{"id":101,"date":"2009-07-13T19:06:04","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T19:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p1.html"},"modified":"2009-07-13T19:06:04","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T19:06:04","slug":"strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p1.html","title":{"rendered":"Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p1"},"content":{"rendered":"

(I'm currently working on my second book.  It's a jazz-shaped take on the cross…I'll share a few excerpts this week…here's installment #1.)<\/span><\/p>\n

He stands stripped bare, arms restrained
\nat the wrists.  His legs are lacerated on all sides; long deep grooves
\ncover his torso and lumps of flesh are missing.  <\/span>Only a slight grimace of his mouth hints to the immeasurable
\ntorture that he has endured. 
\n<\/span>Illegally arrested and unjustly convicted they whipped him without
\nmercy.  <\/span>Surrounded by a jeering,
\nmocking crowd he has no friend in sight. 
\n<\/span>Hundreds have gathered to watch, as he is moments away from hanging on a
\ntree, dying a humiliating death reserved for those without citizenship.<\/p>\n

His name was Frank Embree and he
\nwas strange fruit.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Without
\nSanctuary:  Lynching Photography in America,[1]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/em>
\nis a pictorial history of lynching in America and it was here that I first saw
\nthe three pictures of Frank Embree taken in 1899.  Each stomach-turning
\npage of this book brings home the tragic reality of this form of execution that
\nwas commonplace in America. 
\n<\/span>Lynching was expedited \u201cjustice\u201d through torture and vigilantism.  <\/span>Most trace it\u2019s origins back to the
\n1700\u2019s and Colonel Charles Lynch who bore the ironic title of Justice of the
\nPeace.  He would hold illegal trials and, upon inevitable guilty sentences,
\nhe would tie the \u201cconvicted\u201d to a tree to be flogged.  By the late 1800's,
\n"Lynch Mob" was a part of the American vocabulary used to describe
\nthe horrific practice of confiscating a "criminal" from the local
\njail or kidnapping him from his home in front of his family.  And then, without
\nproper trial, the mob would disgrace, whip with barbed wire, torture,
\nemasculate and hang their often-innocent victim.<\/p>\n

Frank Embree was one of thousands
\nof Americans\u2014mostly African-American\u2014that was a victim of a lynching.  <\/span>They were hung from trees with their
\nbodies mutilated, lacerated, burned and\/or riddled with bullets.  It was a
\ncommunity event often led by unmasked\u2014yet usually never punished\u2014perpetrators. 
\nPictures show men and women gathered by the thousands to witness the hanging of
\nthis strange fruit.  Even children were recruited to assist in the
\ngrotesque gathering.  It became tradition to cut off parts of the victim\u2019s
\nbody as memorabilia.  <\/span>People would
\npose for pictures with the corpse. 
\n<\/span>The photographs that sometimes sold as postcards, depict surreal scenes
\nof men with rifles, people cheering and children playing with the body
\nsuspended above their heads\u2014a necktie party.<\/p>\n

The pictures of Frank Embree show a
\nyoung man of only nineteen years of age standing tall in the back of a buggy\u2026though
\nthe look in his eyes reveal centuries of his peoples search for dignity.   <\/span>After a rope was slipped over his head, a
\nfinal picture shows him as he dangles with crooked neck…eyes still open…a
\nloin-cloth covering, his only article of clothing.<\/p>\n

Bronx schoolteacher Abel Meeropol
\nsaw one of these pictures and put pen to paper writing the disturbing poem, Strange Fruit<\/em>.  <\/span>He then convinced jazz singer Billy Holiday to lend her distinct
\nvoice to the haunting tale of\u2026<\/p>\n

Southern
\ntrees that bear strange fruit,\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Blood
\non the leaves and blood at the roots\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The
\nbulging eyes and the twisted mouth\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The
\nsudden smell of burning flesh\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Here
\nis a strange and bitter crop,\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

When Holiday performed the song in
\nconcert, her audiences didn't know how to respond.  She sang beautifully but
\nthe lyrics were disconcerting; were you supposed to sit in silence or
\napplaud?  <\/span>Holiday felt the dilemma equally
\nand never quite knew what song to sing after Strange Fruit<\/em>.  <\/span>She eventually
\nmoved it to the end of her performances and made it the last song of the night.  <\/span><\/p>\n

After
\nall, how do you follow strange fruit?<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Allan,
\nJames; Als, Hilton; Lewis, John; Litwack, Leon F., (New Mexico:  <\/span>Twin Palms Publishers, 2008)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(I'm currently working on my second book.  It's a jazz-shaped take on the cross…I'll share a few excerpts this week…here's installment #1.) He stands stripped bare, arms restrained at the wrists.  His legs are lacerated on all sides; long deep grooves cover his torso and lumps of flesh are missing.  Only a slight grimace of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-strange-fruit"],"yoast_head":"\nStrange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p1 - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p1 - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(I'm currently working on my second book.  It's a jazz-shaped take on the cross…I'll share a few excerpts this week…here's installment #1.) 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Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}