Guy and Candie Carawan Sea Island recordings
Scope and Contents
The Guy and Candie Carawan Sea Island recordings collection, 1960-1969, contains field recordings and oral history interviews documenting Gullah Geechee life and culture in rural Johns Island. The field recordings include worship services and watch nights at the Moving Star Praise House, spirituals and songs, stories, and children's games and rhymes. The interviews focus on the storytellers' upbringings, family, life, culture, and conditions on the Island, and the ways the Island is changing. The recordings were primarily created, first, during the Carawan's time assisting the Island's Citizenship School and, later, when they lived on the Island from 1963 to 1965. The materials gathered during their time on Johns Island were used to write Ain't you got a right to the tree of life? The People of Johns Island, South Carolina—Their Faces, Their Words, and Their Songs.
The recordings are held on reel-to-reel tapes and audiocassettes and many of the oral histories have been transcribed. The collection is arranged by the type of material.
Series I: Reel-to-Reel Tapes, 1960-1969
Series II: Transcripts, 1960-1969
Series III: Audiocassettes, 1960-1969
The materials in this collection are access copies of the originals preserved in the Guy and Candie Carawan Collection, 1955-2010, housed within the Southern Folklife collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The copies within this collection were provided to the Avery Research Center so that access copies could be more easily available to the people of Johns Island.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1959-1969
Creator
- Carawan, Guy (Person)
- Carawan, Candie (Person)
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions on this collection. However, the Avery Research Center does not have the technology required for researchers to listen to the reel-to-reels. A cassette player will be made available to researchers in the Avery Research Center's Reading Room to listen to the audiocassettes.
An inventory of the reel-to-reel tapes with track listings for the field recordings and brief abstracts for the oral histories is available in the Reading Room as part of Avery Research Center's Ready Reference.
Copyright Notice
The nature of the Avery Research Center's archival holdings means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Avery Research Center claims only physical ownership of most archival materials.
The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
Biographical / Historical
Guy Hughes (1927-2015) and Carolanne "Candie" Marie Carawan (1939-) were American folk singers and activists in the Civil Rights Movement. Both were orginally from California, but met at the Highlander Folk School (now the Highlander Education and Research Center) in 1960 and married shortly after. Guy had been hired in 1959 as the Music Director of the Highlander Folk School and furthered the school's legacy of including music in workshops and as an organizing tool. They helped popularize the use of “We Shall Overcome” and “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” by civil rights era organizers and spent much of their lives documenting and dissemanting the musical record of the Civil Rights Movement. The Carawans produced seventeen documentaries and authored five books including Ain't you got a right to the tree of life? The People of Johns Island, South Carolina—Their Faces, Their Words, and Their Songs after their time working in Johns Island. Guy also released fifteen music albums, some with Candie, over the course of his career.
Full Extent
4.83 linear feet (4 Paige cartons, 2 Hollinger boxes, 120 reel-to-reel tapes, and 66 audiocassettes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Guy and Candie Carawan Sea Island recordings, 1960-1969, collection contains field recordings and oral history interviews documenting Gullah Geechee life and culture in rural Johns Island. The recordings were created, first, during the Carawan's time assisting the Island's Citizenship School and, later, when they lived on the Island from 1963 to 1965. The collection consists of reel-to-reel tapes, audiocassettes, and transcripts.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in three series according to the type of materials.
- Reel-to-Reels, circa 1959-1969
- Transcripts, circa 1959-1969
- Audiocassettes, circa 1959-1969
Existence and Location of Originals
Originals of the audio recordings and oral history interviews are preserved in the Guy and Candie Carawan Collection, 1955-2010, housed within the Southern Folklife collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The copies within this collection were provided to the Avery Research Center so that access copies could be more easily available to the people of Johns Island.
Processing Information
Funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported the processing of this collection and the creation of this finding aid.
Collection is minimally processed by Nate Hubler.
Subject
- Jenkins, Esau, 1910-1972 (Person)
- Saunders, William, 1935- (Person)
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- African American Churches -- South Carolina -- Johns Island (Island)
- African Americans -- Music
- African Americans -- South Carolina -- Johns Island (Island) -- Social conditions
- African Americans -- South Carolina -- Johns Island (Island) -- Social life and customs
- Church music
- Geechees -- South Carolina -- Social life and customs
- Gospel music
- Gullahs -- South Carolina -- Social life and customs
- Watch night
- Title
- Inventory of Guy and Candie Carawan Sea Isand recordings circa 1959-1969 AMN 1203
- Status
- In Progress
- Author
- Nate Hubler
- Date
- February 2026
- Description rules
- Dacs
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English
- Sponsor
- Funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported the processing of this collection and the creation of this finding aid.
Repository Details
Part of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Repository
125 Bull Street
Charleston South Carolina 29424 United States
843-953-7608
averyresearchcenter@cofc.edu