Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Strange Fruit - Cross and Lynching Tree Excerpt

    Uploaded by

    Gail Hoad
    4 views3 pages

    Original Title

    Strange Fruit_cross and Lynching Tree Excerpt

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    4 views3 pages

    Strange Fruit - Cross and Lynching Tree Excerpt

    Uploaded by

    Gail Hoad

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 3
    4 THE ROSS AND THE LYNCHING TRI tion of the religion chat the mater ad profaned in his mnids™ ‘There were many ways to resise whive supremacy thae did not always lead co che lynching re. Black people especially women, foughe agains whice domination in varery of creative ways, in song, word, and dance. Bile Holidays rendition of "Strange Fruit’ which se called’my personal protest’ was the mose pow erful resistance song against lynching, Ir has been elled'a dec- laration of wat” and one af the songs that changed the world” Time magazine called Billie Holiday *history’s greatest Janz singer" and"Stange Frue"the bee song ofthe century Souther eres bese strange fit, Blood on the leaves and blood a the root, Black body swinging inthe Southern breeze, Scrange fruit hanging fom the poplar trees, Pastoral scene ofthe gallant South, “The bulging eyes and the ewisted mouth, Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh, ‘Then the sudden smell of burning flesh! Here is eae for the erows 0 pluck, For the ain ro gather, foe the wind suck, For the sun to rot, forthe tres to drop, Hire isa strange and bier crop.) “her of Stange Free wren in the ely 04 by Abel Meropel ale, Levi Alen} white Ji cho! czachr fom NewYork Ci wh ate adap the to sons of convicted spc and et Rover Upon serio the welLiown Lawrence Biers phorgeap ofthe aching of “Tomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marin nae (930 Mesoplbetne incensed ht he wrt oe pes sae flees uned me for days he reeled ier? sree Sage Fri becnse atch and Tate juice {dT hate the people wh perpen ¥ ‘o MARY, DON'T You WEED” 5 ‘Meeropol said in che lyrics of "Strange Fruit” what Rein- hold Niebuhs and other white cheologians and religous leaders should have sid if che had the heare and courage co say what Jesus cross means for American Christians. The cross bears ‘witness eo a bral strociy such as che lynching of Shipp and ‘Smith, Abel Mesropel was a part ofa marginalized communicy ‘who had along history of suffering ar dhe hands of white Chis- tians. Some Jews, like Leo Frank in Adanta, were also lynched (ibis). When Meeropol saw the images of Shipp and Smith, he denied with chem and other victims of injustice such as the nine Scottsboro boys in Alabama, who were falsely acused of the eape of two white gils on a erin, daring the same decade “The Irie of “Seange Froit” expressed Mecropol’s existential solidarity withthe strange fuic banging from poplar ees” “Serange Fruit” caprares the great contradiction in south- erm culate and the religion that defined it "Lynching is part of the religion of our people’ one white man cold another. Blacks have alays wondered how whites could lve comfortably vith that absurd. Flow could whice Christians reconcile the "erage frit they hung on southern trees with thestrange fut” ‘Romans hung onthe ross at Golgocha? How could they recon cil the"pastoralacene of che gallane South withthe bulging eyes land twisted mouth’ che contrast berweenthe"scen of magnolia ‘sweet and fish” andthe sudden smell of burning flesh’? How ‘ould the white Chrisian communiey reconcile “blood on che leaves and blood at the root with the blood on their consciences? “Flere i frit forthe crows to plc’ like"the dogs beneath the ros" in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. "Here isa strange and bitter crop First suing in 1939 at the Café Sociery, che newly invegrated nightelub in New York, Bille Holidays version of “Strange Fruit’ as Farah Jasmine Grifin put i, "helped ro establish anc ‘maineain a politica consciousness among black people about Inching” Grifin concends that Lady Day, as Holiday was 16 THE CROSS AND THE LYNCHING TREE

    You might also like