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Great Lives from History: American Women

Joan Baez

by Pegge Bochynski, Micah L. Issitt

Folk singer and activist

A pioneer in the American folk music revival of the late 1950's and 1960's, Baez blended pacifist and progressive views with her talent as a singer and guitarist to become one of the best-known social, political, and human rights activists of the era. Her protest songs galvanized a generation fighting for civil rights and against the Vietnam War.

Born: January 9, 1941

Area of Achievement: Music, activism, social issues

Early Life

Joan Chandos Baez (BI-ehz) was born on Staten Island, New York, to physicist Albert V. Baez, a native of Puebla, Mexico, and Joan Bridge Baez, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Albert and the elder Joan had three daughters, Pauline, Joan, and Mimi, who married American writer and folk singer Richard Fariña. Because Albert worked as a university professor, the family moved frequently and lived in various locations nationally and internationally, including Redlands, California; Baghdad, Iraq; and Belmont, Massachusetts, near Boston.

Baez's parents held progressive social and political views and raised their children as Quakers. When she was a junior high school student in Redlands, Baez was ostracized by her white classmates because of her dark skin and Mexican surname. Her first act of civil disobedience occurred when she was a student at Palo Alto High School. She refused to leave her desk during an air raid drill because she was opposed to the arms buildup during the Cold War. School officials punished her, and her fellow students shunned her because of her pacifist beliefs. Feeling isolated, Baez took refuge in music and began to develop her distinctive soprano voice. Her interest in traditional folk music was awakened when she was exposed to Pete Seeger's work. Other influences included Harry Belafonte and Odetta.

After Baez finished high school in 1958, her father accepted a teaching position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and moved his family to the Boston area. Baez briefly attended Boston University but dropped out when she discovered the vibrant folk music community flourishing in the Harvard Square coffee houses. Her career as a folk singer began when she became a regular at Club Mt. Auburn 47 (also known as Club 47) in Cambridge. She became more widely known when folk artist Bob Gibson invited her to perform at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959. A record contract with Vanguard followed in 1960.

Life's Work

By 1961, Baez was the reigning queen of folk music, but she had not yet engaged in the high-profile activism that would mark her later career. When she met Bob Dylan at Gerde's Folk City in New York City, she was primarily known as a traditional folk singer. The two were part of a larger folk revival that included Carolyn Hester, Eric Von Schmidt, Jim Kweskin, Dave Van Ronk, Maria and Geoff Muldaur, Bob Neuwirth, Mimi and Richard Fariña, and other musicians who lived in New York and Boston.

Joan Baez. (Library of Congress)

GLHW_BaezJoan.jpg

Baez and Dylan's meeting and subsequent love affair led to one of the most fruitful professional partnerships of the 1960's. At the time he first met Baez, Dylan was establishing his reputation as a writer of popular protest songs. Deeply impressed by his socially conscious lyrics, especially those in “With God on Our Side,” Baez began to include such songs in her own repertoire. One of the highlights of their collaboration occurred when they appeared together during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom held on August 28, 1963. Organized by Martin Luther King, Jr., among others, the rally for civil and economic rights for African Americans drew more than 250,000 people. The two ardent young artists singing “We Shall Overcome” inspired other young activists of the 1960's.

Although Dylan and Baez ended their relationship in 1965, their partnership left its mark on Baez's personal and professional life. In 1965, she recorded Farewell Angelina, which included several of Dylan's songs. In 1968, she released an album of Dylan covers titled Any Day Now. In 1975, she recorded her acclaimed album Diamonds and Rust. The title song was a reflection on her star-crossed affair with Dylan.

Baez continued her work for social justice throughout the turbulent 1960's. In 1965, she joined King on his civil rights marches, most notably the journey from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. In 1966, she supported César Chávez in his efforts to secure fair wages and safe working conditions for migrant farmworkers in California. A passionate opponent of the Vietnam War, she founded the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence in 1964 and participated in numerous antiwar protests. In 1967, Baez was arrested in Oakland, California, for obstructing the doorway of the Armed Forces Induction Center. While serving a monthlong sentence in the Santa Rita Jail, she met David Harris, a fellow antiwar protester, whom she married in March, 1968.

Shortly after their marriage, Harris refused to be drafted and was arrested in July, 1969. Pregnant with their son, Gabriel, Baez continued to perform. She wrote a number of songs in honor of Harris, including “A Song for David” and “Fifteen Months,” which was the term of Harris's imprisonment. She also released a tribute recording titled David's Album in 1969. Harris's imprisonment took a toll on their relationship, however, and they divorced in 1973.

Although the folk music revival waned in the late 1960's, Baez continued to record and perform. She regularly released albums and toured nationally and internationally. In December, 1972, she traveled to North Vietnam with a peace delegation. She experienced the horrors of war firsthand when the United States engaged in eleven days of carpet bombing over Hanoi. She also witnessed human rights violations on the part of the North Vietnamese. Her experiences led her to found her own human rights organization, Humanitas International, and launch an American branch of Amnesty International. In addition to Vietnam, she has spread her message of peace and justice to many countries throughout Europe and Latin America.

Hispanic Influences in Baez's Music

Joan Baez has featured some Spanish songs on her English-language albums, including “El Preso Numero Nueve” (“Prisoner Number Nine”) on Joan Baez (1960) and “Dida” on Diamonds and Rust (1975). Both songs appear on Gracias a la vida: Joan Baez canta en español (Here's to Life: Joan Baez Sings in Spanish, 1974), a work she has called “my gift to the Spanish people.” Offering selections from Mexico, Cuba, Spain, and other Hispanic countries, the song list for the 1974 release was suggested by a group of exiled Chileans who had suffered under the repressive government of Augusto Pinochet, the successor of the murdered Salvador Allende. The title track was contributed by Chilean Violetta Parra, and “Te recuerdo Amanda” (“I Remember You, Amanda”) was written by her countryman, Victor Jarra, who was killed during the 1973 coup d'état. Other selections include the protest song “No nos moveran” (“We Shall Not Be Moved”) and Catalan folk song “El rossinyol” (“The Nightingale”). Latin rhythms prevail, and two songs are performed by a traditional mariachi band. The album sold moderately well in the United States but was a best seller in Spain and Latin America.

For many years, Baez refused to sing in Spain because she disagreed with the oppressive policies of dictator Francisco Franco. After his death in 1977, as she toured the country, she paid tribute to those who were murdered under his regime. Although she does not speak fluent Spanish, during her concerts she sang some songs in Spanish, including “No nos moveran” (“We Shall Not Be Moved”), an anthem of resistance that had not been sung publicly in Spain during Franco's rule. Her willingness to sing in the native language of the country demonstrated her solidarity with the Spanish people.

Baez also fought for human rights on behalf of the residents of several Latin American countries, including Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, and, in particular, Chile. Disturbed about alleged Central Intelligence Agency involvement in the assassination of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973, Baez gave a series of concerts sponsored by Amnesty International in support of Chileans who were repressed by the new regime. Her work gave birth to Baez's only Spanish-language album, Gracias a la vida: Joan Baez canta en español (Here's to Life: Joan Baez Sings in Spanish), released in 1974.

Baez performed at the White House in 2010, during a concert to celebrate the music of the Civil Rights Movement. She was honored in 2011 with the establishment of the Joan Baez Award from Amnesty International. She also performed at the Occupy Wall Street protests in November of 2011. Baez honored Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs, whom she dated in the 1980s, with a performance at Jobs memorial held in 2011.

Significance

An artist whose work is inextricably linked to her philosophical and political beliefs, Baez was an icon of the 1960's and 1970's counterculture and protest movements. Although her vocal opposition to war and violence and support of various human-rights causes made her a controversial figure at times, she remained steadfast in her dedication to activism. Baez's music was part of a rich tapestry of protest music that defined a generation and continues to speak to the antiwar fervor of new generations of activists.

Further Reading

1 

Baez, Joan. Daybreak. New York: Avon, 1970. Baez's first autobiography offers an inside look at her family life and Quaker upbringing.

2 

_______. And a Voice to Sing With: A Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009. Baez's second memoir presents an honest, no-holds-barred account of her life, from her childhood in a progressive household through her long career as a singer, songwriter, and activist.

3 

Fuss, Charles, J. Joan Baez: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996. A concise biography, plus detailed entries that include release dates, songs, songwriters, musicians, production credits, review excerpts, and critical commentary offer a comprehensive look at Baez's life, career, and activism.

4 

Hajdu, David. Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001. An illuminating account of the key roles Baez, Dylan, and the Fariñas played in the rise of the folk era in the mid-1960's.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Bochynski, Pegge, and Micah L. Issitt. "Joan Baez." Great Lives from History: American Women, edited by Mary K. Trigg, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLHW_0028.
APA 7th
Bochynski, P., & Issitt, M. L. (2016). Joan Baez. In M. K. Trigg (Ed.), Great Lives from History: American Women. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Bochynski, Pegge and Issitt, Micah L. "Joan Baez." Edited by Mary K. Trigg. Great Lives from History: American Women. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2016. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.