Strange Fruit Mention of the Day: This is a great piece (*w/ a few errors, noted below) from author Tayo Aluko in The Progressive. Abel Meeropol, who adopted Ethel & Julius Rosenberg's two sons, is best known for having written the lyrics for the anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit", but he also wrote the lyrics to "The House I Live in" which envisioned a democratic, anti-racist America.
Paul Robeson, a singer, socialist & anti-lynching activist, recorded a version of this song. (It's really something, here's a link to give it a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig3Sw0gEDb8.) Robeson advocated for "racial equality and peaceful relations with the Soviet Union" & was nearly killed for it. Today, violent attacks on peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters & the sight of a would-be lynch mob at the Capitol recalls for us the parallels to the times Robeson lived in and protested against. The struggle to build "The House I Live in" that Meeropol & Robeson envisioned continues on. #StrangeFruitMOTD

https://progressive.org/dispatches/robeson-voice-rings-true-today-aluko…

*Here are our corrections to the article's errors: Abel Meeropol’s pen name was Lewis Allan, not Lewis Allen; the article implies that Abel only wrote the words to "Strange Fruit" when he wrote both the words & music; it also states that Abel used a pen name because he was frightened of political fallout, but this was not the case.