It is read by James Earl Jones. Then we remember the legendary folk musician and activist pete seeger, who died in january. He was 94. Realize that Little Things lead to bigger things. Seeds is all about. This wonderful parable in the new testament. Some seeds fall in the pathway and get stamped on, they dont grow. Some fall in the rocks and they dont grow. But some seeds fall on fallow ground and they grow and multiply a thousandfold. Who knows where some good little thing that you have done may bring results years later that you never dreamed of. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In this holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, he became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On july 5, 18 52 in rochester, new york, he gave one of his most famous speeches, the meaning of july 4 for the negro. He was addressing the rochester ladies antislavery society. This is James Earl Jones reading the historic address or during ace performance. He was introduced by howard zinn. Frederick douglass, once a slave, became her brilliant and powerful leader of the antislavery movement. Speak2, he was asked to in celebration of the fourth of july. Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am i called upon to speak here today . What have i, or those i represent, to do with your National Independence . Are the great principles of Political Freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that declaration of independence, extended to us . And am i, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us . I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed why your fathers is shared a new, but not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought death to me. This fourth of july is yours. Not mine. You may rejoice, i must mourn. Grand, a man into the illuminated temple of liberty from an call upon him to join you in joyous anthems for inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today . Slave ishe american your fourth of july . I answer, a day that reveals with him more than all other days of the year for the gross injustice and cruelty in which he is a constant victim. For him, your celebration is a sham. Youre busted liberty an unholy license will stop your National Greatness swelling vanity. Here sounds of are just sing just rejoicing a heartless. Brass fronted evidence. Your shouts of liberty and equality hollow mockery. Your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade are to fraud mayor fraud and hypocrisy. Times thatover up would disgrace a nation of savages. Theres not a nation of the errors guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the atple of these United States this very hour. At the time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Ability and reach the nations ear, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. The conscience of the nation must be roused. The propriety of the nation must be startled. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed. And its crimes against god and man must be proclaimed and denounced. [applause] James Earl Jones reading the famous 1852 Independence Day address by Frederick Douglass in rochester, new york. That was part of the performance of howard zinns voices of a peoples history of the United States. We spend the rest of the hour remembering pete seeger. If i had a hammer i would hammer in the morning i would hammer in the evening all over this land danger hammer out my brothers and my sisters all over this land if i had a belt i bring in in the morning id ring it in the evening all over, all over this land ring out danger ng out if i had a song id sing it in the morning id sing it in the evening all over this land id sing out danger id sing warning id sing out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land well, i got a hammer i got a bell and i got a song l over, all over this land the legendary folk singer and activist keys seeger died in january the age of 94. Her nearly seven decades, pete seeger was a musical and political icon who helped create the modern american folk singer movement. In the 1940s he performed in the almanac singers with Woody Guthrie. Then he formed the weavers. He opposed senator Joseph Mccarthys witch hunt and was almost jailed for refusing to answer questions before the house unamerican activities committee. Seeger became a prominent civil rights activist and helped popularize the anthem we shall overcome. He was a vocal critic of the vietnam war and inspired generations of protest singers. He was later at the center of the environmental and antinuclear movements. With his wife toshi, pete helped found clearwater, a group to clean up the hudson river. Toshi died last year just weeks before their 70th wedding anniversary. In 2009, he and Bruce Springsteen performed guthries this land is your land on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural concert for barack obama. Pete seeger last joined us in august of 22013. We will play highlights from that interview later. First, i want to turn to pete seeger in 2004 when he joined us in our firehouse studio. I asked him about his parents. My father said, lets peter enjoy himself and we will see what happens. He knew i liked music. My mother left instruments all over the house so i could bang on a piano or organ or squeezebox or a penny whistle or an autoharp. And at age seven i was given a ukulele, and ive been into fretted instruments ever since then. In prep school i joined the jazz band. And then a few years later, my father took me to a square Dance Festival in the southern mountains, and i suddenly realized there was a wealth of music in my country that you never heard on the radio oldtime music, my brother called iti think a better name than folk musicall over the place. Depending where you are, you hear different kinds of oldtime music. And i still feel that id like to see people not forget the old songs at the same time theyre making up new songs. Do you remember any of the songs that you heard then . Oh, good gosh, yes. That youd like to play now . I cant play them. My fingers are froze up, and my voice, you hear, i cant really sing anymore. What i do these days, i get the audience singing with me. If im singing for children, needless to say, i say, kids, you all know this song. If you dont, you will in a minute. Shell be coming around the mountain, when she comes. Toot toot id say, cant you get the toot . Toot toot well, pretty soon theyre all doing it. Shell be coming around the mountain, when she comes. Toot toot and the last verse, its cumulative, so you repeat all the previous things. Shell be wearing red pajamas, when she comes. Scratch scratch shell be wearing red pajamas, when she comes. Scratch scratch wearing red pajamas, shell be wearing red pajamas, shell be wearing red pajamas, when she comes. Scratch scratch hoinkshoo yum yum hi, babe woe, back toot toot and even if the kids never heard the song before, theyre doing it with me. Pete, you traveled the south with alan lomax, and to a lot of people that may not be a familiar name. Alan lomax was the son of a texas fella who collected cowboy songs a hundred years ago. And thats how we know home on the range and other songs like it, whoopee ti yi yo. And in 1908, he got president roosevelt, theodore roosevelt, to write a short forward for his book of cowboy songs. Thirty years later, he had a son, and alan was only 22 years old. His father got him installed as the curator of the archive of american folksong in the library of congress. And alan in a few years did what most people would take a lifetime to do. With utmost selfconfidence, he calls up the head of columbia radio and says, you have a school of the air. Why dont you spend one year learning about American Folk Music . And the columbia symphony can play the music, after youve heard some old person croak out the old ballad. And if he couldnt find an old person to do it, he got young me, age 19 and 20. And i still sing some of the songs i learned then. tis advertised in boston, new york and buffalo, five hundred brave americans, a waggling for to go, singing, blow ye winds of the morning, blow ye winds, high ho clear away your running gear, and blow, blow, blow. He interviewed the woman who collected that song when she was a teenager sailing on her fathers whaling ship in the 19th century. Now, as an old woman, she came out with a beautiful book, songs of american sailormen. Joanna colcord was her name, so he interviews her, has me sing a song, and then the Symphony Orchestra plays it. Well, alan got me started, and many others. Hes the man who told Woody Guthrie, he says, Woody Guthrie, your mission in life is to write songs. Dont let anything distract you. Youre like the people who wrote the ballads of robin hood and the ballad of jesse james. You keep writing ballads as long as you can. And woody took it to heart. He wasnt a good husband. He was always running off. But he wrote songs, as you know. Do you remember when you first met Woody Guthrie . Oh, yeah, ill never forget it. It was a benefit concert for california Agricultural Workers on broadway at midnight. Burl ives was there, the golden gate quartet, josh white, leadbelly, Margo Mayo Square dance group, with my wife dancing in it. I sang one song very amateurishly and retired in confusion to a smattering of polite applause. But woody took over and for 20 minutes entranced everybody, not just with singing, but storytelling. I come from oklahoma, you know . Its a rich state. You want some oil . Go down on the ground. Get you some hole. Get you more oil. If you want lead, we got lead in oklahoma. Go down a hole and get you some lead. You want coal . We got coal in oklahoma. Go down a hole, get you some coal. If you want food, clothes or groceries, just go in the hole and stay there. Then hed sing a song. When did you form the weavers . That was after world war ii. Lee hays from arkansas, and his roommate Millard Lampell and i had started a group called the almanacs. And i wrote to woody, i said, woody, were singing for unions all around. Come out and join us. Were in Madison Square garden singing for striking transport workers. And so woody, once again, deserted his wife, came and joined us. But woody used to say, the almanacs are the only group i know that rehearse on stage. We were very badly organized. And after world war ii, lee says, pete, do you think we could start a group that would actually rehearse . And we were fortunate to run into one of the worlds greatest singers, ronnie gilbert. She was in her early twenties, beautiful alto voice, and a strong alto voice. Id have to be two inches from the microphone. She could be two feet from the microphone, and shed drown me out. She stood up to three strongvoiced men, and the four of us, however, were about to break up, when we did the unthinkable we got a job at a nightclub. Well, a little Greenwich Village place, its still down there, the village vanguard. And the owner paid ushe didnt want me first. He said, i cant pay for a quartet. Ill pay for you. Ill pay you 200, like i did two years ago. I said, well, what if the all four of us were willing to come for 200 . That was low pay, even then. And he had laughed. He said, well, if youre willing. And we got 200 and free hamburgers, until a month later he came and saw the size of the hamburgers i was making. He said, lets make that 250, but no more free hamburgers. And we stayed there six months. Near the end of it, we met an extraordinary band leader, gordon jenkins, who loved our music and got us signed up with decca, and we had a record called, tzena, tzena, tzena, and on the other side, the bsideit was a record irene , good night, which sprang to number one, and for three months stayed up there on top of the hit parade. It was the biggest seller since world war ii, and can you talk more about irene . Well, it was the song, the theme song of the great black singer, leadbelly. He died in 49, and if hed only lived another six months, he would have seen his song all over america. It was an old, old song. Hed simply changed and adapted it, added some verses and changed the melody, what my father called the folk process, but which happens all through all kinds of music in fact, all culture, you might say. Lawyers adapt old laws to suit new citizens. Cooks adapt old recipes to fit new stomachs. Anyway, i learned this 12string guitar from leadbelly. A high string and a low string together, but played together to give a new tone. And the song i really would like to sing to you is always have to do with it i dont sing it anymore. I give the words to the audience, and they sing it. I says, you know this song. To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season. Sing it. And the whole audience sings, turn, turn, turn. There is a season. And a time. And a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, a time to die. Sing it. A time to be born, a time to plant, to reap. A time to plant, a time to kill, to heal. A time to kill, a time to laugh, to weep. A time to laugh, a time to you know, those words are 2,256 years old. I didnt know that at the time, but julius lester, an old friend of mine, hes ai dont know if you know him himhes a black man whos officially a jew. He became fascinated with the bible. I asked him, when was these words written . He says, well, the mans name was kohelet, meaning convoker, somebody who calls people together to speak to them. In the greek translation, they called him ecclesiastes, and hes still in the King James Version as this. And its a type of poetry, which is greek. The greeks have a word for it, anaphora, anaphora, and it means you start off a line with a word or a phrase. You dont have rhyme at the end of the line, but you do haveit becomes poetry by the way its organized. Well, i didnt realize i liked the words, but i realize now. Those are maybe some of the most fundamentally important words that anybody could learn. You see, you and i, were all descended from killers, good killers. The ones who were not good killers didnt have descendants. But were descended from good killers. For millions of years our ancestors were good killers. They say if they hadnt been, we wouldnt be here today. Now is a new period. In other words, its a time, you might say, the human race needed to have good killers. Now, if we dont change our way of thinking, there will be no human race here, because science acts very irresponsiblyoh, any information is good. Ha, ha, ha. They dont realize that some information is very important, some, frankly, forget about until we solve some other problems. Einstein was the first person who said it everything has changed now, except our way of thinking. And weve got to find ways to change our way of thinking. Sports can do it. Arts can do it. Cooking can do it. All sorts of good works can do it. Smiles can do it. And im of the opinion now that if the human race makes iti say weve got a 5050 chanceif the human race makes it, itll be women working with children, these two very large oppressed classes in the human race. Children, doing what the grownups say theyre supposed to do, and yet theyre going to have to pay for our mistakes. Theyre going to have to clean up the environment, which had been filled with chemicals, the air being filled with chemicals, the water being filled with chemicals, the ocean being filled with chemicals. And theyre going to have to clean it up. And i think it will be women working with kids thatll do this job. In millions of little ways, maybe done in your hometown. In my hometown, were starting a project to put in a floating Swimming Pool in the hudson, because now the hudson is clean enough to swim in. Lets swim in it. And if it works in our little town, maybe other towns will do it. In fact, if this Swimming Pool idea it is like a big netting in the water. So, i confess im more optimistic now than i was 58 years ago, 59 years ago, when the atom bomb was dropped. Thats pete seeger in our firehouse studio with our telltale radio headphones in 2004. The legendary folk singer and activist died monday at the age of 94. Well go back to our interview with him in a minute. [music break] pete seeger and Bruce Springsteen and tao rodriguezseeger, petes grandson, singing this land is your land on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial ahead of president obamas inauguration in 2009. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Today, a democracy now special, remembering the life of pete seeger. The legendary folk singer and activist died in january at the age of we now return to our 94. Interview in 2004 in our firehouse studio. I asked pete to talk about his time serving in the military during world war ii. I first wanted to be a mechanic in the air force. I thought that would be an interesting thing. But then military intelligence got interested in my politics. My outfit went on to glory and death, and i stayed there in kiesler field, mississippi, picking up cigarette butts for six months. Finally, they let me know, yes, theyd been investigating me, opening all my mail. Pete seeger, when you came back, they continued to investigate you. Well, i have assumed most of my lif