“Strange Fruit” “Strange Fruit” is a poem that was written in 1937 by Abel Meeropol, who was inspired to write this poem when he looked at a picture of two teens, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, who were broken out of their jail cells, by a mob, and lynched. Meeropol "’was very disturbed at the continuation of racism in America, and seeing a photograph of a lynching sort of put him over the edge.’" (Npr.org) After reading the poem, I was mortified. The poem gives you a very graphic picture of the
song was originally written as a protest poem by Jewish high school teacher Abel Meeropol (Holiday). He wrote it as a poem protesting the racism in America and specifically the lynching of African Americans in the south. The lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in 1930 influenced Meeropol in writing this poem which was originally titled “Bitter Fruit” published in The New York Teacher in 1937 (Holiday). How the song got to Holiday
Strange fruit is and amazing dark poem told by Billie Holiday as very powerful song. Strange Fruit is a terrifying protest against the inhumane acts of racism. Strange Fruit was about the murders and lynching going on in the south at the time from public hangings to burnings. The south has a cruel and terrifying past that haunts the very people who still live down there and remind them that only a short time ago was no one prosecuted for killing someone of dark skin since whole towns were involved
“Strange Fruit” is perhaps one of the greatest poem and song ever written to protest the hatred of discrimination. This poem was written by a Jewish male teacher named Abel Meeropol, who was inspired by a haunted photographic picture of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith being lynched in Marron. After seeing an image of the lynch, Meeropol was deeply disturbed which explained how the photo “Haunted” him “for days” (Blair). This portrait made Meeropol opened his eyes to display the ugly truth about the horrors
Racism in the American Society in the 1920s Black people have always been a part of America's history. They were brought to America in the seventeenth century as slaves by white settlers. Slavery ended by the nineteenth century, and by this time there were more black Americans than white Americans in the southern states. However, Blacks always had a tough time, this is due to the stereotypical view that the people had of them. The whites believed that the Blacks were primitive, illiterate
Microaggression and it affects non marginalized groups of people in society. The word microaggression is a term used to describe the insults, brush offs, and slights directed at a person or particular group of people either because of their sex, age, race, gender, and/or their sexuality, particularly those marginalized by society. There are three types of microaggressions. First, there are the deliberate actions known as microassaults, which are very similar to old fashioned racism. The second type
Strange Fruit Break Down Strange fruit is an amazing dark poem that was sung by Billie Holiday as a very powerful deep meaning song. Strange Fruit is a terrifying protest against the inhumane acts of racism. Strange Fruit was about the murders and lynching going on in the south at the time from public hangings to burnings. The south has a cruel and terrifying past that still haunts people who live down there, reminding them that it was only a short time ago. Very rarely did any one person get prosecuted
Music was used as a critical instrument in the early 20th century in mobilizing and inspiring the civil rights movement by giving them more voice to bring out their grievances. According to Kerk (2007, p.18) Martin Luther king was the most prolific figure who utilized music to sensitize society, “we believe that freedom songs play a big and vital part in the struggle that we are going through” this words were also echoed by the Albany movement “music keeps us a live, it gives us a sense of unity