Carawan, Guy

Guy and Candie Carawan, both natives of California, met in 1960 at the Highlander Folk School (now the Highland Research and Education Center) in New Market, Tenn., as participants in the civil rights movement. Married shortly thereafter, the Carawans have since been active as collectors of folklore and folk music, singers, musicians, educators, and socio-political activists. They are best known for their efforts to document and disseminate music associated with the civil rights movement of the 1960s, which resulted in several commercially released recordings and printed music anthologies. They have been involved in a variety of musical traditions and social causes in the South and elsewhere, often in connection with their work at the Highlander Research and Education Center.

Guy Carawan was born 7 July 1927 in Santa Monica, Calif. His mother was originally from South Carolina, his father from North Carolina. While pursuing a degree in mathematics at Occidental College, Carawan studied folklore with Austin Fife and performed folk music. He subsequently completed a master's degree in sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he continued his study of folklore with Wayland Hand. During the early 1950s, Carawan grew interested in incorporating folk music and topical songs into progressive socio-political activism and became involved in the People's Song movement, meeting such activist-musicians as Pete Seeger and Lee Hays. In 1959, he became the director of music at the Highlander Folk School, an institution that provided instruction in social organization and was a meeting place for people interested in the civil rights movement and related causes in the South.

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