Let’s Look at the Issues
There are very few adults in the U.S. who at one time or another weren’t personally touched by a Pete Seeger song. Seeger, who died last week at the age of 94, was a fervent civil rights activist, an determined environmentalist, a fierce civil liberties advocate, and an exceedingly strong union supporter. He sang songs of peace but never lacked the courage to fight for human rights.
There were many stories told this week about Pete Seeger, a humble man but a proud believer in the causes he championed. This is the story I heard that probably describes him the best: When Seeger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, Arlo Guthrie was chosen to make introductory remarks about him. In reviewing his long and praiseworthy career, Guthrie mentioned that Seeger’s song “Goodnight Irene” had once reached number one on the record charts, adding, “I can’t think of a single event in Pete’s life that is less important to him.”
That little story perfectly described Pete Seeger. After all, he didn’t compose and sing songs to gain fame or to win applause, he used his music to unite people for good purposes.
As a young man attending Harvard University, Seeger started a liberal newspaper and joined the Young Communist League. He dropped out of Harvard after two years and toured the U.S. for a few months before settling in New York City in 1940. A few years later, he bought some land along the Hudson, in Beacon, NY, a town that is 65 miles from Manhattan. It began a love affair between Seeger and that mighty river that was to last the rest of his life.
In the late 1940s Seeger was firmly planted with the liberal community in Greenwich Village. In 1948 he and renowned actor-singer Paul Robeson campaigned with the labor-supported Progressive Party candidate for U.S. President, Henry Wallace. Soon after, Seeger formed the Weavers, a folk music group. Among the songs the group recorded were “If I Had a Hammer,” which became a call to activism throughout the 1960s and even today, and “Wimoweh,” a song that was reworked into “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
But those were dark days for civil liberties in the U.S. The listing of Seeger as a member of the Communist Party (he had resigned from the party years earlier), led to the cancellation of club and TV appearances. Seeger was subpoenaed by the House of Representatives’ Un-American Activities Committee. In his testimony he declined to answer any questions about who he associated with, his religious beliefs, how he voted and what his political opinions were. Seeger told the House Committee that such questions were improper in America. Seeger was indicted on 10 counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to answer these personal questions. He was convicted, but an appeals court threw out the conviction several years later. Right wing groups subsequently boycotted his performances but Seeger always said these efforts only spurred more interest in the songs he was singing.
As the 1950s and 1960s wore on, Seeger grew in popularity. The civil rights movement adopted his song, “We Shall Overcome” as its theme. It is still sung today by activists of any progressive cause. Later in the 1960s, Seeger’s song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” became a widely heard and well-respected anti-war anthem made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary. The song remains a poignant anti-war statement today. Still later in the 1960s Seeger wrote “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” an attack on the Vietnam War, and the Byrds had a hit with another Seeger-penned tune, “Turn, Turn, Turn.” This latter song is an eloquent call for peace and, like other Seeger tunes, it contributed greatly to changing attitudes during that turbulent era. More and more people began to see that discrimination was wrong, that war was not a solution, that there was pride in labor and that poisoning the environment was bad for all of us. No one can doubt that Seeger and his songs had much to do with this.
In the 1970s Pete Seeger began a crusade to clean up the Hudson River. At the time the river was so polluted one commentator described it as a 315-mile sewer line. Seeger never let up on this effort, even buying a sloop—called the Clearwater—to sail up and down the waterway to educate the public along the way.
The campaign helped lead to the Clean Water Act and it forced companies to clean up the chemicals they had poured into the Hudson. Although more work needs to be done, the river today is almost as clean as it was 100 years ago.
A fighter for civil rights, a frequent visitor on union picket lines an unparalleled pacifist and a crusader to save the environment, Pete Seeger led a life that will benefit generations. His song said that if he had a hammer he would hammer all day and all night long. That hammer, he said, was the hammer of justice and indeed Pete Seeger banged that hammer his entire life. We are all better off because of it.
