Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith

“Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze / Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees” (3-4). The poem “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol was published in 1937. It sets a deep tone on how racism occurred back in the 1930s. Meeropol was an ordinary high school teacher who went on to teach English for seventeen years. He was also a poet and social activist. Meeropol was troubled at the racism going on in America. He was inspired to write this poem after seeing a photograph of two teenagers; Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, get lynched. “The night before, on Aug. 6, 1930, they had been arrested and charged with the armed robbery and murder of a white factory worker, Claude Deeter, and the rape of his companion, Mary Ball” (Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching). Meeropol said after looking at the photograph, he was “haunted for days”. The poem, “Strange Fruit” sets a…

Many songs throughout history have tried to help correct wrongdoings or educate the world about those wrongdoings. An example song really hits me hard is “Strange Fruit” most notably song by Billie Holiday. The story behind the song starts in Indiana in 1930. Three black men were in the county jail and awaiting trial for the death of a white man and supposed rape of his girlfriend. A mob gathered outside of the jail. The mob tried to get into the prison using sledgehammers. Eventually, the mob…

one who is experiencing the beating and crushing which causes an emotional experience with the text. For a second, you feel what it feels like to be a black citizen in America. The imprudent murder of Anderson relates to the gruesome murders of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp in 1930 during the Great Depression. These two young men were African Americans who like Anderson, suffered from being wrongfully killed by whites. Smith and Shipp were unjustifiably accused of raping a white woman and were…

The first segment that had an effect on me was The Wounded Knee Massacre. The Wounded Knee Massacre is painful to hear and read about for me because it involved the murder of many innocent and unarmed women and children and it all happened because of an accidental gun discharge. America’s battle with the Native American’s could have all been avoided if we were not so bent on expanding and acquiring as much land as possible and respected the fact that they were there first. The second segment was…

the gallant south” paint a picture of a peaceful somewhat noble setting. This provides the listeners emotions to remain neutral before causing them to immediately fall with the line “The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth”. There instantaneously the way our we go from neutral to disgust finally ending up on sadness once we realize what is going on win these lyrics. The lyrics following this repeat the function with the lyrics “Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh” followed by “Then the sudden…

and performed over 75 years ago, this unnerving song symbolises the racism that continues to be normalised in our society. Holliday’s purpose was to shed light on the extreme racism that led to the deaths of over 4,743 people, 3,446 of which were African Americans and 1,297 white people. By performing ‘Strange Fruit’ as entertainment in night clubs and on the streets, Holiday was the first person to bring forward explicit political opposition to lynching into the public. The main message in…

of lynching. Ms. Addams was a well-established woman of her community, a leader for women’s rights, and an upstanding leader in her social environment. Consequently, repeating the negative rhetoric idealism of her race, was an indication of her true belief about lynching and Black men. The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, in Marion, Indiana, on August 7, 1930, photograph by Lawrence Beitler, is but one example of what Black people had to face daily. The white people of the community…

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…

The man behind "Strange Fruit" is a man from New York City named Abel Meeropol. In The Guardian news article by Caryl Phillips He says, "Meeropol was motivated to write the poem after seeing a photograph of two black teenagers, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, who had been lynched in Marion, Indiana on August 7 1930. Their bodies were hanging limply from a tree" (Phillips 5). Harold heft says in The Jewish Daily Forward, "The poem “Bitter Fruit” was first published in the union journal The New York…

effective counterattack, allegedly singing “Yankee Doodle” as a way to reclaim the song and use it to be proud of their nationality. The “Yankee Doodle” then became an unofficial anthem for the American Army. The song was sung in multiple battles of the revolutionary war and served as a way to boost morale among American soldiers and gain support for the patriot cause (“Yankee Doodle The story behind the song”). The era of the Civil Rights Movement is linked to many protest songs. In fact, the…