“Strange Fruit” made in USA

NA TERRA DOS SEM SUS

Nos Estados Unidos, mães de jovens negros mortos pela polícia enfrentam a epidemia, o desemprego e o racismo

Constance Malcolm, 48, perdeu a conta de quantos protestos já participou desde que seu filho Ramarley Graham, 18, foi assassinado pela polícia de Nova York dentro de casa em 2012. Mesmo durante a pandemia, resolveu ir a mais um, dessa vez maior e impulsionado pela morte de George Floyd. Na tarde de 9 de junho, em frente à Prefeitura de Nova York, ela se juntou a uma fila com pessoas que vestiam máscaras, camisetas e seguravam cartazes com fotos de familiares mortos. Ao microfone, pediu o fim da violência e do abuso policial, além de cortes no orçamento da polícia. Nos EUA, os negros são mortos pela polícia 2,5 vezes mais do que os brancos,segundo dados deste estudo publicado na Nature.

The Police Killed My Unarmed Son in 2012. I’m Still Waiting for Justice.

By Constance Malcolm

Five years ago today, my unarmed 18-year-old son, Ramarley Graham, was unjustly killed when police officers burst into our home in the Bronx and shot him in front of his grandmother and 6-year-old brother.

Minutes before, my son was calmly walking down the street with his friends when he paused to pull up his pants. The officers wrongly thought he had a gun in his waistband, followed him home, knocked down our door without cause or a warrant and killed him.

To this day, none of the officers responsible have been fired.

Stranger Fruit

These portraits were created in response to the murders of African American men, due to police violence. The mothers in these photos have not lost their sons, but understand that their son could be next.

Photographs and text by Jon Henry

The Tragic Story Behind Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”

In March 1939, a 23-year-old Billie Holiday walked up to the mic at West 4th’s Cafe Society in New York City to sing her final song of the night. Per her request, the waiters stopped serving and the room went completely black, save for a spotlight on her face. And then she sang, softly in her raw and emotional voice: “Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees…”

When Holiday finished, the spotlight turned off. When the lights came back on, the stage was empty. She was gone. And per her request, there was no encore. This was how Holiday performed “Strange Fruit,” which she would determinedly sing for the next 20 years until her untimely death at the age of 44.

…

Among the many songs that Holiday is celebrated for, “Strange Fruit” will always be one of her defining works. It allowed her to take what was originally an expression of political protest and transform it into a work of art for millions to hear.

In 1999 Time designated “Strange Fruit” the “song of the century.”

Strange fruit film

Stranger Fruit is a 2017 American documentary film about the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer. The film showed previously unpublished surveillance video that director Jason Pollack alleges was concealed from jury members and the public in order to tarnish Brown’s image.

Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching

Eighty years ago, two young African-American men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, were lynched in the town center of Marion, Ind. The night before, on Aug. 6, 1930, they had been arrested and charged with the armed robbery and murder of a white factory worker, Claude Deeter, and the rape of his companion, Mary Ball.

That evening, local police were unable to stop a mob of thousands from breaking into the jail with sledgehammers and crowbars to pull the young men out of their cells and lynch them.

News of the lynching spread across the world. Local photographer Lawrence Beitler took what would become the most iconic photograph of lynching in America. The photograph shows two bodies hanging from a tree surrounded by a crowd of ordinary citizens, including women and children. Thousands of copies were made and sold. The photograph helped inspire the poem and song “Strange Fruit” written by Abel Meeropol — and performed around the world by Billie Holiday.

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