Pete
Seeger,
the son of the musicologist, Charles Seeger, was born in New
York on 3rd May, 1919. He studied sociology at Harvard
University and afterwards travelled the American South collecting
and recording traditional songs.
A member of the Communist Party, Seeger
formed the Almanac Singers in 1940 and
their repertoire of radical songs heralded the start of the protest
movement. After
war service, Seeger became director of People's Songs, a organization
devoted to publishing radical musical material.
Seeger was supporter of Henry Wallace
and the Progressive Party candidate
in the presidential election of 1948. In that year he also formed
the Weavers and after signing a recording deal with Decca, had a number
of
hit songs including Goodnight
Irene,
Wimoweh,
Kisses Sweeter than Wine and
So Long It's Been Good to Know You.
Seeger's music career was severely damaged
when J. Edgar Hoover leaked his FBI
file to Frederick
Woltman, of the New York World Telegram.
He published an article revealing that the Weavers were the first
musicians in American history to be investigated for sedition.
Seeger's name also appeared
in
Red
Channels.
This pamphlet, distributed to organizations involved in employing
people in the entertainment industry, listed
150 people who had been involved in promoting left-wing causes. Although
the Weavers had sold over four million records, radio stations now
stopped playing their music. They were also banned from appearing
on national television.
On 6th February, 1952, Harvey
Matusow testified in front of
the House
of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that
Seeger was a member of the Communist
Party.
It was another three years before Seeger was called before the HUAC.
Whereas he was willing to talk about his own political beliefs, Seeger
refused to name other members of the various left-wing groups that
he had belonged to over the years.
As a result of his attitude, on 26th July, 1956, the House of Representatives
voted 373 to 9 to cite Seeger, Arthur Miller,
and six others for contempt. However, Seeger did not come to trial
until March, 1961. He was found guilty and sentenced to 12 months
in prison. After worldwide protests, the Court of Appeals ruled that
Seeger's indictment was faulty and dismissed the case.
Although freed from prison, the blacklisting of Seeger continued until
the late sixties. Seeger's songs written during this period often
reflected his left-wing views and included We
Shall Overcome, Where
Have All the Flowers Gone, If
I Had a Hammer, Turn,
Turn, Turn, The
Bells of Rhymney and Guantanamera.
Pete Seeger appearing before the House
of
Un-American Activities Committee
in 1955.
(1)
Peter
Seeger testified
in front of the House
of Un-American Activities Committee
on 15th August, 1955 but was unwilling to name
other members of the various left-wing groups that he had belonged
to over the years.
I feel that in my whole life
I have never done anything of any conspiratorial nature and I resent
very much and very deeply the implication of being called before this
Committee that in some way because my opinions may be different from
yours, that I am any less of an American than anyone else.
I am saying voluntarily that I have sung for almost every religious
group in the country, from Jewish and Catholic, and Presbyterian and
Holy Rollers and Revival Churches. I love my country very dearly,
and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places that
I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of
my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, make me
less of an American.
(2)
Pete Seeger, speech before being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment
for contempt of Congress (3rd April, 1961)
Some of my ancestors were religious
dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others
were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties.
I believe that my choosing my present course I do no dishonor to them,
or to those who may come after me.
(3)
Don McLean explained what happened to Peter Seeger after being blacklisted.
Pete went underground. He started
doing fifty dollar bookings, then twenty-five dollar dates in schoolhouses,
auditoriums, and eventually college campuses. He definitely pioneered
what we know today as the college circuit. He persevered and went
out like Kilroy, sowing seeds at a grass-roots level for many, many
years. The blacklist was the best thing that happened to him; it forced
him into a situation of struggle, which he thrived on.
(4)
Pete Seeger, interviewed by Ruth Schultz (1989)
Historically, I believe I was
correct in refusing to answer their questions. Down through the centuries,
this trick has been tried by various establishments throughout the
world. They force people to get involved in the kind of examination
that has only one aim and that is to stamp out dissent. One of the
things I'm most proud of about my country is the fact that we did
lick McCarthyism back in the fifties. Many Americans knew their lives
and their souls were being struggled for, and they fought for it.
And I felt I should carry on.
Through the sixties I still had to occasionally free picket lines
and bomb threats. But I simply went ahead, doing my thing, throughout
the whole period. I fought for peace in the fifties. And in the sixties,
during the Vietnam war, when anarchists and pacifists and socialists,
Democrats and Republicans, decent-hearted Americans, all recoiled
with horror at the bloodbath, we came together.
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