Biography
Pete Seeger, the folk singer, was cited for contempt of Congress in 1956 after refusing — on First Amendment grounds rather than the Fifth — to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee about his associations; he described himself to the committee as a 'banjo picker.' He was convicted in 1961 and the conviction was overturned in 1962.
The Friends of Pete Seeger account identifies his not-guilty plea and Judge Thomas F. Murphy, who presided over the trial that opened March 27, 1961. It reports a guilty verdict on all ten contempt counts. Seeger’s appellate brief confirms that the one-year terms imposed April 4 ran concurrently and that the appeals court admitted him to bail that same day. This records the original conviction; it does not alter the later reversal or count the nominal sentence as time actually served.
