Strange Fruit

1
Strange Fruit

• Performed By Billie Holiday,
• Composed by Lewis Allen
• Heard by all of America.

2
Terms of Racism and Bigotry

• Murder the crime of unlawfully killing a person
  esp. with malice aforethought
• Lynch to put to death by mob action without
  legal sanction or due process of law.
• Terrorism the systematic use of fear, panic,
  and horror esp. as a means of coercion.

3
Statistics of Lynching

• Based on Reported Articles in Newspapers
• Between 1882-1951
• 4,730 people were lynched in the United States
• 3,437 Negro and 1,293 white
• 92 Women 76 Negro, 16 White

4

• After preaching a sermon condemning Klan-cross
  -burning near Berkley, Michigan, a Detroit
  suburb, Reverend Oren Van Loon received this
  indelible souvenir in 1924.
• He was branded by hooded attackers with KKK at
  home in the middle of the night.
• He was considered lucky to have lived.

5
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
6
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
7
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze,
8
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
9
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
10
The bulging eyes and twisted mouth,
11
The scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
12
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
13
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
14
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
15
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
16
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
17
Common Illegal and Immoral Justifications for
Lynching
Victims were accused, but never received trials
for

• Murder
• Rape Attempted Rape
• Assault (even in self-defense)
• An Insult to a White Woman
• Disputing (arguing) with a White Man
• Attempting to Register to Vote
• Testifying against a White Man
• Peeking in a Window

22 of reported lynchings were a result of
nameless crimes no reason