The following poem is written in 1939 by Abel Meeropol. This poem is a protest against the cruel actions still taken against Afro-Americans, even though they were technically free people. One of the horrors was that whenever a black man got in a conflict with a white person, he would be blamed and punished severely for it, even until death.

A famous case is the lynching of Rubin Stacy a migrant worker who was accused of having frightened and threatened a white woman. He was then taken by an angry mob of white men and lynched without any However, should there have been a trial the poor man would not have had any chance. Franklin Roosevelt, the president supported the lynching because he’d otherwise loose a lot of votes of white men in the south.
The trials during that time were extremely biased. Many of the men in the jury were looking for someone to blame for the unfortunate accidents happing in the society during that time, such as bad harvesting and financial setbacks, The south was suffering of poverty during the 1930’s. The men acted as if it was their duty to lynch blacks in order to protect the society of these great dangers. “In reality Rubin only went to the white woman’s house to ask for food reported the newspaper: The Times later.” She got scared when she saw him and this already sealed his faith. He was hanged in front of Marion Jones’ house, who had made the complaint. Unfortunately he was not a single case. Many more innocent Afro-Americans have died unjustly. If you are interested in more stories follow this link.
As seen in the picture the white men were proud that they have rid the world of another black person. Also take notice of the two small children. Lynches were a spectacle for the society; everyone would dress up and watch the proceedings. Thousands would attend and in some cases children would get a front seat so that they could see the spectacle clearly.

Rubin Stacy, lynched in Fort Lauderdale on 19th July, 1935 (source: www. photobucket.com)

Strange fruit – Abel Meeropol , 1939 (source: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the win to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop

This poem is written after the author; A. Meeropol had seen the picture of Robin Stacy. It is a protest which seemed to be unnoticed but in fact it was published in New York Teacher and later in the Masses, a Marxist magazine. Billy holiday performed an altered version of his poem which made it in the top 20 in July 1939. It therefore can be concluded that his message was successfully spread across the nation, despite the fact that others called it a propaganda campaign for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).

The poem has rhyming couplets which make it easy flowing and almost song like. This is very ironical if you keep in mind the horrible images which a lynching would bring to mind. It makes the poem sound happy when you would read it however the opposite, sadness and horror, is clearly presented.
The author also makes great contrast between the smell of flowers and the smell of burning flesh (stanza 2 line 3 and 4) as well as the ‘pastoral scene’ which gives the reader a positive peaceful image in contrast to ‘bulging eyes and twisted mouth’ of stanza 2 line 1 and 2 which give an detail real-life description of the horrible scene. All of these contrasts are presented to shock the reader and to make them start thinking about the horrible scenes they are performing.
Another point that is significant is the imagery of ‘fruits of the south’. The south of the USA was known for their fruit and sweets but, during the 1930’s, they were known for their lynching actions as the author actually means ‘dead Afro-Americans’ with this.
Especially stanza 3 is describing the situation and the attitude of the Southern white people very well. It shows how little people care about the Afro-Americans and still don’t recognise them as real human beings. Instead of burying or cremating the body they leave it on the tree in a warning for other potential villains. They let the body rot and don’t care what would happen to it because the poem states: ‘fruits for the crows to pluck’.