Guy Carawan, American singer and musicologist (d. 2015)
Guy Hughes Carawan Jr. (July 28, 1927 – May 2, 2015) was an American folk musician and musicologist. He served as music director and song leader for the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee.
Carawan is famous for introducing the protest song "We Shall Overcome" to the American Civil Rights Movement, by teaching it to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. A union organizing song based on a black spiritual, it had been a favorite of Zilphia Horton (d. 1956) wife of the founder of the Highlander Folk School. Carawan reintroduced it at the school when he became its new music director in 1959. The song is copyrighted in the name of Horton, Frank Hamilton, Carawan and Pete Seeger.Carawan sang and played banjo, guitar, and hammered dulcimer. He frequently performed and recorded with his wife, singer Candie Carawan. The couple had two children, Evan Carawan and Heather Carawan. Occasionally Guy was accompanied by their son Evan Carawan, who plays mandolin and hammered dulcimer.
1927Jul, 27
Guy Carawan
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Events on 1927
- 10Jan
Metropolis (1927 film)
Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany. - 23Feb
Uncertainty principle
German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time. - 5May
Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is first published. - 27May
Ford Model T
The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A. - 26Jun
Coney Island
The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.