Made for You and Me: Woody Guthrie, Fred Trump, and Songs We Forgot
Woody Guthrie sang of a land made for you and me. But what happens when those songs are forgotten, rewritten, or silenced?
đ„ Embers â essays, poetry, and cultural works
Over the weekend, I was at Sherwood Forest Faire, a Renaissance festival tucked in the woods of Texas where forgotten stories are remembered on purpose. Iâve been going for yearsâusually in full garb, blending into the community of mischief-makers, musicians, and myth-keepers.
But this time, I went in civilian clothes. I carried a guitar instead of a tankard, and Iâd taped a simple sign to it: âThis Machine Kills Fascists.â My tribute to Woody Guthrie.
Of all the outfits Iâve worn to Faire over the years, that sign sparked the most conversation. People stopped meâkindly, curiouslyâto ask about it, to share a memory, to say thank you, or to show camaraderie. One friend, quietly, said: âYou know Guthrie wrote a song about Trumpâs dad, right?â
I didnât. But I looked it up.
And now that Iâve heard it, Iâm struck by all the ways we forget the radical truths buried beneath songs we thought we understood.
A Protest in Disguise
In 1940, Guthrie wrote what would become "This Land Is Your Land" as a response to Irving Berlinâs "God Bless America", which he considered overly sentimental and disconnected from the realities of working-class life. His original draft included verses about hunger, inequality, and private propertyâlines that asked tough questions about who this land was really for:
âThere was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted, said: âPrivate Propertyâ
But on the back side, it didnât say nothing
This land was made for you and me.â
Though Guthrie himself left those verses out of some performancesâincluding a 1951 childrenâs albumâmany later songbooks followed suit. Over time, the radical roots of the song quietly disappeared.
Old Man Trump and the Color Line
In 1950, Guthrie moved into Beach Haven, a housing complex in Brooklyn owned by real estate developer Fred Trump, father of a young boy named Donald. The development was funded in part through federal programsâbut Black tenants were systematically excluded. Guthrie noticed.
So, he wrote a song.
âI suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate
He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed that color line
Here at his Beach Haven family projectâŠâ
He later adapted the lyrics into a version of "I Ainât Got No Home," retitled "Beach Haven Ainât My Home." The message was pointed: racial exclusion wasnât just happening in the South. It was baked into the buildings, policies, and landlords of Northern cities too.
The Legacy We Inherited
Fred Trumpâs practices didnât go unnoticed. In 1973, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil rights lawsuit against Trump Management for racial discrimination in housing. The case ended in a consent decree. There was no admission of guilt, but DOJ records confirm the charges and the agreement that followed.
This is part of our history.
But Guthrie didnât need to read legal filings to see what was wrong. He just needed to look around and pay attention.
When we sang "This Land Is Your Land" as kids, most of us didnât know the full story. We didnât know Guthrie had written about fences and hunger. We didnât know that even he omitted those verses in some contextsâespecially for younger audiences.
We didnât knowâbecause things that challenge the American mythos are often the things that go unremembered.
(The âPrivate Propertyâ and âRelief Officeâ verses were omitted from many public versions, especially in schoolbooks. Archival recordings and manuscripts confirm their existence and frequent exclusion until later folk historians restored them.)
What This Song MeantâAnd What It Still Could Mean
Today, many people who support Donald Trump also carry deep patriotism. They love their families. They want safety, dignity, and stability. Many grew up singing this very song.
And if thatâs youâif you remember that feeling, that this land was made for everyoneâmaybe something inside you still believes it.
Because weâre not just choosing leaders.
Weâre choosing the story we want to live.
The Role of Artists, Then and Now
Guthrieâs guitar was his megaphone. He used melody to amplify stories that might otherwise be ignored.
He didnât shout. He sang.
And in doing so, he joined a long tradition of artists practicing cultural resistanceânot through performance for its own sake, but through storytelling, memory, and truth.
Art is a signal. Itâs how we remember what matters. Itâs how we protect our stories from being paved over, rewritten, or erased.
A Quiet Invitation
This isnât a post about hate. Itâs about history.
Itâs not about canceling the past. Itâs about recovering what got buried.
If you remember singing âThis Land Is Your Land,â if part of you still believes itâs supposed to mean somethingâlet that feeling anchor you.
But maybe it also asks something of us.
Because this land canât belong to all of us if we keep building it to exclude so many of us.
If Youâre an Artist, This is Your Moment
If youâre a singer, pour out the truth with all your heart.
If youâre a painter, show us the soul weâve lost sight of.
If youâre a writer, tell us the stories weâve never heardâand the ones we need to hear again.
Make the art that celebrates and explores.
Make the art that challenges.
Make the art that dares to believe we can do better.
Not to flatter ourselves. Not to look brave. Resistance can be risky, after all. But because the people who came before us risked everything to keep the truth aliveâand we owe it to them not to let it die in silence.
This is Still Our Story to Shape
Woody Guthrie never stopped believing in people. Thatâs why he kept writing. Thatâs why he named injustice. Thatâs why he kept singing even when the world was burning.
Weâre not giving up either.
Weâre here to remember.
Weâre here to sing.
Weâre here to tell the stories they hoped weâd forget.
And if that makes a few people feel a little uncomfortableâmaybe thatâs how we know itâs working.
You are the signal. Keep your torchlight burning.
Explore More:
Old Man Trump Lyrics: https://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Old_Man_Trump.htm
Audio of Woody Guthrie singing about Fred Trump:
Woody Guthrie -- I Ain't Got No Home/Old Man Trump by the Missin' Cousins:
This Land is Your Land (Provided to YouTube by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
Consent Order - United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management, Inc.: https://clearinghouse.net/doc/83283/
Public Domain Images:
Portrait of Fred Trump from the Brooklyn Eagle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Trump#/media/File:FredTrump1950-02.png
Woody Guthrie in March 1943 with his guitar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_machine_kills_fascists#/media/File:Woody_Guthrie_2.jpg
Original Images:
"This Machine Still Works" and "Carrying The Machine" © Robert Daniel, 2025. All rights reserved.
Explore more from Torch & Tinder Press
đŁ Dispatch â updates & announcements
đ§ Practice â handbooks, field guides, and resistance strategies
đ„ Embers â essays, poetry, and cultural works (youâre here)
Follow us on Instagram: @torchandtinderpress
Follow us on Bluesky: @torchandtinder.bsky.social