Pete Seeger entertaining Eleanor Roosevelt (center), honored guest at a racially integrated Valentine's Day party marking the opening of a Canteen of the United Federal Labor, CIO, in then-segregated Washington, D.C., 1944.[6]
In 1942, Army intelligence and the FBI determined that the Almanacs and their former anti-draft message were still a seditious threat to recruitment and the morale of the war effort among blacks and youth.[8] and they were hounded by hostile reviews, exposure of their Communist ties and negative coverage in the New York press, like the headline "Commie Singers try to Infiltrate Radio."[9] They disbanded in late 1942 or early 1943.
Recording session
On March 11, 1944,[10]Alan Lomax assembled the group for an impromptu recording at the Asch Recording Studio in New York City.[1][2][5][11]
The album represents a change from the anti-war, anti-racism, and pro-union philosophies of most of its members but a continuation of their anti-Nazi, anti-Fascist philosophies in the form for support for the US and the Allies (which included the USSR).
The Union Boys turned out to be a one-time, one session "group": Moe Asch gave them the name.[5]
Afterwards
A few months later, White and Glazer recorded another album with a similar title, Songs of Citizen CIO.[3]Songs for Victory also began White's association with recording engineer Moe Asch, who released White's next two albums on his Asch Records label.[2]
The song appeared on White's posthumous album Free and Equal Blues (1998).[10][13]
A celebration of the Allies' united front, the song is an entertaining reminder of what strange bedfellows politics can make, as the singers belt out the names of their heroic leaders: Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek, and Joseph Stalin.[10]
Later, Josh White recorded the old folk tune as a new song, "Keep Your Hand on that Vote" that called "united Negroes" to voting booths.[10] The folk song saw renewed resurgence in the 1950s and 1960s as "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize."[14]
^From the Washington Post, February 12, 1944: "The Labor Canteen, sponsored by the United Federal Workers of America, CIO, will be opened at 8 p.m. tomorrow at 1212 18th st. nw. Mrs. Roosevelt is expected to attend at 8:30 p.m."
^"When Decca backed away from its contract offer [because of bad publicity associated with Songs for John Doe], the Almanacs recorded Dear Mr. President. Earl Robinson supervised the January 1942 session, which featured six songs in support of the war effort" (Ronald D. Cohen & Dave Samuelson, Songs for Political Action, Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996, p. 94).
^According to an article in The Amsterdam News, the FBI also came after Billie Holiday, when she sang a pacifist song in the middle of the war, forcing her manager to make her change her repertoire. See Denning (1997), p. 343.
^"We got to sing [the pro-war song, 'Round and Round Hitler's Grave'] on January '42, on a nationwide CBS broadcast, 'This is War'. But the next day a headline in a major New York newspaper said 'Commie Singers try to Infiltrate Radio,' and that was the last job we got" (Where Have All the Flowers Gone [1993, 1997], p. 28).
^
Cohen, Ronald D.; Capaldi, James (16 December 2013). The Pete Seeger Reader. Oxford University Press. pp. ?? (date, location). ISBN978-0-19-933612-8. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
^
Carawan, Guy; Carawan, Candie (1994). Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life?: The People of Johns Island South Carolina-Their Faces, Their Words, and Their Songs. University of Georgia Press.
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