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Trump Legacy Revisted: Beach Haven Apartments 

July 13, 2016 
by Bruce Gilden 
In December 1950, Woody Guthrie signed a lease to Brooklyn's "Beach Haven" Apartments, a residence developed by Fred Trump.

Guthrie wrote that Fred Trump would not rent Beach Haven apartments to African-Americans, which 1970s court records "confirmed that applications sent to the central [Trump] office for acceptance or rejection were coded by race. Another rental agent said that Fred Trump had instructed him not to rent to blacks." Guthrie's loathing for his landlord inspired some of his angriest lyrics and he moved out 2 years later.

Bruce Gilden journeys to Brooklyn to revisit the apartments once managed by "Old Man Trump".

~ written by Guthrie in 1953
I suppose
Old Man Trump knows
Just how much
Racial Hate
he stirred up
In the bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed
That color line
Here at his
Eighteen hundred family project

"I Ain't Got No Home" (1959)
Beach Haven ain't my home!
I just cain't pay this rent!
My money's down the drain!
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven looks like heaven
Where no black ones come to roam!
No, no, no! Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain't my home!

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