The Importance of Strange Fruit
The Importance of “Strange Fruit”
On August 7, 1930, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were broken out of jail only to face a fate far more gruesome and violent than that which they may have otherwise endured
(Frederick 40). The tragedy of their story, though, would eventually inspire a work of art so powerful that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s is considered by some to have been born from it (Margolick 92). The song “Strange Fruit,” written by Abel Meeropol and popularized by
Billie Holiday, exemplifies the power of music to move hearts and minds when it is coupled with a noble and urgent cause. This particular song owes its success to both the social context in which it existed and on which it commented, and the aesthetic value of the song itself. Put another way — it was a tumultuous time in American history, and any is a time for great music.
Shipp and Smith’s jailbreak was untraditional, and to them, involuntary. The two men had been accused of robbery, murder, and rape and would soon be counted among the thousands of African Americans lynched in our country throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A white mob sought what they considered vigilante justice for crimes yet to be proven.
Shipp and Smith were pulled from the jail, brutally beaten to death, and their battered bodies hanged from trees (Frederick 40). One glance at a notorious photograph of the event shows that a kind of sick celebration ensued around their bodies. It looks as if the same psychopathy that lingers in the minds of serial murderers and rapists filled the air. Such was the nature of lynching, and such is the nature of racism. From the late 1890s until around 1930, lynchings were not altogether uncommon (Stovel 884). Black men were most often the victims of this heinous act, and police did worse than turn a blind eye — they sometimes participated. A photograph of this particular scene — grisly, nauseating, and shameful — would eventually find
On August 7, 1930, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were broken out of jail only to face a fate far more gruesome and violent than that which they may have otherwise endured
(Frederick 40). The tragedy of their story, though, would eventually inspire a work of art so powerful that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s is considered by some to have been born from it (Margolick 92). The song “Strange Fruit,” written by Abel Meeropol and popularized by
Billie Holiday, exemplifies the power of music to move hearts and minds when it is coupled with a noble and urgent cause. This particular song owes its success to both the social context in which it existed and on which it commented, and the aesthetic value of the song itself. Put another way — it was a tumultuous time in American history, and any is a time for great music.
Shipp and Smith’s jailbreak was untraditional, and to them, involuntary. The two men had been accused of robbery, murder, and rape and would soon be counted among the thousands of African Americans lynched in our country throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A white mob sought what they considered vigilante justice for crimes yet to be proven.
Shipp and Smith were pulled from the jail, brutally beaten to death, and their battered bodies hanged from trees (Frederick 40). One glance at a notorious photograph of the event shows that a kind of sick celebration ensued around their bodies. It looks as if the same psychopathy that lingers in the minds of serial murderers and rapists filled the air. Such was the nature of lynching, and such is the nature of racism. From the late 1890s until around 1930, lynchings were not altogether uncommon (Stovel 884). Black men were most often the victims of this heinous act, and police did worse than turn a blind eye — they sometimes participated. A photograph of this particular scene — grisly, nauseating, and shameful — would eventually find
Cited: Frederick, H. "Life Stories: He Survived A Lynching, Now He Won 't Let Us Forget." Reader 31.35 (2002): 40. Print. Margolick, David. "Performance as a Force for Change: The Case of Billie Holiday and "Strange Fruit"" Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature 11.1 (1999): 91-109. Print. Stovel, Katherine. "Local Sequential Patterns: The Structure of Lynching in the Deep South, 1882-1930." Social Forces 79.3 (2001): 843-80. Print. 5 Peter Calloway