***The phrase “strange fruit” refers to the lynching of black people in the south during the first half of the 20th century. The term was inspired by a poem written by a teacher named Abel Meerpol, a Jewish man that belonged to the Communist party. He wrote a song that was published in 1937, after viewing a graphic picture that vividly captured the inhumane acts of the lynching of black men. Sadly, lynching still occurs today, in the 21st century.
Strange fruit dangles from peculiar trees,
with the stench of injustice, still blowing in the breeze.
The sorrowful cries of souls oppressed,
swing to the rhythm of the times and growth unprocessed.
Sometimes fruit falls away from the trees,
in hopes of a reprieve, another chance to ‘be’.
But fate often blows the strange fruit back,
to peculiar trees, so weathered and cracked.
Beaten and worn from the weight of many souls,
all the lives cut short and maturity stole.
If these fruit could speak, what would they say?
“Same fight, same struggle, just a different day.”
By Sylvia Porter-Hall
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