Tomorrow will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie, and here in Los Angeles, where Guthrie lived pre-fame, a town square will be re-dedicated in his honor. But in the midst of all of the nostalgic left-wing lionization of the singing poet of the Dustbowl, the downtrodden and the little guy (and the songwriter of “This Land Is Your Land”), a seldom-discussed aspect of the great folk singer’s life has come to light…

In a post titled “Little Known Fact: Woody Guthrie Was a Big Ol’ Racist” by Jonny Whiteside on the LA Weely’s blog, Whiteside lays out the case (supported by several Guthrie biographies), that Guthrie was not always the enlightened, politically progressive Okie sage who influenced Bob Dylan:

Having blacked-up as a teenager in Okemah to perform a half-baked minstrel show, Guthrie while living in Echo Park took time out from championing oppressed white Okies to doodle his innumerable cartoons of what he described as “jungle blacks,” a group he also referred to as “n*ggers,” “darkies,” “chocolate drops” and, yes, “monkeys.”

After encountering a group of African-Americans on Santa Monica Beach one day in 1937, Guthrie immortalized the meeting in a lengthy poem that included stanzas like “What is that Ethiopian smell / upon the Zephyrs, what a fright!” and “We could dimly hear their chants / and we thought the blacks by chance / were doing a cannibal dance.”

Broadcasting on Pasadena’s KFVD, Guthrie often indulged in on-air employ of ebonics and was stunned when a black listener characterized the singer as “unintelligent” after hearing Guthrie perform songs with titles like “Run, N*gger, Run” and “N*gger Blues.” Fortunately for him, recordings of these tunes do not survive.

(Guthrie apologists are quick to point out that “n*gger” was then in common usage. But it’s intended meaning was pejorative then—and, yes, racist—just as it is now.)

Later, Guthrie said, “A young Negro in Los Angeles wrote me a nice letter one day telling me the meaning of that word [n*gger] and that I shouldn’t say it anymore on the air. So I apologized.” He next “tore all the n*gger songs out of his songbook.”

Sounds like he had a change of heart. And, indeed, he went on to pen anti-racist songs.

But the bottom line is that Guthrie was clearly not the simple, working-man’s champion that he’s portrayed as. The full story is the full story, and glossing over the man’s faults does everyone a disservice. Even if it is his birthday.

You can hear two of the four recently unearthed Woody Guthrie songs, “Big City Ways” and “Skid Row Serenade” here.