Strange fruit is what a southern slave once considered it to be…
The description of a negro hanging and dangling from a sycamore tree.
Justice is what many labelled it to be,
A spirited tradition that thousands came out to witness and see;
The barbaric killing of a brother man
For the deed he committed against another man.
Lynching is what history would later acknowledge it to be.
The death penalty is the code name that is most used
to now describe this atrocity.
While capital punishment is what Black’s Law Dictionary
Defines it to be,
In this new generation of new chemicals
And high technology.
To some, to the naive, Just because they cannot see
Strange fruit literally dangling from the tree,
Many have written off lynchings as if
They no longer exist in our society.
But I am the new era of strange fruit –
Minus the sycamore tree –
And if you open your eyes,
This reality
You will see.
Written by Kenny Reams, sentenced to death at the age of 19.