Folksinger, civil rights activist, folklorist and organizer Guy Carawan passed away this past Saturday evening, May 2nd, at age 87. A dear, gentle and thoughtful man, Guy was a powerful and key figure in championing southern music and culture, and is credited for his part in both bringing that music to the Civil Rights Movement (“We Shall Overcome”) and for his lifetime of work connecting folk music and culture to the struggles of the oppressed, sidelined and downtrodden, and sharing it widely throughout the country and the world.

I worked with Guy a lot in the early 1980s, when he joined the Sing Out! board of directors to help us revive the magazine. He was always a steady voice with a deep sense of honor, helping us to stay true to our own history and prodding us to always look and listen beyond our own noses and ears to understand the context of this great body of music and to see how it fits in our lives and history.

Guy was born on July 27, 1927. He grew up in Southern California, though his parents had roots back east in South Carolina and always thought of themselves as “Southerners.” Guy attended Occidental College to study mathematics, but quickly developed an interest in folk music and lore, leading to him earning a Masters in Sociology at UCLA. He met Pete Seeger in 1952 when he went to the nightclub Ciro’s to hear the Weavers. This led to him connecting with the People’s Songs movement and organization, and a true “change of life’s calling” for Guy. He moved to New York City in the early 1950s, reconnecting with Pete and began hanging out with many of the key voices of that early revival era in Greenwich Village.

Guy encouraged his friend and musical partner Frank Hamilton to join him in New York, but by 1953 the two friends, accompanied by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, decided to head south to dig deep into Guy’s southern roots. When Pete Seeger heard Guy was headed south, he encouraged him to visit the Highlander School. And that suggestion truly changed Guy’s life.

Myles and Zilphia Horton were running Highlander School in those days, and had begun to shift the school’s emphasis toward civil rights and desegregation. (The school had been somewhat “red baited out of the labor movement” and the staff was down to three. Realizing how much segregation interfered with their Union work anyway, it was a somewhat natural shift.) That visit was, again, pivotal for Guy.

Following the trip down south, Guy returned to California to continue his folklore studies. He toured college campuses and clubs, and traveled overseas to participate in the World Youth Festival in Moscow. He stayed with Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl in England for a month. When he finally returned to California, Guy recalled that he “really didn’t know what to do with myself.”

Returning to touring, he attended a church service in Boston in 1959 where Martin Luther King was speaking … and that inspired him to return to the South, volunteering at Highlander to continue his work. As music became more and more important to the movement, Guy’s position as a volunteer musician at Highlander proved more and more key. He taught the song “We Shall Overcome” to groups all over the South. After meeting Civil Rights pioneer Septima Clark, Guy became her driver as she crossed the region registering voters and teaching literacy. It was Clark who first brought Guy to St. John’s Island … another regional folk culture that would play prominently in the rest of Carawan’s life work.

It was back there at Highlander School, in 1960, that Guy met his life partner and mate, Candie Anderson … a young Fisk College student who was getting involved in the movement activities at Highlander herself. The Carawans, together, spent the better part of the 1960s focused on the movement and collecting music on the Sea Islands … in addition to raising their young children. They released two essential collections of Civil Rights songs for Oak (1963’s “We Shall Overcome” and 1968’s “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle”) along with 1967’s “Ain’t You Got a Right,” a collection of songs from the Sea Islands for Simon and Schuster. (The two Civil Rights books were later reissued as a combined volume by Sing Out!, later reissued again and still available.)

Throughout that time, Guy and Candie also released a number of field recordings from both their Civil Rights movement work and their work on the Islands.

When the School relocated (and renamed) as The Highlander Center for Education near Knoxville, Tenn., in the early 1970s, Guy, and Candie, remained at the Center, continuing their work supporting and preserving the music and culture, and helping communities regain their own strength by reconnecting the people with the power, beauty and grace of their own culture.

Loved and revered by all who had the luck to cross his path, Guy is unquestionably a hero who deserved more credit than he received. Luckily we have a number of fine recordings to chronicle the significant and beautiful music he made, both on his own and later with Candie. But it’s the power and effect of his life’s works that should earn him a place in the hearts and minds of every person wanting or fighting for justice and equality. Guy, you were a giant! We’ll miss you deeply.

— Mark D. Moss

Guy is survived by his wife Candie, and children Evan and Heather and their families. A private ceremony is planned in New Market, Tenn., where he and Candie lived.

Below is a terrific “oral history” video with an interview with Guy and Candie discussing their early work in the Civil Rights Movement and singing a few songs. There are some volume issues (particularly when Candie is speaking), but it’s an important document chronicling Guy’s important contribution to our history!