Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger was an American singer, songwriter, musician and social activist, a founding member of the folk groups the Almanac Singers and the Weavers, whose recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene" topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. The Weavers were blacklisted in the McCarthy era; called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955, Seeger refused to name his associations and was convicted of contempt of Congress in 1961, a verdict overturned in 1962. He wrote or co-wrote "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!", helped popularise "We Shall Overcome", and in 1966 founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.