In Singleton’s text “Strange Fruit: Song of a Century”, he explains how the song “Strange Fruit” is a jazz song that portrays the horrors of the persecution of black people, and explains how this song is a stepping stone for mitigating discrimination. “Strange Fruit” is a song written by Abel Meeropol, and most commonly known to be performed by Billie Holiday. The song, which specifically was about the lynching of African Americans in southern U.S. states, would eventually become a phenomenon, earning its title as the “Song of the Century”. Throughout the text, Singleton outlines many reasons for how the song created such a big impact on society as a whole. Singleton begins by explaining how “Strange Fruit” would raise awareness for many American citizens about the horrors of African Americans being lynched in the South. The song would raise awareness through both imagery, as well as its publicity/message of the song. The song “would paint a graphic, ugly picture of the shadow reality of the slave legacy within American culture” (35). With images of lynching also being spread widely throughout the United States, largely due to “Strange Fruit”, imagery would become a large reason that the United States as a whole became more aware to the issues that were happening in the South. Additionally, the intended message of “Strange Fruit” would also be a large reason for the rise of awareness of this issue. As Americans would simply listen to this song, the lyrics and overall message that was being conveyed was something that really connected with its audience, which in turn, allowed for people to be more aware of this issue. Furthermore, another aspect of “Strange Fruit” that Abel Meeropol does extremely well would be writing in a certain way where he makes his audience feel a really strong emotion, empathy. One main way that Meeropol creates empathy with this song is through his lyrical choices that stir up a lot of emotion. Lines such as “blood on the leaves and blood at the root” or “black bodies swinging in the southern breeze” were lines that audiences really empathized with. Meeropol would also make audiences feel empathy for this situation by retelling trauma. To put it simply, Meeropol was an expert at accurately explaining the horrible events that were occurring in a way that not only made his audience feel empathy, but also made them want to act on their feelings to make changes be made. Additionally, Meeropol was a Jewish man who was writing this song during a time when Hitler was in power and the Holocaust was happening. Due to this, Meeropol connects to other cultures (especially Jewish culture) in his song and his connections that are made to the Holocaust, allow for the song to be an even bigger stepping stone for mitigating discrimination as more horrific events are being discussed and brought to light. Another large reason why Meeropol’s connection to other cultures was important was because it allowed for a larger audience that would be willing to listen to the song, therefore allowing for more people to hear the message that Meeropol wanted to send. Finally, a large reason that “Strange Fruit” was as impactful as it ended up being was because of its performances by Billie Holiday. Already a known and famous singer, Billie Holiday would perform “Strange Fruit” with such intense and meaningful emotion that would truly bring people together to form a community around the song. As this community was created, her emotional performances would also allow for changes to be made. “Her vocal choices were exactly what they needed to be to reach her 1939 American audience in a way that they could actually hear her” (44). Billie Holiday made an already powerful song even more powerful and took the song to new heights that truly allowed “Strange Fruit” to become one of the biggest and most impactful songs of its time. Overall, Singleton outlined each and every way that Meeropol, Holiday, and “Strange Fruit” as a whole would impact its audience and how the song would begin to allow for the mitigation of discrimination, in a time where this was such a prevalent and important issue. “Strange Fruit” undoubtedly made a difference for the better and Singleton conveyed that message extremely well.

When I first began working on my argument map, I felt not very confident in my arguments and the points I was making. I felt like I didn't have as strong of an understanding of the text as I needed to have to properly map out Singleton’s argument. Due to this, I went back to the text, and did a second round of reading and annotating, solely focusing on the ideas I felt were either Singleton’s main argument, or the big points that supported his argument. After reading and analyzing the text once again, I felt I had a much better understanding of the message that Singleton was trying to send, and what his main points were that were supporting his argument. Once I finally had a better understanding of the text and its message, it made creating my argument map much easier to do. I felt I was able to accurately pinpoint what Singleton’s main argument was, as well as what his four biggest supporting points/ideas were that helped him shape his main argument. From here, I went back to the text once more to analyze Singleton’s words even closer so I could create two subpoints for each big point/idea. Once all of my points were mapped out, I was able to use my annotations to find at least two quotes per sub point that accurately showed how Singleton used these points to support his main argument. Lastly, once all the quotes were mapped out, I looked at my map as a whole and connected ideas and quotes that were not under the same point/subpoint, and connected them to each other if I felt they were related and supported each other. As a whole, I felt that the process of creating my argument map was time consuming, but extremely rewarding and helpful. I think creating my argument map made my understanding of the text even stronger, and the visual aspect of it all really helped me develop a better understanding of Singleton's argument and the message he was trying to send. For my prose summary, I felt that it was much easier to write due to having my argument map fully detailed and completed. I felt that my argument map hit on all of Singleton’s main points and subpoints, so writing the summary proved to be much less stressful and difficult as a result. Writing my summary made me feel even more confident that I did not need to add anything else to my argument map, as I felt my summary included all of Singleton’s big points/ideas. Overall, my experience with both my argument map and prose summary was extremely enjoyable and I felt like both aspects of this project really enhanced my knowledge and understanding of Singleton’s text.