Great song. I can recite bits and pieces , but not the whole song off of the top of my head. It is not in the data base at least not under N, that surprised me.
I am relatively sure it is a true story, not 100%. The facts are all contained in the text of the song. Basically, the coal mine bosses had thugs go to the Unions Christmas Party to cause trouble. They opened the door and shouted fire and then locked the door. The Party was on the second floor, making the narrow stairwell which led to the locked door the only way out.The children rushed the stairwell in a panic causing some children to get crushed to death up against the locked door.I am not sure of the # of the victims. It might be in the text.
It is important to note what a tireless Union supporter Woody was. He thought Unions akin to spirituality. The total being greater than the sum of it's parts. The participants in the massacre, are a perfect analogy for Woody's beliefs, the Union workers with their families having a socail gathering surrounding a religious holiday as opposed to callas thugs laughing at their misdeeds only there to torment the union in a calculated attempt to intimidate them devised by the greedy boss man, who losses a lot of his control if there is a strong union. I wish I had Woody Guthrie assignments in school. I wouldn't have cut so many classes. They made me sing "this land is your land" in first grade, that was it. Next they'll have you writing papers on "visions Of Johanna".Good Luck.