Abel Meeropol: Rosenbergs, Strange Fruit, and Children of Activists.

To kick start this blog, enjoy this post featuring two of my greatest passions, left wing politics and music.

                                                                       Abel Meeropol

Today would be Abel Meeropol’s birthday him being the poet, New York high school teacher and socialist and trades union activist who wrote the poignant, haunting and ever powerful anti-racist poem, "Strange Fruit" in 1937. This continues to be used to shed a light on the brutality of the treatment of slaves and the racially induced violence in the southern US states having been inspired by his shock and horror at a photo the lynching of two slaves in 1930. Originally titled "Bitter Fruit", put to music and sung by Billie Holiday, this would become a timeless anthem encouraging us to solemnly reflect and question the advancement of humanity as well as identify and call out against any racist acts which still continue to be subjected to people globally regardless of age, values and social standing. 

Lyrics:

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

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 a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

With three verses and a mere 91 words, the brutal and harsh contrast of the "sweet and fresh" scent of pure white magnolia flowers with the "sudden smell of burning flesh" as if to present a loss of purity in the air through the lack of humanity and morality as well as the metaphor damage and deformation of these bodies with "bulging eyes and the twisted mouth" perhaps presenting the abuse they were subject to along with the description of lynched slaves hanging like fruits on a tree left to rot and decompose amidst the peaceful and idealistic "pastoral scene" of the so-called "gallant South" ruled by the wealthy white supremacists.

                                                               Abel and Anne Meeropol

After writing this piece, Meeropol continued to work as a high school teacher and write poetry and music as well as being a member of the American Communist Party from 1932-47 and, after adopting the children of communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were executed for spying for and leaking information about the Soviet Union, with his wife Anne Meeropol set up the Rosenberg Fund for Children, a charity providing support for children whose needs have suffered due to their parents' political activities as well as providing grants supporting the education and needs of targeted activist youth. Meeropol proves to have been an influential writer and political figure whose work deserves greater recognition today.