Strange Fruit on Florida Trees

“A 1993 study indicates that between 1882 and 1930, one out of every 1,250 African Americans in Florida was lynched. A black person was almost twice as likely to be lynched in Florida as in Georgia, and seven times more likely in Florida than in North Carolina. ” – Florida Historical Society

The title of this post refers to the Billy Holiday song “Strange Fruit” about the African American lynchings that begins: “Southern trees bear a 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”

Scholars are argue about whether or not Holiday’s career ended prematurely after the recorded this song. I don’t know if it did, but I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s not easy to listen to–just reading the lyrics is repulsive, especially to those of us who grew up in a Florida that had the most lynchings per capita of all states.

Tallahassee put up this marker in in 2021, better late than never

This song has been on my mind as I debate whether or not to include a lynching in my novel in progress, one described in some detail. The research has made me sick. Growing up in Florida during the Jim Crow era, I heard and read about lynchings in the news. They weren’t stories from one hundred years ago, but from “today and last night.”  Saying anything in private conversations, much less in public, was dangerous because the Klan and its sympathizers were everywhere, next door perhaps or at club and church meetings. Express displeasure about a lynching, and you  might be next. Or you might find a cross burning on your lawn and then find our friends disappearing to avoid being seen associating with you.

Suffice to say, I have good reason to include a lynching in a novel because strange fruit, although not part of the citrust industry, was part of the scenery. 

I should, but I don’t think I can.

–Malcolm