Word: huac
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Perhaps as damaging to Seeger as the frontal attack by the HUAC has been the insidious effect of an uncritical press--a notable current example was the Boston Daily Record--which prints allegations as fact, or alternatively attempts to stay away from controversy by labelling him as "the controversial folk singer." As the University so ably demonstrated three weeks ago, "controversial" has become an evil word in America. It has become a facile way of saying, "Some powerful people say he's a Communist and I haven't got the guts to say otherwise...
Seeger makes no effort to hide his opinions. "Just come and listen to me sing any evening," he says. As frank as he is on stage, however, Seeger would not divulge his views to the HUAC. "I merely said that I have never supported any conspiratorial cause whatever, period. If they didn't believe me they should have indicted me for perjury...
Seeger could have taken the Fifth Amendment in refusing to answer questions about his associations and beliefs, but he decided instead to challenge the right of the HUAC to ask those questions by standing on the First Amendment. It is hard to interpret the spontaneous and prolonged ovation at the beginning of the evening as anything but an affirmation that "We applaud your courage...
Seeger is even more concerned about the attempted censorship of his music. "I'll stand or fall by these songs," he said before he played the three songs excoriated by the HUAC. "And I've got a right to sing them for every kind of group." The three songs--Midnight Special, Hammer Song, and Wasn't That a Time--were about as American as the HUAC could ask for: a prison song collected by Leadbelly, a song about "the hammer of justice, bell of freedom, a song about love...," and a song about patriotism in times when America was threatened...
...According to one American reporter, the newspaper "cannot divulge its means of access to the HUAC files." Although the files are not always open to the press, they can be used "in certain ways, for certain things," he said...