Strange Fruit

Billy Holiday sent a message with her poem about how the Southerners brutely killed the blacks. The poem starts by saying, "blood on the leaves and blood at the root, black body swingin in the southern breeze." The message in the first part of the poem, is that the white people beat up the blacks and then they are hung,killed, and the tree is now growing with their blood. The second part is saying that the body is swaying in the wind, going back and forth as the body had buldging eyes and a twisted mouth. The "strange fruit" in the end of the poem is the dead bodies becoming part of the earth again, but in a way that you wouldn't expect. Billy Holiday made the South look beautiful, but then went on to say they were killing blacks in a disgusting and cruel way. Reading this poem made me realize both sides of what was going on between the Southerners and the blacks. The white people thought they were doing something right for society, when they actually weren't. Then the blacks who were being targeted weren't able to fight back without being hung or beat up. The main message was that the South thought it was a beautiful and noble place, when in reality it was a disgusting and terrible act towards the black people.