Keys to the Archive: A Lesson Before DyingMain MenuAboutIntroductionKeywords EntriesTracesThe CollectionsBibliographyDavid Squiresc613f45970ae89ef70516076df94370392b06674
Strange Fruit
12021-11-17T19:05:58+00:00David Squiresc613f45970ae89ef70516076df94370392b0667461Piano Interlude by Sonny Whiteplain2021-11-17T19:05:58+00:005/1/1939Billie Holiday and Her OrchestraAudioAbel Meeropol, Lewis Allan526-AJazzCommodoreInternet ArchiveDavid Squiresc613f45970ae89ef70516076df94370392b06674
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12021-11-17T21:14:22+00:00David Squiresc613f45970ae89ef70516076df94370392b06674Radio Free Bayonne2A Playlist to Accompany the Novelplain2021-11-17T21:15:34+00:00David Squiresc613f45970ae89ef70516076df94370392b06674
Southern trees bear a 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
Billie Holiday is not mentioned in A Lesson Before Dying, but she would have been playing on Jefferson’s radio in 1948. It is easy to imagine Jefferson hearing Holiday’s beautiful voice singing about the strange crop in the southern trees.
The lyrics of "Strange Fruit" were written by Abel Meeropol as a poem in reaction to lynching in the United States. They dramatize a southern scene when lynching was at its height, when Black people were treated as non-citizens unprotected by the law. On the surface, the song's lynching narrative seems a little too far in the past to be of significance to the story of Jefferson. Lynching, however, has had an ever-changing role in the history of America, particularly the American South. What started as the policing of Black bodies during times of slavery continued as a form of lethal violence after Reconstruction. Traditionally, lynching is defined as the extrajudicial execution of individuals—that is, an execution without an arrest or a trial. Protest against lynching grew stronger in the twentieth century, especially from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the number of cases went down. As lynching became less common, however, legal lynching was born. Legal lynching is a form of lynching which employs the systemically racist justice system of the Jim Crow era to legally kill Black people. This was a commonplace practice and continues to have implications for capital punishment today.