Pete Seeger: Activist and humanitarian

Seeger joins in a song at a 1988 rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua. The gathering was to protest U.S. aid going to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. (Mauricio Orozco / Associated Press)

Jan. 28, 2014 10:49 AM PT

The folk singer flexed his banjo-playing skills at benefits, demonstrations and folk festivals.

Music legend Pete Seeger, who usually performed for the benefit of others, sings and plays banjo here during a concert marking his 90th birthday at Madison Square Garden in New York. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images)

Seeger joins Willie Nelson on stage at the Farm Aid 2013 concert at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Hans Pennink / Associated Press)

Seeger, 92, marches with nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests for a brief acoustic concert in Columbus Circle in New York. (John Minchillo / Associated Press)

Seeger, left, performs at the Rally for Détente at Carnegie Hall in New York. The rally sought a thawing of relations with the Soviet Union. (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

Actor Kirk Douglas, left, director Harold Prince, singer Aretha Franklin, composer Morton Gould and singer Pete Seeger gather after a dinner in Washington, D.C., that honored them as recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. (Doug Mills / Associated Press)

Seeger, at age 81, speaks to students and faculty during a forum at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., called “Cultural Work, Coexistence and Community Development: A Conversation With Pete Seeger.” (Steven Senne / Associated Press)