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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 295 items |
| Abstract | Candie Anderson and Guy Carawan met as a result of their mutual involvement in the black civil rights movement and were married in 1960. Since then, 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 various progressive social and political causes in the South. The collection includes 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 elements of 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 renowned author and social commentator 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. Supporting documentation for many of the tapes is on file with the collection. Recordings made by Guy and Candie Carawan, 1960-1965, of African American religious ceremonies from St. John's Island, S.C., known as the Christmas Watch and the New Year's Watch, all-night church meetings held on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve in the community's praise house, in which the congregation would take turns preaching, testifying, shouting, praying, and singing, as moved by the Holy Spirit. The tapes include religious songs, hymns, preaching, and other forms of religious expression. The congregation, of an indeterminate size, was led by Esau Jenkins, John Smalls, and Rev. Grant in the Moving Star Praise House. There are also 13 spirituals from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, recorded in 1960 by unknown performers; 4 tapes of a preach meeting, 24 January 1965; and interviews for Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life, including songs and storytelling, children's songs and stories, religious songs, and edited interviews. |
| Creator | Carawan, Guy.
Carawan, Candie. |
| Language | English. |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Expand/collapse
Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Expand/collapse
Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Expand/collapse
Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Expand/collapse
Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Expand/collapse
Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Expand/collapse
Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
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Biographical Information
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 black 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.
Candie Anderson, also from southern California, became interested in the black civil rights movement while in high school. She attended Pomona College near Los Angeles, but spent her junior year of college at Fisk University, a historically African American institution in Nashville, Tenn. While there, she participated in pro-integration demonstrations led by black students in Nashville. She became acquainted with Guy Carawan during a workshop at the Highlander School.
Candie and Guy Carawan have remained affiliated with the Highlander Center and have been active as musicians and participants in various social movements since the 1960s. They spent several years in the predominantly black community of Johns Island, S.C., where they addressed issues of racial discrimination and rural poverty, particularly through a citizenship education program formulated by the Highlander School. They participated in major civil rights campaigns in Birmingham, Atlanta, and other southern cities. Through workshops at the Highlander Center and elsewhere, they collected variants of African American spirituals and other songs for use in civil rights demonstrations and shared them with other participants. Guy Carawan was largely responsible for introducing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" to the pro-integration community. The Carawans have also devoted attention to economic and ecological problems in the coal country of Appalachia.
Throughout their careers, the Carawans have sought to document the music and culture of various groups of people with whom they have worked. They have been involved in the production of seventeen documentary recordings and seven films and have written five books, including three anthologies of songs associated with the civil rights movement. Additionally, Guy Carawan has recorded fifteen albums of his own, some involving Candie Carawan and other family members.
Guy and Candie Carawan have two children and reside in Tennessee.
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Scope and Content
The 318 open reel tapes that comprise the Guy and Candie Carawan Collection total approximately 250 hours that reflect the Carawans' efforts to document the cultures of various groups of people in the South and elsewhere, beginning in the early 1960s.
They include historically significant speeches, sermons, and musical performances recorded during major civil rights demonstrations and conferences in Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta, and other southern cities. These recordings include master tapes of several documentary albums released on Folkways Records and feature such influential figures as Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, James Bevel, Len Chandler, the Georgia Sea Island Singers, and Nashville Mayor R. Benjamin West.
Numerous field recordings of worship meetings, songs, stories, and recollections from Johns Island, S.C., document elements of the African American heritage of the rural South Carolina Low Country. Included are complete recordings of all-night Christmas and New Year's watch meetings held in Moving Star Hall, a community praise house, as well as interviews with civic leader and activist Esau Jenkins about socio-economic improvements and efforts to overcome racial discrimination and poverty on Johns Island in the 1950s and 1960s.
Also included are recordings of interviews with residents of south-central Appalachia concerning problems associated with coal mining and rural poverty. Additional recordings contain performances by Appalachian musicians featuring songs that address regional social issues, as well as other Appalachian vernacular music. Among these performers is noted West Virginia bluegrass singer Hazel Dickens.
Other items include recordings of remarks and musical performances by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax; a discussion between Guy Carawan and renowned author and social commentator Studs Terkel; performances by singer-songwriter Mayne Smith, blues singer Mable Hillary, and actor-comedian-musician Martin Mull; and recordings of Latin-American, Celtic, Australian, and Hungarian vernacular music.
Supporting documentation for many of the tapes is on file with the collection.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Field recordings from Johns Island, S.C., 1959-1965.
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Series 2. Recordings related to the civil rights Movement and African American music in the American South, 1960s.
The original arrangement has been maintained.