The singer-songwriter Len Chandler, who has died aged 88, played a key role in both the New York folk scene of the late 1950s and early 60s and the US civil rights movement. In 1963 he updated the lyrics to the traditional Keep Your Eyes on the Prize (Hold On), which he sang, backed by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, at the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech.
In his 2004 memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan wrote: “One thing about Chandler was that he was fearless. He didn’t suffer fools and no one could get in his way. He was powerfully built … brilliant and full of good will, one of those guys who believed that all of society could be affected by one solitary life.”
