Aaron Leonard - The Folk Singers and the Bureau: The FBI, the Folk Artists and the Suppression of the Communist Party, USA - 1939-1956

PRAISE FOR THE FOLK SINGERS AND THE BUREAU

Aaron Leonards copious and impeccable research uncovers how and why American icons like Woody Guthrie became targets of Americas secret police: the FBI. More than that, Leonards critical analysis helps us understand the impact on music, social movements, indeed society as a whole, of both the folk singers and the bureau. This is a must-read for music lovers and defenders of civil liberties alike.
MAT CALLAHAN , AUTHOR OF THE TROUBLE WITH MUSIC

A fascinating understanding of the beginnings of the folk music revival through the lens of the particularly zealous FBI. A groundbreaking approach to the post-World War II destructive Red Scare and the numerous folk musicians who were targeted.
RONALD D. COHEN , AUTHOR OF ROOTS OF THE REVIVAL AND RAINBOW QUEST

A valuable and timely study, with new evidence and insights suited to our present moment. Leonard balances primary evidence and secondary source knowledge with deft storytelling. Ultimately, he shows that the image of FBI agents trailing folkies with banjos is no laughing matter. The federal suppression of folk artists should be taken as deadly serious, and fits into a broader context of repression generally as an ongoing norm in US life.
STEVEN GARABEDIAN , MARIST COLLEGE

Folk singers have long been Americas canaries in the coal mine, singing out danger, singing out warning, singing out love. To examine why a small band of warblers were able to strike such terror into the heart of the FBI, Leonard has delved into the files, many of them never before seen. Historically informed and impressively contextualized, Folk Singers is a dark tale of persecution, paranoia, and valiant resistance to tyranny.
WILL KAUFMAN , AUTHOR OF WOODY GUTHRIE , AMERICAN RADICAL AND MAPPING WOODY GUTHRIE

Published by Repeater Books

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A Repeater Books paperback original 2020

Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York.

Copyright Aaron J. Leonard 2020

Aaron J. Leonard asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

ISBN: 9781913462000

Ebook ISBN: 9781913462017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd

This book contains material previously published by the author on Truthout.org as, Newly Released FBI Files Expose Red-Baiting of Woody Guthrie, August 14, 2018. It has been edited for this work.

For Julie

CONTENTS

ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS

PREFACE

After writing two books focused on the FBI and Maoism in the United States my plan was to shift gears, if not timeframes. Rather than focus on overtly political actors, I conceived of a project on how the FBI targeted the more rebellious musical artists of the Sixties and Seventies. It seemed a story worth telling; if the Bureau had worked so hard against Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panther Party, the Revolutionary Union, and the Weathermen, surely there was a story waiting to be told. In setting out to research this, however, two things happened.

First, the initial requests for files on artists and groups I was curious about people such as Sam Cooke, Richie Havens, Jefferson Airplane, the MC5 mostly came back thin or empty, with a few exceptions, e.g., Dave Van Ronk, Mimi Faria, and Suze Rotolo (not a famous artist herself, but close to one, Bob Dylan). It was not as if there were no files, in fact in more than one case the Bureau said there had been files, but they had been destroyed or not found, but whether or not I could obtain them was essential. Attempting to write a book without the necessary bedrock was a non-starter.

Second, while waiting for the results of my Freedom of Information Act requests, one of the books I read as background was Sean Wilentzs Bob Dylan in America. In the course of the book Wilentz describes Woody Guthries influence on Dylan and Guthries association with left-wing politics. Among the politically initiated and historians of a certain type, Guthries leftism and his association

Once I passed through that door, there was no turning back. While obtainable files on Sixties musicians was spotty, such was not the case with the array of folk artists associated with the Communist Party in the 1940s and 1950s. Thanks to the efforts of earlier requestors I quickly obtained files on Pete Seeger, Irwin Silber, John Hammond, Burl Ives, Alan Lomax, Millard Lampell, and Sis Cunningham. Others, such as Josh White, Cisco Houston, Bess Lomax, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman, I discovered had been passed on to the National Archives subject to screening before release. And while Guthrie and Seegers FBI headquarters files had been previously released, the files generated on them in the field offices where they lived, i.e. New York City and in Guthries case also Los Angeles, had not. Regardless, I soon found myself with ample material in hand with more coming in every day.