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After seeing Without Sanctuary and hearing Billie Holiday sing “Strange Fruit,” I felt sick to my stomach. I honestly didn’t realize how open and public these lynchings were. The fact that crowds of people including children, treated it like some kind of festival blew my mind. People were smiling, taking pictures, even making postcards out of those moments. It shows how deep the hate was and how normal it became for them. That’s something that still doesn’t sit right with me.

The song “Strange Fruit” felt heavy after seeing the images. Billie Holiday was basically risking her life to sing about what was really happening. Her voice carried so much pain that you could feel it even without seeing the pictures.

To me, it’s important to learn this part of history because it explains why some of the same feelings still exist now. The violence might look different today but it’s still there in other forms. Ignoring the past doesn’t erase it, it just lets it repeat. I think facing this truth as hard as it is, is the only way people can really understand how deep the wounds go and how far we still have to go.

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when it comes to lynching in America it is absolutely gruesome to know and to actually understand the hatred white people in this time had for African Americans and also the ones who became evil an scorned individuals who changed the course of history of Americans even still to this day. the effects of lynching are long lasting and the trauma and its effects could never be erased from the minds and hearts of those who endured it and also for those in todays society as we see that history is repeating itself with lynching's all throughout the united states. its frightening , terrifying and heart wrenching to live in a world where lynching exists .

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Learning about the history of lynching in America is hard, but it’s something we need to understand. It shows how cruel and unfair people can be when hate is socially accepted. What shocked me most from Without Sanctuary and Billie Holiday’s song Strange Fruit was how lynchings were treated like public events. Crowds came to watch, took pictures, and even made postcards out of them. It’s hard to imagine that people, including children, saw this as normal. The goal was to spread fear and control Black Americans through violence and terror.

Knowing this history matters because it helps us see how racism didn’t just disappear, but it changed forms. Even though people aren’t being lynched today, racism still exists through things like unfair treatment, police violence, and inequality. Remembering these dark times reminds us how important it is to speak up when we see wrong and to not stay silent when we see hate.

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I believe that it is important to remember and accept this part of history as a way to understand how twisted and hateful some of our ancestors where and learn to move on. That maybe easier said then done for some, but after seeing the images in "Without Sanctuary" and listening to James Allen talk about people in the post cards, I felt guilt and shame, but then anything I felt anger to the people celebrating the death of someone who didn't deserve that kind of treatment.

I don't know how many times in this class I have taken a moment and thought to myself that after every lesson, I just want to say "I am sorry" just because of my being white and of the reputation that white people have caused. I can only imagine the reinforcement that white supremacy had on the kids in the audience, as I assume that it was a norm to them growing up as a way to continue the cycle of hate.

However, when it came to Billie Holiday's song "Strange Fruit", I think it was a powerful message that needed to put out, even if it put her at risk. Although this is not my kind of music, I still found the words and/or lyrics impactful after seeing the postcards.

I agree that even though public lynchings are no longer a thing here in the States, I will say that the U.S. has evolved in a way to control the fear in other minorities still. This can be seen from ICE raids, socioeconomic differences, public schooling, housing, and racial profiling in today's society. The method might have changed, but it is still a noose around the hypothetical neck.

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Keaonna Williams

Lynching

It took me several attempts to get through the nearly five-minute film Without Sanctuary. Each time, I felt a wave of emotions: anger, sorrow, disbelief. But it wasn’t until I heard Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” that everything intensified. The haunting lyrics gave voice to the images I had just seen, and being Black, the experience was not just painful, it was personal.

Watching people gather to witness a lynching as if it were entertainment, watching life slip away from someone while others smiled, filled me with rage. Seeing their bodies burned afterward broke my heart. What’s even harder to grasp is that this was normalized. Children were taught to accept it. Communities celebrated it. And somehow, people found the mental capacity to justify it.

I’m tired of being reminded of this part of history. But I understand its importance. We must confront it, not to dwell in pain, but to expose the roots of racial violence that still linger. Because although times have changed, recent news from the South suggests lynching is making a slow, insidious return.

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One of the things that stands out to me about the lynching period is that it wasn’t that long ago.  In the grand scheme of things, it was just yesterday that people were brutally murdering African-Americans as entertainment in this country.  There are some people still alive who have memories of this time so this wasn’t ancient history.  Black people were seen as sub-human and beneath Whites so the general public had no empathy or compassion for these people.  If they viewed them as equal humans, they would not have tolerated this.  Deep down, though, White people were afraid that they would lose their status in society.  Now that Black people were no longer slaves, they had to find other ways to “keep them in their place” and lynching was a powerful way to instill fear.  The children who watched these lynchings would grow up believing that Black people deserved this brutality and this would desensitize them to people who were not much different to them, just another race. Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit was a controversial song at the time of release but it became one of her most well-known songs.  The song was actually written by a Jewish-American man from the Bronx.  He wrote it after seeing a photo of two teens who had been lynched.  Billie Holiday brought this song to life and used her platform as a famous singer to bring to light the injustices that her people faced in an emotional and powerful way.

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These sites evoke a sense of sadness and despair for these Black people and feelings of disgust and anger for the white people who lynched these innocent black people. I think the postcards were made as a way to instill fear into Black people, to let them know they are not really equal, and the white race will remain in a place of power. These postcards were made to scare Black people, showing them what would happen to them if they tried to act like they were equal in any way to White people. I think that the White people then were scared of the idea of being equal to former slaves. Having these children at the lynchings made it seem like it was something that was supposed to be normal. This reinforced the idea to kids that Black people have no rights, and even though at that time slavery was prohibited and Black people had the right for protection from racial violence under the 14th Amendment, they were never actually granted it. For example, Cedar Bluff from Mississippi accidentally bumped into a white woman while running to the train. He was stopped by white people, and they beat him and then hung him from a tree, for simply accidentally bumping into a white woman. That is insane to me, so wrong and disturbing and scary, thinking that back then, something so small or nothing at all could get you killed because of your skin color. The song Strange Fruit by Billy Holiday puts a spotlight on what was happening back then, on the lynchings, and gives a sense of how dark a time it was back then. I think she chose to sing about it because no one, regardless of their rights as a black citizen, could not speak out on the issue or have an opinion or stick up for themselves, in fear of being the next one to be lynched, tortured, beaten, or murdered. Even though lynchings are not a thing today, Black people still have a disadvantage in today's society with racial profiling which takes place just about everywhere. Yes things have come a long way since slavery and lynching, but there is still a lot of work to be done regarding minority groups in America.

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Watching Terror Lynching in America and viewing Without Sanctuary tore through any illusion that such cruelty was hidden; it was celebrated. The photographs, turned into postcards, revealed not justice but ritualised terror, where even children watched as if at a carnival. Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” gave that horror a haunting melody; the “black bodies swinging” were no metaphor but truth. I realized that lynching was not only about death but about control, keeping freedom at the noose’s end. The most chilling part is how silence allowed it to thrive, how “good citizens” stood just outside the frame. This history matters because its echoes remain in new forms of violence and inequality. Remembering these souls is resistance itself, a demand that America confront its conscience before it can ever claim justice.

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After watching Without Sanctuary and Terror Lynching in America and listening to Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday, I'm just appalled and saddened to know this once was a thing in America. The pictures postcard photos from Without Sanctuary are especially cringe-worthy. To know that men, women and even children would gather round a lynched body, smiling for the camera, is soul-crushing. It compounded hatred and racism; it wasn't just enough to inflict violence upon a group of people but it had to be used as entertainment as well. That's what makes it so horrible (Without Sanctuary).

According to Terror Lynching in America, lynching was such a method of terror that rose up after slavery ended as a method of control. This gave white people the upper hand after emancipation; a means of instilling fear into the hearts of Black Americans to keep them “in their place.” Everyone knew that without slavery, many white people had lost their power; but they feared losing power even more should equality thrive. Thus, terrorism became a reliable source of control (Terror Lynching in America).

Billie Holiday made it all come together for me. To hear her voice against the grain the “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze” captures the true sentiment that most textbooks would rather avoid. By challenging people with the reality that this “fruit” did bear from these deep roots gave credibility to what most fail to acknowledge. Most people didn't want to believe this could happen, let alone grow from generations of racists who found success in silence until they were compelled to action with body counts.

People need to learn about this history because by failing to acknowledge it, modern versions of racism prevail. While we don't gather and lynch people on the streets anymore, we have systemic racism and police brutality and racial injustices. Learning about this history is uncomfortable but silence is complicity. “The one who does not speak utters the word.' Bonhoeffer and the one who does not act takes action. By acknowledging this truth, we can see how much work we still need for actual justice to be served in America.

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These sites evoke a deep sense of horror, sorrow, and outrage. The visual evidence of lynching is profoundly disturbing, revealing the extent of racial hatred and violence in American history. It brings to mind the immense suffering and injustice endured by the African Americans during this period.

Postcards of lynchings were made and distributed as symbols of white power and dominance. They served to terrorize the Black community, reinforce racial hierarchy, and celebrate the impunity of white perpetrators. These postcards were also a form of social control, warning African Americans of the consequences of challenging the racial status quo.

Whites were likely fearful of losing their social, economic, and political dominance. The end of slavery and the Reconstruction era led to increased opportunities for African Americans, which some whites saw as a threat to their privileged status. This fear was ultimately rooted in deep-seated racism with the desire to maintain existing power.

The presence of children at lynchings is particularly disturbing because it demonstrates how white supremacy was normalized and perpetuated across generations. By witnessing and participating in these acts of racial hatred and dominance. This early exposure reinforced the idea that white people were superior and that violence against Black people was acceptable.

"Strange Fruit" originally a poem was written by Abel Meeropol and sung by Bille Holiday, is a powerful protest song about the lynching of Black people in the United States. The lyrics depict the bodies of lynched individuals as "strange fruit hanging from poplar trees." a stark and haunting metaphor for the dehumanization and brutality of racism. Someone would choose to sing about it to raise awareness, challenge racial injustice, and honor the memory of the victims.

The history of lynching has a profound bearing on the present. It highlights the legacy of racial inequality and the ongoing struggle for justice and equality. The trauma and injustice of the past continue to affect communities today, contributing to systemic racism, racial bias, and disparities in areas such as education, employment, and criminal justice. Understanding this history is essential for addressing these contemporary issues and working towards a more equitable future.

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Honestly, looking through Without Sanctuary and listening to Strange Fruit left me feeling heavy. I’ve learned about lynching before in history classes but nothing prepared me for the images, the faces in the crowds and the fact that people were literally sending postcards of these horrific acts. It’s hard to wrap my head around how normalized it was. It wasn’t just violence but it was a kind of public spectacle with families bringing their kids, photographers setting up like it was an event. That detail really stuck with me. It wasn’t done in secret. It was out in the open AND accepted. The quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer really hit me: “Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” I kept thinking about all the people who stood there, watched it happen and didn't say a word. It makes me wonder; what kind of silence are we living in today? How often do we turn away from modern injustices just because they aren’t as visible? Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit gave me chills. The way she sings about “black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze” is so haunting. It’s art but it’s also a protest, a cry for the world to wake up. And the fact that she was brave enough to sing that at a time when even talking about these things could put you at risk; that speaks volumes. Some people say the past is the past but I don’t think we’ve moved on as much as we’d like to believe. We might not have public lynchings anymore but racism still exists in different forms: mass incarceration, police violence and even the fight to keep this kind of history out of textbooks. That’s why learning this matters. Because if we don’t understand what happened, we risk repeating it!!

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W. Jean-Baptiste

I believe that education is the key to racial equity, like the narrator in the video said, but learning about this part of my history does not surprise me at all. I have come to understand that we live in a country that glorifies violence and murder, based on its founding fathers. This video and the history of lynching is a very touchy subject to me, as it should be, in my opinion, to all human beings. What does not surprise me is knowing that before they were lynching us, they were hanging themselves first. They were also displaying the bodies of criminals and outlaws, and children and families often went to these events. This is the legacy of generations of Europeans and their offspring.

Billie Holiday’s song really touches my soul and hurts my heart. I could understand them hanging and killing each other, especially their outlaws, because they were criminals, but to hang African Americans unjustly was cruel. This song emphasizes my point that this country is built on strange fruit. In my opinion, this song tells me that the strange fruit is the murder, the killing, the cruelty that the Europeans and their ancestors brought from their motherland to America. It is important to know this history, but to know this history, we must know and acknowledge the history of the Europeans first. What stuck out to me was the fact that they were exposing the children to these lynchings and predisposing hate and racist ideologies into their minds at a young age; something ironically that terrorists do to their children, especially Islamic terrorists.

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After taking the time to watch the movie clips, view the photos of the postcards, and listen to the song by Billie Holiday, "Strange Fruit" has truly helped me understand how history remains in the present. The hate that the White mobs presented after the Civil War is truly heartbreaking to understand and grasp. It was interesting to note that when these lynchings were prioritized by the White community, it also involved law enforcement and included children watching these horrible deaths. It was crazy to hear that in these tragic events that the environment even had carvials and souvenir stands, which made me convinced that this was something that was supposed to be normal after the War. This was mainly because, after the Civil War, White Supremacy denied equal rights to Black citizens. As much as I learned a lot from this assignment, I believe that the need to keep this in education is very critical.

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Lynching shows us how truly horrible man can be when nobody steps in to stop man from committing horrible, despicable acts.  Looking at the actions people have taken in our history is truly disgusting and inexcusable.  Families would come out and look at this like it was something to be honored and celebrated rather than shamed and forbidden in society.  This has a huge impact on the world today because people are continuously silenced when bringing up the actions Whites have taken against Blacks in the past.  These are things that need to be talked about and discussed in order to overcome the despicable acts that were committed.  Many people try and claim racism never existed, but this shows how truly horrible Blacks were treated and how racism definitely existed and still affects today's world.  Ignoring this only shows how truly inconsiderate people can be, and it goes to show how much farther we need to go as a society to overcome racism.

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Watching Terror Lynching in America and viewing Without Sanctuary tore through any illusion that such cruelty was hidden; it was celebrated. The photographs, turned into postcards, revealed not justice but ritualised terror, where even children watched as if at a carnival. Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” gave that horror a haunting melody; the “black bodies swinging” were no metaphor but truth. I realised that lynching was not only about death but about control, keeping freedom at the noose’s end. The most chilling part is how silence allowed it to thrive, how “good citizens” stood just outside the frame. This history matters because its echoes remain in new forms of violence and inequality. Remembering these souls is resistance itself, a demand that America confronts its conscience before it can ever claim justice.

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As an African American female, talking about lynching makes me uncomfortable because I personally have had family members on my mom's and stepdad's and biological side of the family who had members who were lynched for dating a white man or woman, if not same sex. Especially in today's society, where a couple of months ago, two black students were found hanging, and just thinking about it makes me have panic attacks. I remember my grandma used to get postcards of blacks being lynched; if not, there would be a rope hanging from the tree, so when she woke up and opened the blinds, she would see it, or they would take a cross and put it on her lawn and set it on fire. I can't listen to Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday without feeling angry and emotional. I believe that Whites were fearful that Blacks would cause a rebellion, and they feared that they would be outsmarted, out numbered, and take their jobs. So they had the superiority complex that Whites are superior and Blacks are inferior, they wanted to have something they could control and have power over us. As I mentioned before, every time I listen to Strange Fruit I close my eyes. I think of Blacks being hung from trees, their bodies swinging side to side, with the smell of burning flesh, and White folks just sitting there celebrating. As the song continues, I feel tears flowing down my face, and sometimes I have to stop and collect myself, and I would watch documentaries about this song if not through Billie Holiday’s. My own family members, especially my aunt Stacy, told me that if she ever caught me with a White man, she would have me hanged and lynched, hence why I kept my relationship with my White boyfriend a secret for 3 years now.

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The legacy of lynching in the Americas reminds many of the destructive violence that was viewed by the public for many decades. We are able to understand just how destructive it was to many families. During many public lynching's, the victims family was usually forced to be in attendance. The violence was not always about murder, it was a way to control the number of racial individuals within a community. The silence from the horror of the so called good citizens is what allowed this practice to occur for many decades. In the "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday underlines the deep history of lynching and public murder within our country. The line that says "Black Bodies swinging in the southern breeze" took me very aside. It made me believe that many found this as a normal act. Learning about the many years of public murders, it is detrimental to understand the history behind these manic acts. Many individuals do not find these acts of violence as surprising, as they are not brought into enough detail to understand completely the disgusting acts that occurred.

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One of the things that stands out to me about the lynching period is that it wasn’t that long ago.  In the grand scheme of things, it was just yesterday that people were brutally murdering African-Americans as entertainment in this country.  There are some people still alive who have memories of this time so this wasn’t ancient history.  Black people were seen as sub-human and beneath Whites so the general public had no empathy or compassion for these people.  If they viewed them as equal humans, they would not have tolerated this.  Deep down, though, White people were afraid that they would lose their status in society.  Now that Black people were no longer slaves, they had to find other ways to “keep them in their place” and lynching was a powerful way to instill fear.  The children who watched these lynchings would grow up believing that Black people deserved this brutality and this would desensitize them to people who were not much different to them, just another race. Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit was a controversial song at the time of release but it became one of her most well-known songs.  The song was actually written by a Jewish-American man from the Bronx.  He wrote it after seeing a photo of two teens who had been lynched.  Billie Holiday brought this song to life and used her platform as a famous singer to bring to light the injustices that her people faced in an emotional and powerful way.

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One of the things that stands out to me about the lynching period is that it wasn’t that long ago.  In the grand scheme of things, it was just yesterday that people were brutally murdering African-Americans as entertainment in this country.  There are some people still alive who have memories of this time so this wasn’t ancient history.  Black people were seen as sub-human and beneath Whites so the general public had no empathy or compassion for these people.  If they viewed them as equal humans, they would not have tolerated this.  Deep down, though, White people were afraid that they would lose their status in society.  Now that Black people were no longer slaves, they had to find other ways to “keep them in their place” and lynching was a powerful way to instill fear.  The children who watched these lynchings would grow up believing that Black people deserved this brutality and this would desensitize them to people who were not much different to them, just another race. Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit was a controversial song at the time of release but it became one of her most well-known songs.  The song was actually written by a Jewish-American man from the Bronx.  He wrote it after seeing a photo of two teens who had been lynched.  Billie Holiday brought this song to life and used her platform as a famous singer to bring to light the injustices that her people faced in an emotional and powerful way.

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Learning about the history shown in “Without Sanctuary” and hearing Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” is deeply disturbing, but it’s also necessary. Understanding this part of history forces us to confront the reality of how normalized racial violence once was in America. The images of lynchings turned into postcards and sold as souvenirs show how racism wasn’t hidden, it was celebrated publicly like a community event. That horrifying atmosphere of festival-like violence reveals how white supremacy was not only tolerated but socially accepted. The fact that children were present at these lynchings shows how hate was passed down through generations, shaping racist beliefs that still exist today. Billie Holiday’s haunting song captures the pain and inhumanity of those acts “black bodies swinging in the southern breeze” turning what was once a spectacle into a protest through art. It exposes the brutality of a nation that once treated racial murder as entertainment. Even though public lynchings are no longer part of our society, their influence still lingers in the fear, trauma, and generational pain passed down through Black families. Understanding the lasting psychological and cultural impact is just as important as remembering the physical violence itself. Understanding this past is also crucial so that history is not denied or repeated. It’s a reminder that justice and empathy must be continuously fought for.

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It is important to know and understand this part of our history because ignorance is blindness. This is a brutal part of history that should not just be brushed under the rug. There's no way that these events don't echo throughout generations that followed, regardless of race; but more relatively to those who were personally affected through family ties/bloodline.

What really stuck out to me was how unemotional each bystander was in the photos. For the most part, I'm at least thankful they're not smiling like maniacs. by it's extremely graphic, and I'm not even present. So heart-breaking.

What thoughts do these sites evoke you with you?

- sadness, anger, uncertainty for how to solve such generational problems, that could easily be subconscious and harder to assess.

Think about why postcards were being made of lynching's. What do you think the White's were fearful of?

- Probably to widespread the news and fear; either to persuade those of light skin who disagree, through fear, making them agree. Or to ensure the consequences of certain behavior of dark skin individuals are known through the grapevine.

Look at how the children were at lynching, think of how that reinforced the thought patterns of White supremacy.

- No way this wasn’t indoctrination and misdirecting morally for those who were hard-wired (raised to conform withough having a supported original thought) to think lynchings were wrong or immoral.

Think about what the song Strange Fruit is about and why someone would choose to sing about it. And anything else that it may spark in your imagination.

- songs have quite the ability to connect people and send messages that are harder to express without poetry and the emotion of a melody. Also, most music has quite thought out lyrics. The words and analogy’s that depict the lynching events as sort of confusing territory. How what should be hanging from a tree is delightful fruit which is meant to be there; but instead is a strange crop, that of black bodies. How at one point there was a “Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh” “Then the sudden smell of burning flesh” - as it was brought upon them without any warning. With the intertwinement of natural affects continue as if out of the ordinary.

So this was the past, what bearing does it have on the present?

- There's not way that this wouldn't easily ensue anger, sadness, and perhaps fear, in people today directed towards individuals who have the same demeanor; or perhaps even disappointment towards the human races ability to treat other humans in the rough times; or when gain is the cost of another's failure.

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Some of the feelings I felt after watching the video on Terror Lynching in America are anger, disappointment, and most importantly sadness. To begin I felt angry and troubled by watching the video depicting lynching’s due to how lynching’swere turned into a festival like spectacle in which promoted these atrocities to take place. Considering religion was a staple in how individuals live their life within this time, It baffled me that all these unjust occurrences were not committed due to following biblical scripture but more so the primitive and flawed nature of European ideologies which bled into American society and previous American culture. In my opinion, I believe whites were fearful of blacks during the time due to having a limited knowledge of culture and individuals who do not look like themselves. Furthermore, I believe whites were fearful of blacks due to realizing that if blacks were seen as equal, this would have interfered with the privilege they had from being white, therefore resulting in them having to work as hard in life as blacks and other minority groups in order to survive within our society.  What is even more baffling about this piece of history is that throughout my grade school experience, I was never taught any of this in world history. The reason as to why I believe this piece of history is subtly brushed over is because it does not fit the narrative of America, being the land of the free, because behind this freedom entails a history of savagery, barbarity, and inhumanity.

The song strange fruit by Billie Holiday is a song I believe she chose to sing due to the amount of pain and blood that was caused by the white Americans in her society. As beautiful as this song was with a sun behind its core message lies a dark tale of the barbarity and brutality that Africans and Africans Americans had to endure during, and after the time of colonialism. Admittedly, I have heard this song before, but every time I hear it, I cannot help but empathize and reflect on the millions of lives lost for the sake of a dollar bill.