.

     Katheryn Melville Reardon insisted that Sen. McCarthy was crazy or just grandstanding for political advantage. It turned out she was correct on both points. But my parents never changed their minds about Sen. McCarthy and after he died, when the facts about him were published to the world, my parents would still insist that "McCarthy was right about communism." In retrospect I conjecture that the Catholic Church, Stalin, Mao, and the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had a major influence on my parents' thinking.