"In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?"

Our gratitude to Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and Tao Rodríguez-Seeger for giving us our favorite performance of this song...

Yes, when Woody & his family lived in the Beach Haven apartment complex in the early 1950s, Woody witnessed Fred Trump's racist housing practices and wrote a handful of scathing lyrics about it. Here's one that was set to music by Ryan Harvey. Music video too! www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Old_M...

That come with the dust and are gone with the wind

I'm a-leavin' tomorrow, but I could leave today
Somewhere down the road someday
The very last thing that I'd want to do
Is to say, "I've been hittin' some hard travelin' too"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOWf...

...I'm a-singin' you this song, but I can't sing enough
'Cause there's not many men that done the things that you've done

Here's to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too
And to all the good people that traveled with you
Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men...

Hey, hey Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song
'Bout a funny ol' world that's a-comin' along
Seems sick and it's hungry, it's tired and it's torn
It looks like it's a-dyin' and it's hardly been born

Hey, Woody Guthrie, but I know that you know
All the things that I'm a-sayin' and a-many times more...

Guadalupe Ramírez Lara
Alberto Carlos Raygoza
Guadalupe Rodríguez Hernández
Maria Rodríguez Santana
Wenceslao Ruiz Flores
Juan Ruiz Valenzuela
José Sánchez Valdivia
Jesús Santos Meza
Baldomero Marcos Torres

CREW:
Frank Atkinson
Mrs. Bobbie Atkinson
Marion Ewing
Frank E. Chaffin

Salvador Hernández Sandoval
Severo Lara Medina
José Macías Rodríguez
Elías Macías Trujillo
Tomás Márquez Padilla
Luis Medina López
Manuel Merino Calderón
Luis Miranda Cuevas
Ignacio Navarro Pérez
Martín Navarro Razo
Ramón Ochoa Ochoa
Ramón Paredes González
Apolonio Placencia Ramírez...

And thanks to recent and ongoing research by Tim Z. Hernandez, those originally reported as "deportees" have now all been named and recognized!

Miguel Álvarez Negrete
Francisco Durán Llamas
Santiago Elizondo García
Rosalío Estrada Padilla
Bernabé García López
Tomás Gracia de Aviña...

Set to music by Martin Hoffman, "Deportee" has been sung for decades by musicians Joan Baez, Judy Collins, The Highwaymen, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Lyle Lovett & Los Texmaniacs, Pete Seeger, and Arlo Guthrie among others. Our thanks to these musicians for keeping this song and story alive.

Woody Guthrie's songs Pastures of Plenty, Pretty Boy Floyd, I Ain’t Got No Home, Hard Travelin', Deportee, Oklahoma Hills, Union Maid, Jesus Christ, Do Re Mi, Roll On Columbia, Great Dust Storm and Vigilante Man are among the hundreds by Woody that have become staples in the canon of American music.