The Incredible Story of Strange Fruit
by Marion, Indiana, 1930. Three black men accused of murder and rape, were taken from custody by a mob. Two were mutilated, murdered and hung from a tree. This is the story of Strange Fruit and those involved in its planting and cultivation.
The Seed
The events leading up to, and the night of, August 7th 1930. Marion, Indiana.
(The quotations are James Cameron’s own words, from his 1982 autobiography, “A Time of Terror: A Survivor’s Story”)
Two 19 year olds, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith persuaded 16 year old James Cameron to join them in a robbery at a local “lovers’ lane”.
Handing the younger boy a gun, they found a car parked there. Inside was white factory worker, Claude Deeter and his girlfriend Mary Ball.
When James realised that he recognised the man as one of his regular shoe-shine clients, he declared that he wanted no more to do with it, and handing the gun back to the others, ran for his home.
As he ran off he heard two gunshots fired.
Within hours the three had all been arrested and taken into custody.
Rumours quickly spread that three black men had committed a murder and robbery and raped a white woman.
A mob, numbering thousands, swarmed to the Grant County Courthouse with torches guns and any tool that lay to hand that could be used as a weapon, to “get those goddamn Niggers.” Ku Klux Clan members were among the throng and many police officers mingled amongst, and joked with the crowd.
Despite there being a reported fifty armed guards in the building, the mob smashed down the doors, grabbed Thomas Shipp dragging him out into the street and beat the life out of him.
It seemed “all of those ten to fifteen thousand people were trying to hit him all at once.”
They dragged his body with a rope, hauling it in front of the windows of the cell of Abram Smith, they went for him next.
He too was beaten and mutilated.
“Those who were not close enough to hit him threw rocks and bricks. Somebody rammed a crowbar through his chest several times in great satisfaction.”
The bodies of the two men were dragged with ropes to the court house square and hung from a tree.
Returning to the jail, the lynch-mob grabbed James Cameron and “mauled him all the way to the square.” The crowd were baying for him to be strung up. He was dragged to the tree and a noose put around his neck.
An unknown woman’s voice called out over the crowd. “Take this boy back. He doesn’t have anything to do with any shooting or raping.” The mob pulled back and Cameron was led back to the jail.
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Post CommentLouie Jerome
On January 16, 2009 at 6:17 am
Very interesting and thought provoking article.
Debra.
On January 16, 2009 at 6:25 am
What a horrific story! The picture was grotesque! The entire article was fascinating, heartbreaking, heartwarming and educational. Very well done!
God bless!
Yovita Siswati
On January 16, 2009 at 6:57 am
Wow…very very interesting story. The picture is very scarry. Great article! I like it.
Betty Carew
On January 16, 2009 at 7:08 am
Wow C Excellent write. You had me spellbound. I went through a gamit of emotions on this one sad, angry, helpless.I am certainly aware that things like this happened. How could people have been so cruel? Yes! Thank god we have come a long way. I’ll be looking forward to your next write.
Yaffel
Sharona
On January 16, 2009 at 7:27 am
This is the saddest article. May we all bear a different kind of fruit, love, joy, peace,longsuffering,gentleness,goodness,faith, meekness,temperance, and the greatest of these, LOVE.
Rask Balavoine
On January 16, 2009 at 7:38 am
Sometimes we just have to read stuff or see it even if we’d rather not. To look away is to ignore.
papaleng
On January 16, 2009 at 8:07 am
another very interesting article.
Mr Ghaz
On January 16, 2009 at 8:19 am
Excellent! v. informative article
Patrick Bernauw
On January 16, 2009 at 1:23 pm
This is one of these stories that have to be told again and again… Here is some information that’s, for me, totally new… You did a thorough job, Chris… A chilling article, I’m going to buzz and digg it!
Maybe one suggestion: there are some great renditions of Strange Fruit on YouTube, like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isU_OjY94NY
C Jordan
On January 16, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Thank you for your comments, and thank you Patrick for those additions
lindalulu
On January 16, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Great article.
s hayes
On January 16, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Fascinating article.
The standard of writing is outstanding
James DeVere
On January 16, 2009 at 9:14 pm
What a great story – links in the lyrics and makes for a harrowing read. Thanks CJ . j
CutestPrincess
On January 17, 2009 at 1:54 am
omg, the story is great but the photo is a bit scary!
Lauren Axelrod
On January 17, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Fascinating read. I have bookmarked this.
denus
On January 17, 2009 at 8:52 pm
that was really amazing…
very interesting!
cheers,
denus
Unofre Pili
On January 18, 2009 at 6:18 pm
A very well-written article on a nice and scary story.
Poetic Enigma
On January 18, 2009 at 6:59 pm
very interesting article,
and very well written
Inna Tysoe
On January 19, 2009 at 1:39 am
It’s a very moving story–and a timely reminder of how much we can accomplish when we come together against prejudice.
Best,
Inna
clay hurtubise
On January 20, 2009 at 6:54 am
Very good piece. Facinating.
Thanks,
Clay
Ruby Hawk
On January 20, 2009 at 9:01 pm
It was a shameful day that has not yet been lived down.I have seen this picture and heard this story all my life.
Denis Muwonge
On January 22, 2009 at 5:40 am
The acts were so macabre….the writer so good that he makes feel like you are a contemporaly of Cameroon. Thanks for sharing.
eddiego65
On January 22, 2009 at 9:02 am
Fascinating and absorbing piece.
Lost in Arizona
On January 22, 2009 at 11:59 am
It’s difficult to wrap my mind around such horrific events in our history, but pictures such as the one shown is always the evidence behind such atrocities. Having grown up in the deep south of Arkansas in the 80’s, I can still remember to this day the ignorance of people. But look how far we’ve come now. By having Barack Obama as our president, hopefully now we can show how far we have come as a nation, and begin to work on a new nation where color is no longer a significance, and we are all the same.
thestickman
On January 29, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I have wondered what the story behind that poem was :`-(
Chris Stonecipher
On January 30, 2009 at 11:48 am
Heartbreaking, emotional and informative. Thank you Chris!
rutherfranc
On February 4, 2009 at 3:53 pm
from 1930 to the election of Barrack Obama.. that`s still a long time.. very interesting and informative article.. glad I made a wrong turn somewhere that I was able to read this..but I`m checking the authors now instead of the sender..
Lisa
On March 24, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I keep seeing comments from people who are proud and happy that we have come a long way. We have only come a long way if you only look at how some are treated. We still treat others just this badly. Abu Ghraib comes to mind as an example. There are too many people in the US who still think it is fine to torture, but since “torture” is not a nice word, let’s redefine “torture” and claim that water-boarding and other cruelties are not torture. People seem always willing to victimize, and it is especially easy for them when their victims are different from themselves in some way. It shouldn’t surprise us that non-human animals are treated worse than anyone else. Strangely, the same excuses are used to torture them, and the same responses are made when it is pointed out. The photo on this site of the lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp is a little cropped. If you saw the whole foreground you would see children, and a couple who look to be holding hands as if on a date. The crowd is happy and proud. They look no different from people going to a circus or sitting down to eat animals at dinner. Until we learn to stop victimizing animals we will continue victimizing each other because when we victimize animals we teach our children it is okay to be merciless to some, then where do we draw the line?
Cathy
On May 21, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I have seen the photo many times, but I did not know the story. I was amazed it did not happen in the South, but in the Mid-West. I read somewhere that race relations had been good in Marion, that it had a branch of the NAACP and two black policemen. If raw hatred can exist in a place like that, I suppose it can exist anywhere, simmering below the surface like a cancer. The thing I find the most terrifying about the Beitler photograph (apart from the appalling injuries that killed the two victims), is the man in the foreground pointing to them. He seems to be racism and hatred personified.
Zaya
On August 13, 2009 at 5:07 am
Very very sad story, hope such it will never repeat. And let’s do our best to never let such things happen again!
I Have Had Enough
On March 27, 2010 at 12:43 pm
I do believe I was already aware of most of the individual components of the story; but you done a great job of bringing them together. I especially liked the line:
“It is an interesting fact that if an American citizen was born on, or before August 7th 1930 and was alive in 2009, then in a lifetime, that person has gone from Strange Fruit to Barack Obama being elected as president.”
Der Kommissar
On March 29, 2010 at 6:49 am
Nice work, the pciture is haunting on it’s own but pulling all the info together and with the pciture. What a dark time, it’s easy to want to forget but important we remember what eveil we can cause when we forget we are all humans, all Americans and we are all equal regardless of color, creed or orientation
rochester
On June 29, 2010 at 7:28 pm
I already knew that Abel Meeropol was the future adaptive father of the Rosenbergs’ sons when he had a connection with
a song made famous by Billie Holliday about lynching black men. What I didn’t know was that he was a Communist, had written the song based on his poem, without his wife’s collaboration, and that he was inspired by the photograph of the lynching at Marion, Indiana.
But that is just my point. The picture that
gave him the words was taken not in the south, but in Indiana.
Lynchings were not confined to the ex Confederate states. Only three years after the crime in Marion, two white men were seized from their jail cells in San Jose, California and strung up
on tree branches. They had been arrested for the murder of a white man.
The poem is a powerfully beautiful condemnation of such atrocities but inaccurate.