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How Online Fundraising Confusion, Lawyers & Chuck C. Johnson Kept $60k From Tamir Rice's Family

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wrenchwench5/05/2015 2:12:46 pm PDT

[…]

Q: You once said that you and Eartha Kitt were blacklisted in the ’60s because you spoke out against the Vietnam War. What did that do to your career?

A: When I would come back to do concerts in the U.S., there’d be a whole audience who were wondering where my records went. I figured the record company was screwing up. An artist doesn’t think they are being blacklisted! It never occurred to me that I was important enough to have some politician go out of his way to silence me. I only found out about it in the ’80s by accident—a broadcaster announced they received letters of commendation from the White House for having suppressed my music. My career was so highly impacted in the U.S. it will never recover.

Q: What was affected the most?

A: Big-time magazine covers, late-night television. [But] when my career slowed down, it gave me time to do things outside of the U.S.

Q: You also found out the FBI had a file on you.

A: There was nothing there. Buffy Sainte-Marie has never broken the law. I did not smoke pot on the White House lawn, I don’t get traffic tickets and I’m not a criminal. It was ridiculous—they had letters from people in the file asking the FBI if they had a file on me. Also: everything was blacked out. It was very petty, very high school and very nasty.

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