688. The Blinding of Isaac Woodard (Woody Guthrie)

Isaac Woodard (1919-1992) was an African-American veteran of WW2 who was beaten and maimed only hours after being discharged from the US army. Still in uniform, he was left permanently blind after suffering from a ruptured cornea during an encounter with the South Carolina police on February 14, 1946. The sheriff involved claimed he had struck Woodard only once in self-defense, very different from Woodard's story. The case was not widely reported immediately but it soon became a major issue, with extensive newspaper coverage, when the NAACP campaigned for the South Carolina state government to take action, which they had been reluctant to do. One significant campaigner was film-maker Orson Welles whose radio broadcast about the incident can be heard on YouTube.

A month after the beating, calypso artist, Lord Invader, referred to the incident in an anti-racism song he recorded called "God Made Us All". Later that year, Woody Guthrie wrote and recorded this song, saying he wrote it "so's you wouldn't be forgetting what happened to this famous Negro soldier less than three hours after he got his Honorable Discharge down in Atlanta." He also said, "I sung this Isaac Woodard song in the Lewisohn Stadium one night for more than 36,000 people, and I got the loudest applause I've ever got in my whole life. This song is a long song, but most of the action is told in Isaac's own words. I made this ballad up because we'll need lots of songs like this one before we win our fight for racial equality in our big free United States."

The fight is not over yet, but the US has certainly come a long way since that time.

This song was requested by PeppyKar.

You can see a playlist of my Woody Guthrie songs here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=17655A5F634428D4

For lyrics and chords of all my songs please see my website: http://www.raymondcrooke.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• veteran
• soldier
• racism
• orson
• welles
• social
• justice
• protest
• request
• peppykar

[Blackpower3360]

Thanks for sharing this song u did agreat job singing it.

[raymondcrooke]

@Blackpower3360 Thanks for watching. I love Woody's songs.

[coolranchdorito86]

Thank you for this cover! I just heard about the story behind it only a couple days ago. This will be included in my civil rights essay. Just as you stated, we as a nation, have much more progression to achieve

[raymondcrooke]

@coolranchdorito86 I'm glad you can use it in your assignment.

[Terlizziwj]

I guess I should take this up with Woody, but the incident actually occurred in Batesburg, SC, my hometown, not Aiken.  It's the same number of syllables, so it could easily be substituted.

A riveting and tragic story, regardless, and a beautiful recording.

[raymondcrooke]

@Terlizziwj Thanks for that information. I guess I'd better sing it the way Woody wrote it though.

[marghezazi]

Omg you're so cute lol.

[raymondcrooke]

@MrWilliamcheng Songs like this tell very interesting stories. I'm glad you can understand them now.

[MrWilliamcheng]

I 've never been to Amarica. but when i was young i heard some countory music and didn't understand what they meant. now, my English is good enough to understand what the main subject is and i love those songs very much