‘Strange Fruit’: accurate depiction of US history

Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
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
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

"Strange Fruit." What is this "strange fruit?" Dead bodies…. dead bodies of largely African-Americans hanging from trees, bridges, crosses and stakes. Yes, our history. Our history of literally lynching African-Americans.

As an anti-lynching poem, Abel Meeropol presented his work (published in 1936),"Strange Fruit", to his teaching colleagues and the New York teacher's union, soon, gaining more public notoriety among anti-lynching sympathizers. Meeropol was a Jewish public school teacher from the Bronx who became outraged by incidents and images (primarily photographs) of lynching. As a protest song, "Strange Fruit" emerged as a strong statement in opposition to such hate and violence and was later adopted as the banner song for anti-lynching movements in America.

As the movement gained momentum (not without powerful resistance), "Strange Fruit" soon gained in popularity following several performances by Billie Holiday, most notably at the Café Society in Greenwich Village.

Historic documents reveal over 5,000 lynching's occurred between 1882 and 1968 in the United States. Lynching has never been federally outlawed by the Congress of the United States of America, regardless of the many attempts to pass anti-lynching legislation by elected leaders (over 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced between 1900 and 2005). In 2005, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution "apologizing for its failure to enact anti-lynching legislation" (U.S. Senate, 2005). Resistance and denial to the truth's of our past are clear indicators of hate (by and through white privilege).

We have an ugly history with ourselves and our slave-trading, slave-keeping, slave-exploiting, slave-raping, slave-abusing, slave-killing, slave-wounding, slave-destruction of families, lynching, denying equality when "freed", continuing to deny equality…..and yes, our ugly history includes incidents of hate and injustice that occurred yesterday. Yes, I mean yesterday, November 14, 2009.

When will we own our history and understand we too have blood on our hands? As long as there continues to be hate, injustice and violence (emotional, verbal and physical) against African-Americans as well as other legally protected groups of peoples in our country, we have failed. We have not done our work.

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Southern Poverty Law Center (see Hate Groups Map and Hate Incidents/Intelligence Project)

"Strange Fruit" performed by Nina Simone