Southern Trees

30” x 40”, Acrylic, Enamel and Gold Leaf on Canvas

“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

Pastoral scene of the gallant South

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

Scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh

And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

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" is a song recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939, written by Abel Meeropol and published in 1937. It protests the lynching of Black Americans, with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the great majority of victims were black. The song has been called "a declaration of war" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement."

Billie was deeply moved by the lyrics — not only because she was a Black American but also because the song reminded her of her father, who died at 39 from a fatal lung disorder, after being turned away from a hospital because he was a Black man. “It reminds me of how Pop died,” she said of the song in her autobiography. “But I have to keep singing it, not only because people ask for it, but because 20 years after Pop died, the things that killed him are still happening in the South.”

While civil rights activists and Black America embraced "Strange Fruit," the nightclub scene, which was primarily composed of white patrons, had mixed reactions. At witnessing Holiday's performance, audience members would applaud until their hands hurt, while those less sympathetic would bitterly walk out the door.

As an artist, and a Black woman, I challenged myself to express “Strange Fruit” in a beautiful, yet graphic way. I used to think of Spanish moss as a parasite, but it isn’t (how true it is that ignorance breeds misconceptions, lies and bigotry). I can even admit I was slightly afraid of it. It is actually a very hearty plant that lives off good looks and fresh air (Look it up!). Although I know what it is—the way it clings to the trees and sways gently in a breeze—I find beautifully menacing. I wondered, as I painted (visualizing Spanish moss) if people would recoil, perhaps at the moment of recognition of the song and the title of this artwork. I wondered, “Do people think about how Black people feel about our place in the world—despite how easy some of us are able to make life appear?” I can’t answer those questions with any certainty, but one thing I do know is exactly what ignorance and disinformation (lies), lack of empathy or humanity leads to…