Summary
"Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the root..."
Billie Holiday's famous song expresses the horror and anguish of those communities subjected to a campaign of lynching in the American South. Soul Music hears the stories of people whose relatives were lynched by white racists and of the various forms of grief, anger and reconciliation that have followed. These include the cousin of teenager Emmett Till, whose killing in 1955 for whistling at a white woman, added powerful impetus to the civil rights movement.
Despite its association with the deep south, the song was actually composed in 1930's New York by a Jewish schoolteacher, Abel Meeropol.
Meeropol adopted the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg after they were executed in 1953 as Soviet spies. One of those children, Robert, talks of his adopted father's humanity and his belief that the Rosenberg's were killed in a 'state sanctioned lynching by the American government'. For him, Strange Fruit is a comforting reminder of his adopted father's passionate belief in justice and compassion.
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2013.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.1 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.2 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team is such a diverse range of skills and strengths, |
| 0:23.0 | we've trained journalists, people who love digging through archives, |
| 0:26.6 | we've got drama and even comedy experts. |
| 0:28.9 | We really can do those stories justice. |
| 0:31.5 | So if you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds |
| 0:34.2 | where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK. |
| 0:40.6 | Southern trees bear such strange fruit. |
| 0:47.6 | Barren, strange fruit. |
| 0:51.4 | Blood on the leaves and blood at the root. |
| 0:55.0 | Blood on the leaves |
| 0:56.9 | and blood at the roots. |
| 1:05.0 | Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze. |
| 1:09.1 | Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze. Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze. |
| 1:17.5 | Strange fruit is hanging from the popular trees. |
| 1:22.5 | Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees |
| 1:30.3 | it makes you think |
| 1:37.3 | the person that composed |
| 1:39.3 | that they had experienced |
... |
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