Woody Guthrie: Social commentary in song

I asked Deanna McCloud, executive director of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, what feels the most relevant about Guthrie today.

The country is still dealing with many of the issues surrounding race that influenced Guthrie. At the center, in light of events in Charlottesville, Virginia, we explored Guthrie’s work that related to discrimination and race.

His father, Charley, is thought to have been part of a 1911 mob in Okfuskee County that hung Laura and L.D. Nelson, a black mother and her teenage son, on a bridge over the Canadian river, events memorialized by an awful postcard, a common practice in that era. Guthrie, born in 1912, heard the story from his father and later turned the events into sketches and a song, “Don’t Kill My Baby and My Son,” haunting social commentary.

Guthrie took off at 17 from Okemah, rambling and writing 3,000 songs, only 300 of which were recorded.

Some of his lyrics are still being put to song today; musicians Tom Morello, Ani DiFranco and Ryan Harvey in 2016 covered “Beach Haven Ain’t My Home,” which rages about Donald Trump’s father’s refusal to rent to blacks.

McCloud said Guthrie disavowed in 1937 an offensive folk song he’d sang on the “Woody and Lefty Lou” radio program after receiving an anonymous letter from a black man who explained why it was offensive. He read the letter on air.

In his sketches and songs, Guthrie frequently took up for the disenfranchised and encouraged the common man to gain power by voting.

Guthrie’s social commentary also made its way into a column called Woody Sez and an autobiography as he made all of America his home, from Okemah, to Pampa, Texas, to Los Angeles and New York City. He served in Merchant Marines, ferrying troops and supplies during World War II, and in the Army.

Personal tragedy and strife frequently found him: His mother was declared insane, a sister burned to death. Then came the breakup of three marriages, his 4-yearold daughter’s death in an apartment fire and his own debilitating illness, Huntington’s disease. He died in 1967.

Guthrie is considered as a pioneer, the hook in the earth who grounded the chain of Civil Rightsera music. Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, John Lennon. His influence continues to influence musicians today.