The legendary folk singer, banjo player, storyteller and activist Pete Seeger has died at the age of 94. This page features highlights from his interviews and related segments on Democracy Now!

For nearly seven decades Pete Seeger was a musical and political icon who helped create the modern American folk music movement. In the 1940s, he performed in the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie. Then he formed the Weavers. In the 1950s, he opposed Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunt and was almost jailed for refusing to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Seeger became a prominent civil rights activist and helped popularize the anthem “We Shall Overcome.” He was also a vocal critic of the Vietnam War and inspired a generation of protest singers. Later in his life Seeger was at the center of the environmental and anti-nuclear movements. With his wife Toshi, he helped found Clearwater, a group to clean up the Hudson River. Toshi died last year just weeks before their 70th wedding anniversary. In 2009 Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen performed Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural concert for Barack Obama when he first became president.