The Jim Crow mentality was not only discriminatory, it was also hateful and violent. The Ku Klux Klan was established in the Reconstruction South. But, it was resurrected in the 1920s when it found roots in some northern states, including Indiana and Ohio. It is estimated that the Klan had more than three million members during the 1920s. Lynching was the primary tactic of the KKK. Black southerners commonly referred to this as “Judge Lynch.” (Lawson, p. 44.)
From Reconstruction to World War II, there were approximately 4,700 racial lynchings, 75 percent of which took place in the states of the former Confederacy. The height of this practice was in 1892 during which 230 lynchings of blacks were recorded. (Routledge History, Turner essay, p. 45.) There were more than 70 lynchings of blacks in the South in 1919. (Weissman, Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution, Music and Social Change in America, p. 136.) Lynchings often took place in public, witnessed by dozens, if not hundreds, of onlookers. Mississippi was called the “land of the tree, and the home of the grave.” (Lawson, p. 49.) The number of lynchings did not settle below one per week until the 1920s. Lynching of blacks all but stopped by WW II. (Routledge, Turner, p. 45.)
Billie Holiday, perhaps the greatest female blues singer ever, recorded the song “Strange Fruit,” (http://youtu.be/98CxkS0vzB8) written by “Lewis Allen,” actually Abel Meeropol, about racial lynchings in 1939. The song was so controversial that Holiday’s usual record label, Columbia Records, would not release it. The recording was distributed by a private label, and it rose to number 16 on the Billboard R&B charts despite being banned from the airwaves. (Routledge/Turner, p. 52.) Time magazine named it “The Song of the Century” in 1999. (Id.) Meeropol/Allen was motivated to write the song upon viewing a photograph of a dual lynching that occurred in Indiana in the early 1930s. (Lynskey, 33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs from Billie Holiday to Green Day, p. 5.)
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar 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.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.
“Hangman’s Blues,“ written and sung by Blind Lemon Jefferson (1928) (https://youtu.be/Ayc94qvl8tg) is another song about racial lynchings.
Hangman’s rope is so tough and strong
Oh, the hangman’s rope is so tough and strong
They gonna hang me because I done something wrongI wanna tell you the gallis (gallows), Lord’s a fearful sight
I wanna tell you the gallis, Lord’s a fearful sight
Hang me in the mornin’ and cut me down at nightWhile a mean ol’ hangman is waitin’ to tighten up that noose
Oh, the mean ol’ hangman is waitin’ to tighten up that noose
Lord, I’m so scared, I’m trembling in my shoesJury heard my case and they said my hand was red
That man heard my case and said my hand was red
And judge, he sentenced me, be hanging till I’m deadThey crowd ’round the courthouse and the time is going fast
Oh, they crowd ’round the courthouse and the time is going fast
Soon a good-for-nothin’ killer is gonna breath his lastLord, I’m almost dyin’, gasping for my breath
Lord, I’m almost dyin’, gasping for my breath
And a triflin’ woman waiting to celebrate my death
Lead Belly also penned a song about racial lynching that he called “The Gallis (Gallows) Pole.” (1939) (http://youtu.be/ye2N_2ce3QE)
Father, did you bring me the silver,
Father, did you bring me the gold?
What did you bring me, dear father,
Keep me from the gallows pole?Yeah, what did you?
Yeah, what did you?
What did you bring me, keep me from the gallows pole?Spoken: In olden times years ago, when you put a man in
prison behind the bars in a jailhouse, if you had
fifteen or twenty-five or thirty dollars you could save
him from the gallows pole ’cause they gonna hang him if
you don’t bring up a little money. Everybody would come
to the jailhouse and boy would ran upside the jail; he
was married, too. As for who brang him something, lot
of comfort, here comes his mother.Mother, did you bring me the silver,
Mother, did you bring me the gold?
What did you bring me, dear mother,
Keep me from the gallows pole?Yeah, what did you?
Yeah, what did you?
What did you bring me, keep me from the gallows pole?Son, I brought you some silver,
Son, I brought you some gold.
Son, I brought you a little of everything,
Keep you from the gallows pole.Yeah, I brought it.
Yeah, I brought it.
I brought you, keep you from the gallows pole.Spoken: Here come his wife. His wife brought him all
kind of clock parts and trace change. Everything in the
world she could to get him out of the jailhouse.Wife, did you bring me the silver,
Wife, did you bring me the gold?
What did you bring me, dear wifey,
Save me from the gallows pole?Yeah, what did you?
Yeah, what did you?
What did you bring me, keep me from the gallows pole?Friends, did you bring me the silver,
Friends, did you bring me the gold?
What did you bring me, my dear friends,
Keep me from the gallows pole?Yeah, what did you?
Yeah, what did you?
What did you bring me, keep me from the gallows pole?