Strange Fruit

It's hard to figure sometimes how we got this way. . .

(circa 2004)
TORTURE AND TRUTH: AMERICA, ABU GHRAIB, AND THE WAR ON TERROR
By Mark Danner

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.

Until one looks at where we came from.


(circa 1939)
Senators who did not sign the apology for lynching 5000 Americans
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
--"Strange Fruit" by Abel Meeropol (a.k.a. Lewis Allan)

Southern Poverty Law Center
Center for Constitutional Rights