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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
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 | 22.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately About 18,400 items) |
| Abstract | 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, Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life?; 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 "We Shall Overcome!" and a related documentary. |
| 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.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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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 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 original deposit of 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.
The Addition of 2006 contains audio recordings on audiocassette tape and CD of musical performances and interviews collected by Guy and Candie Carawan. Many of the cassettes feature members of the Johns Island, S.C., community, including William Saunders, Janie Hunter, Idell Smalls, and Gerald Mackey.
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' book, Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life?; 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 "We Shall Overcome!" and a related documentary.
Note that through this finding aid, original folder titles and labels on media have been, for the most part, retained.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Field recordings from Johns Island, S.C., 1959-1965.
Highlighted recordings:
FT#3526-3582; 3584-3633; 3636-3640: Recordings made by Guy and Candie Carawan, 1960-1965, of African American religious ceremonies from Saint 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 Reverend 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.
FT#3634-3635: Recording of a Christmas Concert performance, made by Guy and Candie Carawan, at the Progressive Club on Johns Island, S.C., on 23 December 1964. Performers included the Southern Gates, the Travelling Echoes, and the Moving Star Hall Singers, all African American singing groups of South Carolina; Charlie Scott and Deacon Washington, African American singers of South Carolina; and Mable A. Hillery, African American singer of Georgia.
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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.
Highlighted recordings:
FT#3641-3650 Recordings made by Guy and Candie Carawan, 1960-1965, of African American religious ceremonies from Saint 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 Reverend 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.
FT#3641-3655: Recordings made by Guy and Candie Carawan in Birmingham, Ala., during the height of the civil rights movement in April and May of 1963, of church services and mass meetings at Saint James Baptist Church and the 16th Street Baptist Church, including the African American Birmingham Movement Choir under the direction of Carlton Reece. The Birmingham Movement Choir sang for 40 consecutive nights at mass meetings throughout the city. There is also a recording of a press conference for KPFK, a Birmingham radio station.
FT#3656: Recording made at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss., in 1963 by Guy and Candie Carawan of African American civil rights activists James Foreman, Bob Moses, and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers, including Cordell Reagon, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Rutha Harris, and Charles Neblett. Included are speeches Foreman and Moses, and spiritual, gospel, and protest songs sung by the SNC Freedom Singers and others.
FT#3673-3685: Recordings, made by folk singer Theodore Bikel, of Sing For Freedom: Festival of Negro Folk Music and Freedom Songs, held 7-10 May 1964 at Gammon Theological Center, Old Campus, Atlanta, Ga. The tapes feature workshops on the freedom song repertoire; song leading, taught by African American singers Cordell Reagon, Betty Fikes, and Bernice Johnson Reagon; choir leaders and singers, taught by the Birmingham Movement Choir and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Freedom Singers; songwriting in the freedom movement, taught by African American songwriters Bertha Gober and Matthew Jones, and Anglo-American songwriters Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs; and traditional African American folk music, taught by Bessie Jones, the Georgia Sea Island Singers, Dock Reese, and others. There are also recordings of weekend concerts featuring singers from the South and the North.
FT#3686: Recording, made by Guy and Candie Carawan, of the Birmingham Movement Choir, an African-American gospel choir active in the civil rights movement. The Birmingham Movement Choir under the direction of Carleton Reece sang for forty consecutive nights at mass meetings held through Birmingham, Ala.
FT#3687-3697: Recordings relating to the civil rights movement, recorded in Greenwood, Miss., and Albany, Ga., Guy and Candie Carawan, and subsequently released as Sing For Freedom on Smithsonian Folkways. Included are concerts, church services, and interviews with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers, including African American singers Charles Sherrod, Charles Jones, Cordell Reagon, and Blanton Hall; and other African Americans involved in the civil rights movement, including Susie Ann Price, Charles Wingfield, and Dorothy Colton.
FT#3710-3721: Recordings of gospel concerts in New York, Detroit, Charleston, S.C., and the Sea Islands, S.C., in 1961-1965. Performers include African American spiritual singers McKinley Peebles and Bessie Jones; African American gospel groups, including the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals, the Richardson Family, the Moving Star Singers, and the Freedom Singers; and Anglo-American folklorists and singers Alan Lomax and Guy and Candie Carawan. Also included is an interview of Guy Carawan by sociologist Studs Terkel in January 1964.
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Series 3. Recordings Related to Music and Culture in South-central Appalachia and Miscellaneous
Other Recordings, 1960s-1980s.
The original arrangement has been maintained.
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Addition of 2006: Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life Audiocassettes and Other
Audiovisual Materials, 1977-1988 (Acc. 100503).
Recordings on audiocassette tape and CD of musical performances and interviews collected by Guy and Candie Carawan. Many of the cassettes feature members of the Johns Island, S.C., community, including William Saunders, Janie Hunter, Idell Smalls, and Gerald Mackey. Interviews may have been used in preparation of Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree Of Life, written by the Carawans about the Johns Island, S.C., community in 1988.
Note that titles are chiefly transcribed from labels on the media.
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Addition of 2010: Guy and Candie Carawan Papers, 1955-2010 and undated (Acc. 101469).
The Addition of 2010 primarily contains materials relating to Guy and Candie Carawan's professional and personal projects in the areas of civil rights, folk music and culture, and social justice.
Materials relating to civil rights include correspondence, pamphlets, newsletters, conference materials, notes, clippings, and a variety of other materials collected by Candie Carawan, beginning in the spring of 1960, when she spent a semester as an exchange student at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn. In February 1960, she took part in a sit-in to protest racial segregation of lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn., and was arrested for her participation.
Files on writings contain materials relating to books ( Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life, Voices from the Mountains, We Shall Overcome!, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, and Sing for Freedom); articles; and other writing projects by Guy and Candie Carawan, as well as materials relating to albums recorded or produced by Guy Carawan.
The events series contains materials relating to concerts; lectures; Highlander Center workshops, concerts, and other events; festivals; conferences; benefits; vacations; and reunions and memorials that Guy and Candie Carawan led or attended. Also included are materials relating to performances by the Moving Star Hall Singers and the Georgia Sea Island Singers.
Subject files contain materials relating to professional and personal subjects, including Appalachia, civil rights, the Highlander Research and Education Center, and the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, among other topics. Files about individuals largely contain articles, clippings, and memorial and obituary information, although some contain scattered correspondence and information relating to projects undertaken by or about the individuals. Highlander files relate to the Carawans' employment and projects with the Highlander Research and Education Center, including workshop materials and photographs, printed materials, songbooks and sheet music, and memoranda and correspondence, among other items. Sea Islands materials include interview transcripts, articles, and clippings related to Guy and Candie Carawan's book Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life?, as well as other materials related the Moving Star Hall Singers of Johns Island, S.C., and to Low Country culture and community issues on the Sea Islands, including education, healthcare, and real estate development efforts. Other files include materials relating to conferences, concerts, projects requesting the Carawans' assistance, and the song "We Shall Overcome!" and a related documentary. Correspondence, printed materials, photographs, and biographical materials are also included.
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Addition of 2010: Candie Carawan Fisk University materials, 1955-2010.
Correspondence, pamphlets, newsletters, conference materials, notes, clippings, and other materials collected by Candie Carawan, beginning in the spring of 1960, when she spent a semester as an exchange student at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn. In February 1960, she took part in a sit-in to protest racial segregation of lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn., and was arrested for her participation.
Note that original folder titles have, for the most part, been retained.
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Addition of 2010: Writings and Albums, 1966-2000 and undated.
Arranged by type of project in the following order: Books, FIPSE writing, articles and pamphlets, albums.
Materials related to books ( Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life, Voices from the Mountains, We Shall Overcome!, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, and Sing for Freedom); articles; and other writing projects of Guy and Candie Carawan. The FIPSE writing materials relate to a project by the Carawans, funded by a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), to retrospectively analyze their own lives and work. The materials also document the Carawans' later unsuccessful efforts to publish the results of the project as an autobiography. Also included are materials relating to albums recorded or produced by Guy Carawan. For additional materials relating to Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life, see the subject files series in the Addition of 2010.
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addition of 2010: Events, 1956-2008 and undated.
Arrangement: Chronological.
Clippings, posters, programs, other printed materials, and scattered planning correspondence. Materials relate to concerts; lectures; Highlander Center workshops, concerts, and other events; festivals; conferences; benefits; vacations; and reunions and memorials that Guy and Candie Carawan led or attended. Also included are materials relating to performances by the Moving Star Hall Singers and the Georgia Sea Island Singers.
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addition of 2010: Subject Files, 1959-2007 and undated.
Files compiled by Guy and Candie Carawan containing materials relating to professional and personal subjects, including Appalachia, civil rights, the Highlander Research and Education Center, and the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, among other topics.
Files about individuals largely contain articles, clippings, and memorial and obituary information, although some contain scattered correspondence and information relating to projects undertaken by or about the individuals.
Highlander files relate to the Carawans' employment and projects with the Highlander Research and Education Center, including workshop materials and photographs, printed materials, songbooks and sheet music, and memoranda and correspondence, among other items.
Sea Islands materials include interview transcripts, articles, and clippings related to Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life, written in 1987-1988 by Guy and Candie Carawan. Other Sea Islands materials relate to Low Country culture and community issues on the Sea Islands, including youth and adult education, healthcare, and the effects of real estate development efforts. Also included are correspondence and printed materials related to the Moving Star Hall Singers, a traditional spiritual singing group from Johns Island, S.C.
Other files include materials relating to conferences, concerts, projects requesting the Carawans' assistance, and the song "We Shall Overcome!" and a related documentary. Also included are two folders of general personal and professional correspondence, five folders of general photographs, and biographical materials.
Note that original folder titles have, for the most part, been retained.
Also note that some of the subjects in these files are closely related to materials in other series.