When Billie Holiday recorded and sang this song it was a dangerous thing to do. This was back in 1939.
The song has a haunting melody but deals with the terrible lynchings that were a regular feature in the Southern States of America. Nearly 2000 people met their end this way. Three quarters of them were black. There was no trial and they were sometimes for the smallest crimes or even hearsay.
The strange fruit were the bodies of the poor victims left dangling as a warning.
These were the racist days of the Ku Klux Klan. The grinning faces of the arrogant men, so eager to be photographed next to the crime they had committed is testimony to the awfulness of those times.
We should all play this song and reflect on the terrible nature of those crimes in the past so that they may never be repeated.
Racism in any form – white on black, black on white, brown on yellow – is simply wrong.
“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 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
Nina Simone not on did her version but also spoke about it.
A horrifying time. Tomorrow, we are reminded of the execution of rebel slave leader Nat Turner in Virginia in the 1830s – he and his followers butchered many whites. Neither side was justified but it provides some perspective.
It is not that long ago either. I find it mind-boggling that people can be so racist and cruel.
A lot of that is based on fear, hate, and poor self-image. All of that garbage is learned in the home. Parenting should be a privilege not a right.
Or the zeitgeist of the culture and time.