Music Pick: Guy Carawan

Guy Carawan died May 2 at age 89. Though not nearly as widely known and revered as Pete Seeger, who died last year at 93, Carawan, a contemporary and colleague of Seeger's, was a giant in the folk, protest, political activism revival of the 50's and 60's. Carawan didn't write "We Shall Overcome; that song went through many variations and uses from its origins in the late 18th century. But Carawan, Seeger and two others wrote a new arrangement and lyrics which became the anthem of the emerging civil rights movement when Carawan sang it as a motivational song at the April, 1960, inaugural meeting of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh, NC. His version struck a chord and a civil rights anthem was born. Later on Carawan took the phrase "Keep your hand on the plow" and turned it into "Keep your eye on the prize", creating another iconic civil rights statement.  Carawan spent decades serving the civil rights and political activist movement at the Tennessee based Highlander Research and Education Center. The feature 'Oh Lord, I've Got Some Singing To Do' is a good intro to Carawan's musical spirit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6PscekN-mA