Woody Guthrie, 'Old Man Trump' And A Real Estate Empire's Racist Foundations

Woody Guthrie lived in Fred Trump’s Beach Haven apartment complex for two years. Nick Lehr/The Conversation

By Will Kaufman, University of Central Lancashire

In December 1950, Woody Guthrie signed his name to the lease of a new apartment in Brooklyn. Even now, over half a century later, that uninspiring document prompts a double-take.

Below all the legal jargon is the signature of the man who had composed “This Land Is Your Land,” the most resounding appeal to an equal share for all in America. Below that is the signature of Donald Trump’s father, Fred. No pairing could appear more unlikely.

Guthrie’s two-year tenancy in one of Fred Trump’s buildings and his relationship with the real estate mogul of New York’s outer boroughs produced some of Guthrie’s most bitter writings, which I discovered on a recent trip to the Woody Guthrie Archives in Tulsa. These writings have never before been published; they should be, for they clearly pit America’s national balladeer against the racist foundations of the Trump real estate empire.

Recalling these foundations becomes all the more relevant in the wake of the racially charged proclamations of Donald Trump, who last year announced, “My legacy has its roots in my father’s legacy.”

All-Female Activist Berklee Band Raising Money For Concept Album About Fighting Oppression

All-Female Activist Band Flight of Fire, From Berklee College of Music
(PRNewsFoto/Flight of Fire)

Flight of Fire's third album will center on themes of trauma recovery and fighting back against abuse, complete with an a-list team of industry professionals

Flight of Fire an all-female, Berklee College of Music-educated band that was formed in 2009.  Flight of Fire were named New England Music Awards' "Last Band Standing" Boston Finalists in November 2015, Hard Rock Rising Boston City-Wide Champions in April 2015, and were Winners of the 2013 Fox Rocks Bon Jovi Contest to Open For Bon Jovi At Ford Field, Detroit. 

Flight of Fire founded The Stolen Voices Project, a multimedia awareness project about acquaintance rape, filmed at Berklee, with 56 singers and performers from 7 Bostonarea schools as well as Boston community members. 

The project seeks to illuminate the issues surrounding acquaintance rape and consent and was created in cooperation with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and Hollaback Boston.

Knopf To Publish Book By Journalist Nancy Jo Sales About Teenage Girls And Social Media

Knopf to Publish Book by Journalist Nancy Jo Sales about Teenage Girls and Social Media

Next month Knopf will release a new book about social media and its impact on the lives of today's youth. Written by Nancy Jo Sales, and based on reporting she has done over the past 30 months, AMERICAN GIRLS: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, will go on sale February 23 with a first printing of 150,000 copies. It will also be available as an eBook and from Random House Audio. First serial rights have been sold to Time Magazine.

Yahoo - Stop Your Deadly Ivory Trade!

Image via Avaaz.org

Yahoo is making a killing selling ivory which companies like Google refuse to touch. But right now the company is under pressure to keep employees happy -- let’s make sure every last one of them knows Yahoo’s bloody secret.  

>> Click here to sign and share this across the web now. 

Jason Rezaian Released From Iranian Prison After 544 Days

Jason Rezaian Released From Iranian Prison After 544 Days (PRNewsFoto/National Press Club)

[Good news are, and will always be, our favourite kind of news, here at LoupDargent.info... Enjoy!]

Members of the National Press Club and journalist around the world are overjoyed at the news our colleague Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian who has been in prison for 544 days for simply doing his job has been released, and will now be reunited with his family and friends.

Canada's History Marks The 100th Anniversary Of Women's Suffrage

Canada's Great Women (CNW Group/Canada's History)

Canada's History Society marks the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage with special editions of Canada's History and Kayak: Canada's History Magazine for Kids.

For Canada's History, a special panel – including former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and bestselling author Charlotte Gray – selected "20 Great Women" from Canada's political, business, artistic, and activist history.