Highlander founder Myles Horton was a visionary educator, drawing on peoples' own wisdom and experience. Together with Zilphia, they were quite a team.

Her music and his sense of humor and appreciation for all forms of cultural expression enhanced the educational programs at the school.

Guy first came to Highlander in the summer of 1953 with two singing buddies, Ramblin' Jack Elliot and Frank Hamilton.

Pete Seeger, who had visited Higlander with Woody Gutherie in 1947, had told them about it. Guy never forgot the visit and would return to work as a volunteer in 1959.

Perry Horton, Jack Elliot, Lee
Tom Perry, Frank Hamilton,
& Guy Carawan
Highlander Folk School, 1953
Photographer: Carawan Archive

When Highlander turned its attention back to mountain communities in the mid 1960s, following the turbulent years of the Civil Rights Movement, it was the time of the War on Poverty. The staff was interested in the potential of an alliance between civil rights groups in the deep South and white communities organizing against oppresion in the mountains. The Johnson Administration was beginning to address the poverty in the region caused by extractive industries which took the rich minerals and coal and left nothing but devastration behind.