Pete Seeger
In addition to being America's best-loved folksinger and an untiring environmentalist, the late Pete Seeger was (and is) a national treasure. He had been at the forefront of the labor movement, the struggle for Civil Rights, the peace and anti-war movements, and the fight for a clean world. Once blacklisted from national television for being unafraid to voice his opinions, he was given the nation's highest artistic honors at the Kennedy Center in December 1994, and in January, 1996 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Although he left Harvard during his second year, in the spring of 1996 he was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal, presented annually to a Harvard graduate who has made an important contribution to the arts. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album of 1996 for his Living Music recording, "Pete," and sang at the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2008.
Pete almost single-handedly revived interest in the 5-string banjo, and his book, "How to Play the 5-String Banjo" has been a classic for more than fifty years. In his lifetime, he recorded more than 60 albums and wrote or co-wrote such enduring songs as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "If I Had a Hammer," "Bells of Rhymney," "We Shall Overcome," "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" and dozens of others.
