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“Strange Fruit”

“Strange Fruit”. Lyrics by Lewis Allan aka Abel Meeropol (Jewish teacher from New York) Sung by Billie Holiday in 1939. Lyrics. Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,

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“Strange Fruit”

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  1. “Strange Fruit” Lyrics by Lewis Allan aka Abel Meeropol (Jewish teacher from New York) Sung by Billie Holiday in 1939

  2. Lyrics Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant south, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of burning flesh! Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, Here is a strange and bitter crop.

  3. Southern trees bear a strange fruit,

  4. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

  5. Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,

  6. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

  7. Pastoral scene of the gallant south,

  8. The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,

  9. Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,

  10. Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!

  11. Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,

  12. For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,

  13. For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,

  14. Here is a strange and bitter crop.

  15. What is lynching? • Lynching is an act of mob violence which results in the death or maiming of a person often suspected, charged, or convicted of a serious crime. • Lynching is a group killing under the justification of serving justice, race or tradition. • Lynching often occurs outside of the legal justice system.

  16. Were only men lynched? • Laura Nelson lynched with her son in Okemah, Oklahoma on May 25, 1911. • Nelson’s son was initially accused of stealing meat, but she tried to take the blame for him so they were both killed.

  17. Were the victims always hung? • William Brown lynched in Omaha, Nebraska on September 28, 1919. • Brown was accused of molesting a white girl. The Mayor pleaded with the mob, but the mob set the courthouse on fire, seized him, hung him from a lamppost, mutilated him, rattled his body with bullets and then burned him.

  18. Why did people take pictures of lynching? • Thomas Shipp & Abram Smith lynched in Marion, Indiana on August 7, 1930. • These teenagers allegedly shot a white couple during an attempted robbery. • James Cameron escaped this lynching.

  19. Why were blacks lynched publicly from the 1880s to the 1960s? • To maintain the racial order in the south and elsewhere across the country after the end of slavery • “To protect white women” • To teach children racism • To stop blacks from taking full advantage of their legal freedoms & new economic opportunities given during Reconstruction

  20. Why were blacks lynched publicly from the 1880s to the 1960s? Waud, Alfred R. “The First Vote.” Harper’s Weekly, November 1867.

  21. Why were blacks lynched publicly from the 1880s to the 1960s? Blacks were elected to office in the South during Reconstruction. These are Black congressmen from the late 1800s, including the first black person to serve in the United States Senate, Hiram Revels (1869-1871).

  22. What crimes were non-black lynching victims accused of?

  23. What crimes were black lynching victims accused of?

  24. Where did lynching occur?Lynching by State & Race: 1882-1968(States with the highest lynching rates+IL) State Whites Blacks Total Alabama 48 299 347 Arkansas 58 226 284 Florida 25 257 282 Georgia 39 491 530 Kentucky 63 142 205 Louisiana 56 335 391 Mississippi 40 538 758 Missouri 53 69 122 North Carolina 15 85 100 Oklahoma 82 40 122 South Carolina 4 156 160 Tennessee 47 204 251 Texas 141 352 493 Virginia 17 83 100 (Illinois 15 19 34) TOTAL 1,297 3,446 4,743

  25. Why were non-blacks lynched? Leo Frank, 1913; Jewish, northern-born factory owner in Atlanta accused of raping & murdering a 13-year-old girl

  26. How did people respond to lynching? “Our country’s national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob. It represents the cool, calculating deliberation of the intelligent people who openly avow that there is an “unwritten law” that justifies them in putting human beings to death without complaint under oath, without trial by jury, without opportunity to make defense, and without right of appeal…” - Ida B. Wells, former slave & black journalist

  27. Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)

  28. Who else fought to end lynching? NAACP Advertisement. “The Shame of America.” New York Times, 23 November 1922.

  29. Who else fought to end lynching? • James Weldon Johnson, Walter White (NAACP) • Jessie Ames Daniel (ASWPL) • Many senators and congressmen wrote bills to pass a federal anti-lynching law, but out of more than 200 bills, none could get past the southern Democratic voting bloc in the Senate. • Organizations of northern blacks, white & black journalists, and middle-class white women strove to end lynching. We will read about them more in class

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