BRATTLEBORO — “I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this.”
That was Pete Seeger's answer to U.S. Rep. Francis Walter, D-Pa., before a House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearing in 1955. That earned Pete a one-year prison sentence for contempt of Congress, a sentence that was subsequently overturned in 1961.
Did he perform at a concert sponsored by the Communist Party in 1947? Sure. Such was a crime under the First Amendment, as interpreted by the reactionaries on the committee dedicated to sanitizing the U.S. by suppressing dissident views.
He knew the consequences of his answer, and his refusal to succumb became another emblem of his life of resistance to injustice.
Pete, who died on Jan. 27 at age 94, offered to sing some songs to the HUAC. In their wisdom, they refused his offer, for they knew that the walls would inevitably come crumbling down if his sweet tenor was heard.
Fortunately, the people of our country are greater than those who purported to lead us then and now.
We can count on other voices to be lifted for social justice in the spirit of one of America's finest, Pete Seeger.