Joan Baez
(1941-)

birthdate: January 9
birthplace:
Staten Island, New York

In 1956, when she was 15 years old, two important events happened in Joan Baez's life that would change it forever - she heard Martin Luther King speaking about civil rights and nonviolence and she bought her first guitar. Ever since then, she's been using music to speak out for a better world. In the 1960s, Joan Baez emerged as one of the leaders in the folk music scene, and she used her music and popularity to help promote her passion for change. She performed many benefit concerts for peace and civil rights organizations as well as engaging in nonviolent activities for these causes. She performed "We Shall Overcome" at so many concerts, protests and marches that it has come to symbolize the era. In the 1970s she began campaigning for human rights and peace around the world. In 1979 she co-founded Humanitas, the International Human Rights Committee, which she headed throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Joan Baez continues to be involved in many organizations active in humanitarian causes.

Kids | Youth | Adults | Calendar | Quotes | Heroes | Stories | The EMILY Fund | Scholarships
DO ONE THING and BetterWorld Kids Clubs are projects of The EMILY Fund (The Emily Silverstein Fund, Inc.)
Hero portraits are included for illustration purposes only - no celebrity endorsement implied

The Emily Fund
Education, Mentorship, Inspiration, Leadership, Youth
- for a Better
World

PO Box 430
Roosevelt, NJ 08555-0430
info@EmilyFund.org