Strange Fruit

"Strange Fruit" is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol (under his pseudonym Lewis Allan) and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol published in 1937. The song protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century and the great majority of victims were black. The song has been called "a declaration" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement. The article included in this segment was taken from my home town and told to me when I was a child. As a child, I knew the dangers of growing up black in America, but it never frighten me, it just made me aware of the evil that resides in hearts of men. By the time the 1970s came into play, the chances of me being killed by a Black Man was greater than being lynched by a White Man. I would encourage everyone reading this article, to study and learn about black history, our past, because, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."--George Santayana