Billie Holiday

Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were two African-American men who were arrested on August 6th 1930.

The police said that they had robbed and killed a white man and raped his girl friend.

In fact, they did rob the white man but they did not kill him.

They did not rape the man`s girlfriend.

The girlfriend told the police that she was raped but she was telling a lie.

Many white people heard that Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith had killed a white man and raped a white woman.

They became very angry.

The next day, a large crowd  gathered outside the jail.

They became very angry.

The crowd broke into the jail.

They took Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith out of the jail.

The crowd killed Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith.

There were police officers there.

They helped the crowd kill Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith.

One man took a picture of the bodies. 

Shocking photo..be careful!

Three years later, Abel Meeropol saw the photo.

He was shocked so he wrote the song "Strange Fruit"

Billie Holiday sang this song.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/thoth-god/





Here is the video of the song.

Strange fruit


Listen and fill in the blanks.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the ________1________ and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit ___________2_______from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted________3__________
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the _______4_________ to pluck,
For the _________5__________ to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.




Now that you have learned about racism against African-Americans, Now study about racism against Japanese-Americans.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment