Ballad of Sammie Abbot

Written for the 25th anniversary of the Takoma Park (Maryland) Folk Festival, which was founded by the late Sammie Abbott. With special appreciation to the late Lenore Robinson, for all her dedicated work on the festival over the years, and for introducing me to Sammie Abbott's story.

My people were born from Syria, they settled in New York State

I was born in Ithaca in nineteen hundred and eight

A true American born and bred

I always believed what the headlines said

My name is Sammie Abbott, come listen to my tale

I won honors at Cornell, an architect-to-be

But when FDR close the banks–something awoke in me

I left school to save my soul

And organized for the C.I.O.

Sold my watercolors to earn my bed and feed

Come 19 and 40 I settled in DC

In the bricklayers' union I found solidarity

When Hitler set the world ablaze

I flew bombers for the USA

Earn five commendations and the Bronze Star for bravery

Even as a war hero, I still worked day and night

Organized to "Ban the Bomb" and for black people's rights

But those McCarthy years were mean

Washington, D.C., protest poster drawn by Sammie Abbott, late 1960s Sammie Abbott pamphlet and graphic

They smeared true patriots to make you scream

The blacklist stole my livelihood but I never quit the fight

I opposed Korea, Vietnam was a fiasco

If the Big Boys built their freeway our own town would be bulldozed

I stood up, but not alone

"No white folks' roads thru black folks' homes"

Brought rich and poor together, and helped create the METRO

I finally became Mayor when Reagan came to town

I was 72 years old but I stared the doubters down

Saved the schools, brought rent control

"Sanctuary" and the nuclear free zone

Being faithful where you live can turn the whole world 'round

Some people call me "angry," some people call me "red"

Mostly guys in Cadillacs who look way overfed

I don't care if you think I'm mean

It's that "trickle down" that's so obscene

I'll always fight injustice, that's my life and testament