ShareThisSinger-songwriter Peter Yarrow knows a thing or two about the struggle for justice.
In the early 1960s, he marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama and Washington; later, he stood singing amid the spray of tear gas at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago; and since then he has traveled the world in support of a myriad of social and political causes.
More recently, Yarrow turned up at the side of union workers protesting in Madison, Wis., and he performed as part of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.
"We sang, 'We shall not, we shall not be moved' -- and it was wonderful," says Yarrow. "There have been all kinds of arrests, but what I found was a very safe and very caring environment."
For the 73-year-old Yarrow, it's all an extension of an effort that began more than 50 years ago, when he first came to prominence as part of the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary.
With hits like "Blowin' In the Wind" and "If I Had a Hammer" (as well as the Yarrow-penned "Puff the Magic Dragon"), the group became torchbearers for the socially conscious music of the era.
Though he still occasionally performs with Noel "Paul" Stookey (Mary Travers died in 2009), and does his own solo dates, these days Yarrow devotes most of his time to performing in support of Operation Respect, the nonprofit organization he founded in 1999.
The program promotes a curriculum of "civility and conflict resolution" in schools throughout the world.
"We're now in 22,000 schools in the U.S. and many other countries," says Yarrow. "We're in Israel, and going to Palestine, we're in Croatia, Canada -- wherever we're invited to go, we go."
"The reason Operation Respect is so important is that I've come to believe that the only way we're going to change things is through educating kids in a different way," says Yarrow.
"We talk about a thing called the 'Pyramid of Hate': It starts with kids making fun of each other and bullying each other; that builds to racism and prejudice; then that builds to war and holocaust. So if we eliminate that, by creating an environment in which kids are safe, feel respected, valued and empowered, then we're growing children who can form a more caring, loving, peaceful society. In effect, they grow to be peace builders."
While Peter, Paul & Mary enjoyed the commercial benefits of the '60s folk boom -- selling millions of albums, charting 19 times and earning five Grammy awards -- Yarrow has never tethered his personal satisfaction to sales or success.
Yarrow says the challenge now is to reach a culture that has grown increasingly cynical. He quotes the closing lines of his 1978 anthem "Sweet Survivor": "You see someone too young to know the difference /And a veil of isolation in their eyes/ And inside you know you've got to leave them something/ Or the hope for something better slowly dies."
"I do feel worried about the way things are heading," says Yarrow, "but I don't have the option to consider withdrawing from the struggle."
Through it all, Yarrow will continue to sing the songs that have resonated for a half-century.
"I will always be singing 'Blowin' in the Wind' and 'If I Had a Hammer' -- but there are new songs, and there are new meanings. It's not just a trip down memory lane," he says.
"These songs are not historical documents to be looked at in wonder and say, 'Oh, wasn't that a time.' Because this is the time. This is perhaps the most crucial time."
(Bob Mehr covers music for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. Contact him at mehr(at)commercialappeal.com.)
