Nearly a half century ago, amid suspicion and fears of McCarthyism, folk singer Pete Seeger faced an ultimatum from the San Diego school district: Sign an oath against communism or cancel a concert he planned at a high school auditorium.
Seeger, who at the time of the board's demand was under scrutiny for his leftist politics, refused to sign the oath. A judge allowed the concert to proceed anyway.
Decades later, the school board wants to make amends. In a resolution approved Tuesday night, the school district declared that the board "deeply regrets its predecessors' actions" and offered an apology to a man who has become "one of our dearest national treasures."
The 89-year-old songwriter appears willing to accept the board's apology, saying the board's resolution is a "measure of justice that our right to freedom of expression has been vindicated."
He also quipped that the board's demand for the oath in 1960 may have helped his career.
"This was the contradiction the poor blacklisters faced: The more they tried to target me the more they drummed up publicity for my concerts," Seeger told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home in Beacon, N.Y. "I like to misquote Thomas Jefferson in saying, 'The price of liberty is eternal publicity.'"
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