CSPAN2 Book Discussion On Living With Lynching April 6, 2014
So thank you. Thank you so much. Southern trees bear strange fruit. Blood on the leaves, blood at the root. Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the trees. I trust that you recognize these lyrics which describe the hanging bodies of lynching victims. Billie holliday made these words famous with the 1939 recording of lewis alans ballad, and since then versions of the song have come from artists ranging from ub40 to dwayne wade gens. As a result, generations of americans have come to regard the hanging bodies as the best representation of mob destruction. Thes...
Source: archive.org