Editing Pete Seeger (section)

===McCarthy era===
In the 1950s, and indeed consistently throughout his life, Seeger continued his support of civil and labor rights, racial equality, international understanding, and anti-militarism (all of which had characterized the Henry Wallace campaign), and he continued to believe that songs could help people achieve these goals. However, with the ever-growing revelations of [[Joseph Stalin]]'s atrocities and the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]], he became increasingly disillusioned with Soviet Socialism. He left the CPUSA in 1949, but remained friends with some who did not leave it, although he argued with them about it.<ref name="powersong">[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/seeger_p.html "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080824145940/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/seeger_p.html |date=August 24, 2008 }} – PBS American Masters, February 27, 2008</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080212011235/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/seeger_interview/index.html Pete Seeger Interview] PBS American Masters.</ref>

On August 18, 1955, Seeger was subpoenaed to testify before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC). Alone among the many witnesses after the 1950 conviction and imprisonment of the [[Hollywood Ten]] for contempt of Congress, Seeger refused to plead the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]] (which would have suggested to many that his testimony might be self-incriminating). Instead, as the Hollywood Ten had done, he declined to name personal and political associations on the grounds that this would violate his [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] rights: "I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs 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."<ref>Pete Seeger to the House Un-American Activities Committee, August 18, 1955. Quoted, along with some other exchanges from that hearing, in Wilkinson, "The Protest Singer" (2006), p. 53.</ref><ref>{{cite book
|last =United States Congress - House Committee on Un-American Activities|title=Investigation of Communist Activities, New York Area— Part VII (Entertainment)|publisher=Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off.|series =Hearings Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-Fourth Congress, First Session, August 17 and 18, 1955| volume =pt. 7|date=August 17–18, 1955|pages =Testimony of Peter Seeger, pp. 2447–2459| url =https://archive.org/details/investigationofc557unit}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Naming Names |last=Navasky |first=Victor S. |publisher=Viking |location=New York |year=1980 |page=421 |isbn=0670503932}} Seeger later explained to Navasky: "Look, the Fifth means they can't ask ''me'', the First means they can't ask anybody."</ref> Seeger's refusal to answer questions that he believed violated his fundamental constitutional rights led to a March 26, 1957 indictment for [[contempt of Congress]]. For some years thereafter, he had to keep the federal government apprised of where he was going any time he left the Southern District of New York. He was convicted in a jury trial of contempt of Congress in March 1961, and sentenced to ten one-year terms in jail (to be served concurrently), but in May 1962, an appeals court ruled the indictment to be flawed and overturned his conviction.<ref name=Wilkinson_article/><ref>[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12619416914263979951 ''United States v. Seeger''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803003141/https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12619416914263979951 |date=August 3, 2016 }}, 303 F. 2d 478 (2d Cir. 1962).</ref>

In 1960, the [[San Diego]] school board told him that he could not play a scheduled concert at a high school unless he signed an oath pledging that the concert would not be used to promote a communist agenda or an overthrow of the government. Seeger refused, and the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] obtained an [[injunction]] against the school district, allowing the concert to go on as scheduled. Almost 50 years later, in February 2009, the San Diego School District officially extended an apology to Seeger for the actions of its predecessors.<ref name=SignOnSD>{{cite web|last=Dillon|first=Raquel Maria|title=School board offers apology to singer Pete Seeger|url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/feb/11/pete-seeger-apology-021109/?zIndex=51324|work=Sign on San Diego|access-date=February 13, 2011|archive-date=June 28, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628201001/http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/feb/11/pete-seeger-apology-021109/?zIndex=51324|url-status=live}}</ref>