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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.}

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. 

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. 

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.