"Strange Fruit"

"Southern trees bear a strange fruit,

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the popular trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,

Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh...

For those of you familiar with the song "Strange Fruit," originally written as a poem by Abel Meeropol under the pseudonym Lewis Allen, and sang by the incomparable Billie Holiday, no doubt you are wondering why I would highlight such a polarizing song that arguably has more to do with the social and political climate of the south in 1930 than it does with anything religious or spiritual.  Surely, you're probably thinking that I could have found something more suitable to write about on the most Holiest of Sundays for Christians than a song written about the 1930 lynching of two Black men (Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana).  The truth of the matter is that I can't come up with anything more "Holy" to write about in remembrance of the reported crucifixion of a revolutionary Mediterranean Jewish Peasant  man than this. 

The title of the song bears witness to the regularity of lynchings of Black men across the south.  The act was often preceded by a public scourging with the intent to strike fear in the hearts and minds of any so-called "agitators," or individuals criminalized for the ordinary fact that they were Black, unprotected and/or that they had possibly broken some imaginary Jim Crow Law.  To ensure the message got out to any and all who might decide to challenge the social, cultural, and political power structure of the day, many, if not most of the lynchings took place in select places or on "popular trees" for farther reach and greater impact. The irony of the sweet smell of the magnolia trees, systematically robbed of their true purpose by the bile of hatred that lit the match that would help to create the stench of burning flesh suffocating its leaves and thus the atmosphere, is reminiscent of Mary using the sweet smelling nard to anoint Jesus feet before his impending death.

It is all the more reason that this is the perfect remembrance of  the reason for the season.  If one were to read articles written by theologians and physicians in medical journals exploring the reported events surrounding Jesus' ministry, public scourging and lynching/crucifixion, one would also find striking similarities between this revolutionary man's life and death and that of the lives and deaths for which the song sings about.  Often enslaved Africans were scourged with various instruments - quirt, "cat-o-nine tails," or a flagellum (a leather multi-thong, sometimes having pieces of wood, bone and steel balls attached) - for maximum punishment.  So too, were the reports surrounding the scourging of Jesus of Nazareth.  So too, were the reports for which he was accused - challenging the social, political, cultural, economic, religious and spiritual power structures of the day.  An "agitator," whose message and ministry was so threatening to the status quo, they had to kill him.

As we get all dressed up and gitty over this most "Holy" day, be reminded of the man, the message, the mission and his ministry.  Be reminded of his life and his death.  Do justice, shout aloud, challenge unjust laws.  Question the plethora of social, sexual and racial double standards.  Denounce excess, war, materialism, racism, sexism, homophobia, economic exploitation - and do this in remembrance of them all - Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr. Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi,  Fannie Lou Hamer, Steven Biko and all the other freedom fighters known and unknown!  RIZE UP and BE FREE!

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,

For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop."

                                       (Abel Meeropol)

 © Dorinda G. Henry, 2011

THEOLOGIA HABITUS EST!