American folk music cohered and consolidated after World War Two when, in December of 1945, the People’s Songs musical collective, partially funded by trade unions and the Communist Party, was established to create, promote, and distribute labor songs. Although short-lived, the group was active enough to alert and alarm right-wing watchdogs, who reported members to the US Congress, claiming them to be part of and participants in a communist front. Pete Seeger, a driving force for the collective, was thereafter a target of anti-communist witch hunts both as a member of the Weavers and as a solo artist.
Another development that helped mold perceptions of folk music as a left-wing form came courtesy of John Lomax and his son, Alan, a People’s Song member. Their field trips into various backwaters of American society led to the collection and preservation of early 20th-century folk music that would otherwise have remained in localized obscurity. The songs, with their eclectic range of styles and stylists, symbolized the ethnic diversity of the American people, as well as the creative results of the national melting pot at work.