Guy and Candie Carawan Collection, 1955-2010

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Guy and Candie Carawan Collection, 1955-2010

1955-2010

https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/20008/

Candie Anderson and Guy Carawan met as a result of their mutual involvement in the civil rights movement and were married in 1960. The Carawans have been involved in the work of the Highlander Research and Education Center (formerly the Highlander Folk School) in Tennessee, an institution that supports and provides educational resources for progressive social and political causes in the South. The original deposit of materials is chiefly audio tapes that reflect the Carawans' efforts to document the cultures of various groups of people in the South and elsewhere, beginning in the early 1960s. Included are historically significant speeches, sermons, and musical performances recorded during major civil rights demonstrations and conferences in Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta, and other southern cities. Featured are Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Len Chandler, and the Sea Island Singers. Field recordings of worship meetings, songs, stories, and recollections from Johns Island, S.C., document the African American heritage of the rural South Carolina Low Country. Also included are recordings of interviews with residents of south-central Appalachia concerning problems associated with coal mining and rural poverty and recordings of performances by Appalachian musicians, among them Hazel Dickens. Other items include recordings of remarks and musical performances by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax; a discussion between Guy Carawan and Studs Terkel; performances by singer-songwriter Mayne Smith and actor-comedian-musician Martin Mull; and recordings of Latin-American, Celtic, Australian, and Hungarian vernacular music. The Addition of 2006 contains audio recordings of musical performances and interviews collected by Guy and Candie Carawan, many of which feature members of the Johns Island, S.C., community. The Addition of 2010 primarily contains materials relating to the Carawan's professional and personal projects in the areas of civil rights, folk music and culture, and social justice. Materials relating to civil rights were collected by Candie Carawan in 1960, when she was an exchange student at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., where she was arrested for participating in a sit-in to protest racial segregation of lunch counters. Also included are materials relating to books, articles, and other writing projects; albums recorded or produced by Guy Carawan; and concerts, lectures, Highlander Center workshops, festivals, conferences, benefits, vacations, reunions, and memorials that the Carawans led or attended. Other files relate to Appalachia, civil rights, the Highlander Research and Education Center, and the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, among other topics. Highlander files contain workshop materials, printed materials, songbooks and sheet music, memoranda, and correspondence relating to the Carawans' employment and projects there. Sea Islands materials include interview transcripts, articles, and clippings related to the Carawans' 1988 book, ; to the Moving Star Hall Singers of Johns Island, S.C.; and to Low Country culture and community issues. Other files include materials relating to conferences, concerts, projects requesting the Carawans' assistance, and the song and a related documentary. Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life? We Shall Overcome!

31.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately About 20,000 items)

eng, Latn

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6625948

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.

Related Entities

There are 53 Entities related to this resource.

Fikes, Betty Mae, 1948-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rg6n0m (person)

Bettie Mae Fikes was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers, and became known as "the Voice of Selma". She was jailed as a teenager in 1963 for her participation in a Selma protest and was also involved in Bloody Sunday in 1965....

Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 1942-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n9xgg (person)

Born on October 4, 1942, Bernice Johnson Reagon grew up in Albany, Georgia, where she became involved in the civil rights movement. As a student at Albany State College in 1961, Reagon was arrested for participating in a SNCC demonstration. She spent the night in jail singing songs and after her arrest joined the SNCC Freedom Singers to use music as a tool for civic action. Reagon earned her B.A. in history from Spelman College in 1970. In 1973, she founded Sweet Honey in the Rock, an award-winn...

Abernathy, Ralph, 1926-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kt7jhc (person)

Ralph David Abernathy (1926-1990) was a minister, civil rights leader, and confidant of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr....

Reagon, Cordell Hull, 1943-1996

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qk896n (person)

Cordell Hull Reagon was an American singer and activist. He was the founding member of The Freedom Singers of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a leader of the Albany Movement and a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights Movement....

Sherrod, Charles, 1937-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63w095p (person)

Charles M. Sherrod, minister, civil rights activist, and field director for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. From the description of Charles M. Sherrod papers, 1961-1967. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 38476538 Student. From the description of Reminiscences of Charles Sherrod : oral history, 1985. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122684134 ...

Lomax, Alan, 1915-2002

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dg7hnr (person)

Highlander Research and Education Center (Knoxville, Tenn.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mt4jb9 (corporateBody)

Myles Horton founded the Highlander Folk School in 1932 as an adult education institution based on the principle of empowerment. Horton and other School members worked towards mobilizing labor unions in the 1930s and Citizenship Schools during the civil rights movement beginning in the late 1950s. They worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Guy and Candie Carawan, Septima Clark, and Rosa Parks, among others. In 1959, t...

Chandler, Len

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cv83nn (person)

Carawan, Guy, 1927-2015

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65t3vc2 (person)

Guy Carawan (1927-2015) was a musician and songwriter. He is credited, along with Zilphia Horton, Frank Hamilton, and Pete Seeger, as one of the authors of the civil rights anthem, We Shall Overcome....

Fisk University

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6998xcv (corporateBody)

Established as Fisk Free Colored School in Nashville, Tenn., in Dec. 1865 by John Ogden, Rev. Erastus Milo Caravath, and Rev. Edward P. Smith; named in honor of Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau for Tennessee and Kentucky, who provided the new institution with facilities and contributed over $30,000 to the school; opened on 9 Jan. 1866 with almost two hundred students of all ages; incorporated as Fisk University on 22 Aug. 1867 after its curriculum shifted to ...

Washington, Deacon.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w24km6 (person)

Ochs, Phil

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60p1qq6 (person)

Carawan, Candie

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mk6njk (person)

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 mov...

Richardson Family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mb5q9g (family)

Harris, Rutha.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kz0v8p (person)

Mtume

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d22p3m (person)

Jones, Charles

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6358kt9 (person)

Epithet: Solicitor to the Admiralty British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000758.0x00012a Epithet: American composer British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000977.0x00002d Epithet: of Add MS 32863 British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000441.0x000217 Epithet: S...

Wingfield, Charles.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jj900q (person)

Paxton, Tom, 1937-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x3814g (person)

Grant, Reverend.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r36dhn (person)

Jones, Bessie, 1902-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k09mv5 (person)

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church (Birmingham, Ala.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ck38n2 (corporateBody)

Birmingham movement choir

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ns76mv (corporateBody)

Travelling Echoes (Musical group)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k226j6 (corporateBody)

Reese, Dock

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fc31c4 (person)

Reece, Carleton.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6306k4v (person)

Society for the Preservation of Spirituals

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z95r86 (corporateBody)

Tougaloo College (Jackson, Miss.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61h5p82 (corporateBody)

Terkel, Studs, 1912-2008

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x74b08 (person)

Studs Terkel was born May 16, 1912, and died in Chicago on Oct. 31, 2008. Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose searching interviews with ordinary Americans helped establish oral history as a serious genre. From the description of It's a living, [videorecording], 1975. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 612307109 and the description of Studs Terkel papers and book interviews, ca. 1950-1999. (Chicago History Museum). WorldCat record id: 713907330 ...

Colton, Dorothy.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kz0ttf (person)

Freedom Singers (SNCC)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j4553g (corporateBody)

The Freedom Singers were formed in 1962 in Albany, Georgia, to educate communities about civil rights issues through song. The group was intrinsically connected to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)....

Neblett, Charles.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z47b14 (person)

Moving star hall singers

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60p6zrf (corporateBody)

Smalls, John.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jr6cr2 (person)

Albany (Ga.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qq18zt (corporateBody)

Greenwood (Miss.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60h8n71 (corporateBody)

Sea Island singers

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sc0jjj (corporateBody)

Saint James Baptist Church (Birmingham, Ala.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c97ck5 (corporateBody)

Peebles, McKinley.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68n2prr (person)

Gover, Bertha.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69j1066 (person)

Hillery, Mable A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67q1t67 (person)

Southern Gates (Musical group)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hj2k0s (corporateBody)

Scott, Charlie

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60b1j08 (person)

Hall, Blanton.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dw6z3q (person)

Bikel, Theodore

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p55qnv (person)

Price, Susie Ann.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qh45rz (person)

Jones, Matthew

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6626d0m (person)

Carawan, Guy

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sp11jt (person)

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 mo...

Jenkins, Esau, 1910-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d9031b (person)

Esau Jenkins was born and raised on Johns Island, S.C. in 1910 and lived most of his life there. With very little formal education, he became a businessman and civil rights leader. Jenkins founded the Progressive Club in 1948, which encouraged local African Americans to register to vote, through the aid of Citizenship Schools, a topic he was educated in by his attendance at Highlander Folk Center in Tennessee. In 1959, he organized the Citizens' Committee of Charleston County dedicated to the ec...

Smith, Mayne (Guitarist)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w628348k (person)

Shuttlesworth, Fred L., 1922-2011

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gt5x49 (person)

Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth (1922- ), Baptist minister and civil rights activist, resided in Birmingham, Alabama. From the description of Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth papers, 1953-1969. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 38476539 ...

Mull, Martin

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nz9fqk (person)

Dickens, Hazel, 1925-2011

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nx08sn (person)

Hazel Jane Dickens (1925*-2011) was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs. Cultural blogger John Pietaro noted that "Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause." The New York Times extolled her as "a clarion-voiced a...