Pete Seeger at age 88 at the Clearwater Festival 2007 - Dxede5x Photo taken by Anthony Pepitone, via Wikimedia Commons Iconic American folk singer Pete Seeger was born May 3, 1919. Seeger was widely recognized not only for his music but also for his lifelong advocacy of progressive and leftist political causes. Early in his life, Seeger became involved with socialist and communist movements; in the 1930s, he joined the Young Communist League and later the Communist Party betw