Bob, the original thread request was about how the Weavers affected the general public. At the risk ofalmost hijacking the thread, I think the the questioner needs to understand more context.

I was aware at a very early age that I and my family were not the "general public". Couldn't have told you how I knew that, but it was something I understood, like I knew which alleys not to walk through on the way to school. Among my family and their friends were a great many "activists", as they are now called. A few were Communists, whose almost sole loyalty was to the Party and who were alsways looking for ways to advance the Party's intersts. They of course used folk music and Jim Crow and the CIO and the peace movement and whatever else was handy. They were pretty obvious in their activities, but they wer hard workers, often good organizers, and they had the same values as others.   Most people I knew were just people who wanted some justice and wanted to have a good time getting it. They were attracted to the whole range of left-wing activities, associations, causes, even churches (a high percentage were Quakers and Unitarians, but pretty much all faiths were represented. So people who were interested in integration were also interested in folk music( to a greater or lesser degree), unions, peace, social justice, etc., etc. They varied in where they put their personal energies, and they could argue fine points of doctrine or tactics for years,   But it wasn't the commies on one side and the folkies on another and the civil rights people on another. As I saw it then and still do, they were all the same people, just different emphases. And where would the CIO and the Civil Rights movements have been without the songs?

Is this too long a post?