1959 Highlander Way · New Market, TN 37820 · phone: (865) 933-3443 · fax: (865) 933-3424
e-mail: hrec@highlandercenter.org

Happy Birthday, Guy Carawan!

A Special Appeal from
Pete Seeger,
Bernice Johnson Reagon,
& Hazel Dickens
to Celebrate
Guy Carawan's 80th Birthday

On July 28, 1927, one of the movement's most inspirational musicians, Guy Carawan, was born. Please help us celebrate Guy's 80th birthday by using the form below to send him a note of appreciation and by making a special contribution to support the organization to which he has devoted his life's work for nearly five decades - the Highlander Center.

Guy and and his wife Candie have dedicated their lives to working for justice in the South and Appalachia. They have performed at countless meetings, rallies, and protests; collected and helped spread music of resistance and hope; designed and facilitated workshops for artists and activists; organized local and regional cultural festivals; and documented in books, records, and videotapes southern and Appalachian musical traditions, especially as they related to community struggles for justice.

Pop Horton, Jack Elliot, Lee Tom Perry, Frank Hamilton, and Guy Carawan during Guy's first visit to Highlander; 1953.

Through this work, Guy and Candie have been at the heart of the progressive movement in the region for almost fifty years. Here are a handful of the many, many stories about their work and the impact they have had.

• In the late 1950s, Guy was living on Johns Island, South Carolina, helping Septima Clark, Bernice Robinson, and others organize the first Citizenship Schools, which taught Black residents to read and write so they could pass the literacy tests required for voting.
  
  One day while Guy was singing "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" with a group from Johns Island, he was told by Alice Wine, a local resident, "Young man, we have another way of singing that song. We sing, 'keep your eyes on the prize.'" Guy later helped spread "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" to activists throughout the South, and with his help singers from Johns Island were invited to perform at the Newport and Smithsonian Folk Festivals.
  
  

Guy singing with SNCC activists Bernard Lafayette and James Bevel; 1960.

• In April 1960, Highlander hosted the first region-wide gathering of students involved in the sit-in movement, which had started just a few months earlier in Greensboro, NC. Guy and Candie first met at this gathering, and Guy sang and taught the students a number of movement songs, including "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" and "We Shall Overcome," which had come to Highlander as "I Will Overcome" in the 1940s, taught by members of a Black tobacco-workers union.
  
  The students were so moved by these songs that they asked Guy to lead singing a few weeks later at the meeting at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC, where the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded. As Guy began to lead "We Shall Overcome," all present in the room rose from their seats singing and reaching out to join hands, and the signature song of the Civil Rights Movement was born.
  
  

Guy Carawan, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and others with Martin Luther King; 1962.

• In the 1970s and 1980s, when Highlander was working with Appalachian groups fighting stripmining and other environmental issues, Guy and Candie organized cultural festivals and workshops that brought together older and younger artists from both the Civil Rights Movement and Appalachia.
  
  Through this work, hey helped spark a renewed interest in traditional Appalachian music and culturethat strengthened local organizing efforts, and they helped foster a new generation of musicians who are still working for justice today. As Sue Massek, a founding member of the Reel World String Band and a participant in many of these programs, puts it, she and others came to Highlander "to be rejuvenated, inspired, and empowered by the mentors who guided us there."

Sara Gunning, Hazel Dickens, Guy Carawan, and Earl Gilmore at the Mountain Music Workshop at Highlander; 1972.

Guy left the Highlander staff in the late 1980s, and Candie retired in 1999. But they remain connected to the many people and programs they worked with over the years, and they are still actively involved in movement work. In recent years, they have participated in and sung at anti-war marches, demonstrations at the Oak Ridge nuclear facilities, and rallies for immigrant rights.

They also speak often with groups that come to Highlander, many of whom request sessions with them to hear first-hand about Highlander's history or to join them in singing movement songs. In conversation with younger people, Guy and Candie listen intently to what others are doing and then share information about their next groundbreaking project, reminding us all of the great work to be done whatever the age.

Guy and Candie Carwan; 2003.

Guy and Candie have inspired many people, particularly those who use music and culture to fight injustice. We are proud to know and work with them, and we look forward to continuing our relationships with them for many years to come.

Help us honor and celebrate Guy's 80th birthday and his powerful contributions to music and culture - the lifeblood of sustaining people and movements:

• Write a birthday note using the form below and send it by August 29th so we can include it in a surprise scrapbook for Guy that we will give him at Highlander's 75th anniversary celebration. Messages received after August 29th will be given to Guy and put in the scrapbook after the 75th anniversary celebration.
  
  
• Make a donation to support the ongoing work of the Highlander Center, particularly the cultural organizing and the way culture is integrated into all aspects of Highlander's programming.
  
  
• Sing whenever and wherever you can.

Thank you for honoring Guy Carawan, who helped spread "We Shall Overcome" and "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" to movements and communities across the South and around the world, and who is always ready to pick up his guitar or banjo and sing to share, teach, inspire, and build community.

Make a Donation to Highlander in Honor of Guy