Lynching

Social movements can be defined as a grouping of individuals or organizations which focus on political and social issues. Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, drafted and passed the Emancipation Proclamation which changed the federal legal status of more than 3 million slaves in the south from “slave” to “free, which was monumental for the African-American people. Fast forward about a century later racism was alive and well and prosed an issue for the social justice of African-Americans. The 1960’s were a…

photograph taken at a lynching on August 7, 1930. The revolting glimpse of the lifeless bodies hanging helplessly on a maple tree was said to “haunt” Meeropol “for days.” The sight disturbed him so much, it led him to write a poem titled, “Strange Fruit” in 1937, which was published and later converted into a song reperformed by Billie Holiday in 1939. “Strange Fruit” was significant to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, and protested racism against blacks, specifically lynching. This…

on the trees’ leaves and roots which instantly stirred up feeling of sadness. This song describes the lynching of African Americans in the South. I asked myself, what could a man possible do, to deserve being lynched? Then, I am reminded of a time in racist American where African Americans were oppressed, treated unjustly and at times, lynched for mere sport. Although I’ve never witnessed a lynching, this song paints a vivid, painful account of these heartless events. In the 1930’s, slavery had…

racism towards the African-American Community, and the lynching of American-American men. Years later, Kanye West released a song in 2013 called “Blood on the Leaves”. West’s song sampled singer Nina Simone’s version of “Strange Fruit”. Even though both of these songs are decades apart, they both have similarities and differences and each has their own story. In the song “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, the song revolves mostly around lynching. The Strange Fruit that Holiday is referring to…

John Singleton’s film Rosewood, 1993, portrays the 1927 lynching and white race riot against the Black community of Rosewood, Florida that reveals how the local sheriff and city government officials participated in the lynchings, terror, murders, and racial and ethnic cleansing against African Americans and their property. This film confirms the first issue as true. Related to this, the excerpt…

named her most iconic song. Abel Meeropol began high school at Dewitt Clinton High School and graduated in 1921. He later taught English at the same high school for seventeen years. Meeropol was said to be very disturbed at the photo of whites lynching black people that he wrote a poem about it. Overall, the poem made me very…

When black Wacoans tell God, they tell the weather and the land. On May 11, 1953, divine violence upset the natural weather patterns in the central Texas landscape. Mary Denkins recalls in detail her father rushing to pick her up from the all-black Moore High School. She remembers hearing on the radio the threat of a massive tornado. When Mary arrived home, her mother gave a cautious, deliberate prophecy to her and her siblings: “God is fixin’ to work, so you all be quiet.” Late afternoon, the…

Strange Fruit is a poem by Abel Meeropol written in 1939 was written to inform people about racism in an obvious fashion that explains the racism at the lynching in Marion killing two boys and harming another. The two boys were Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were both African Americans who were lynched by a mob full of generally peaceful citizens who had been induced into mob mentality. Strange Fruit tells how cruel people could be when they are convinced that racism is the way to purge the land…

Lynching or trial by mob has been a popular way to punish upstarts in America for hundreds of years. According to history and legend, Judge Charles Lynch, was the first to coin the term for the practice in North America; during the mid-1700s. This method, rule and trial by mob, has been recorded throughout history; since the dawn of man. Whether you look at the mob that sent Christ to the cross or the pogroms in imperial Russia in the 1800s, this method of justice is timeless. In the piece…

` I disagree with the quote “Discrimination occurs across the world at various times, and for various reasons. As time progresses, discrimination becomes less and less, because people learn from past history and from past mistakes.” This authorless quote can be disproven with many different songs and articles. Some being “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol and A Prom Divided, written by Sara Corbett. Another source of incredible interest is The Scottsboro Case found at…