Pete Seeger refuses to testify
"I
have sung for Americans of every political persuasion and I am proud that I never refuse to sing to an audience, no matter what religion or colour of their skin or situation ... I have sung in hobo jungles and I have sung for the Rockefellers and I am proud I have never refused to sing for anybody …" The only body Pete Seeger didn't sing to was the House of Un-American Activities Committee and he was given a year's prison sentence for his troubles after being found guilty of contempt after refusing to testify as part of the anti-communist "reds under the bed" witch hunt instituted by Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. The case triggered intense protests from the folk community and Seeger never served his sentence, although he was blacklisted by record companies and TV shows for the next decade. The nascent British folk world rallied round to promote concerts for him in the UK and the case became a cause célèbre. Other musicians rallied behind him, hardening the backbone of a scene suddenly forced to face the reality of an appalling injustice on a revered artist of high moral fibre and the realisation that folk music and politics had become blatantly intertwined.