Four brothers hanged from a tree

[Elidor]

Weird experience I had a couple years ago that lurks forever in the back of my mind - and on my computer at work:

I was in a new job (one I still have) and my boss came to me one day after work and whispered conspiratorially. "You keep a secret?"

"Sure, man."

"NO. I mean - CAN YOU KEEP...A SECRET?"

"I dunno, man, what's on your mind?"

My boss leaned closer and said, "I got a picture that belongs to a friend of mine. He needs it back. But I need you to scan it for me. But you can't tell ANYBODY."

I was noncommital, and the back and forth went on for a week like this before he finally produced the picture. I seem to recall him warning me about it being graphic. But there was nothing to prepare me for what I saw.

The picture he handed me was of four young black men hanged from a tree. They all looked very much alike - it turned out they were brothers - and they were all quite dead. It took a VERY long moment to sink in that I was not looking at a reproduction - I was looking at a photograph.

He told me they were hanged in Baxter, TN - just down the road from both Cookeville and Carthage - and the photo looks to be very old, maybe 60 or even 70 years.

I scanned the awful thing in a state of nausea and disbelief. I really couldn't get a handle on it. And of all the goddamn people to have (and value) a sick piece of shit like this, why didn't it surprise me more that it was my neo-con, Rush-listening, O'Reilly-loving, GOP propaganda-machine boss?

To this day, the picture sits on my hard drive at work, ignored in a dusty back corner of the file system. I wouldn't think of posting it publicly. It is simply obscene. And heartbreaking. But neither will I delete it. Perhaps someday, someone who belongs to these men will be able to identify them. Perhaps everyone in this area can then take a stark look back at what took place not so very long ago in this place we call home.

[corporatewhore]

1. If i were you i would give the picture to the Smithsonian or library of

congress if we forget the past......These men deserve a voice

[Elidor]

2. That is a very good idea

I believe I'll look into that.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Send it to the FBI

It may be an unsolved crime and the photograph may be a piece of evidence.

[madmax]

3. Yes, please send it to the Smithsonian or Library of Congress

Don't let the deaths of these young men be in vain. :cry:

[alwynsw]

5. Strange Fruit

'nuff said

[Elidor]

6. Good god, I hadn't thought of that.

Billie Holiday. Holy shit. That hits home.

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

[fortyfeetunder]

7. Send a copy to the NAACP HQ

Lynching studies haven't stopped and they would appreciate seeing it.

[Redneck Socialist]

8. They use to make postcards of shit like that.

Unbelievable but true.

http://www.musarium.com/withoutsanctuary/

Edited to add link

[fortyfeetunder]

13. Without Sanctuary -- This is a MUST SEE website

I looked at all 81 pictures and read the stories to most of them. If you haven't seen it, you must. Chilling, graphic, but real.

I knew about lynching as a child -- not because my parents told me, oh no, that was never discussed, but I found pictures among the magazines my grandparents had.

America is in denial --choosing to hide this ugly past while they talk about Saddam, Hitler, etc. and their numerous atrocities. They are still in denial.

And it wasn't just Blacks, there was Leo Frank (Jewish) and there were two Italian-Americans, also.

With the current right-wing intolerance growing in this country, I think we are slowly returning to lynching in this country. Mr. James Byrd in TX was lynched for no reason at all, and Matthew Shepard was lynched...

[smallprint]

15. yes, that's the exhibit that was at emory university

i remember reading about that when it opened...disturbing, eye-opening... changed the way i think about the usa.
Hardhead, i think you should send it to them, or the smithsonian, or a similar organization.

[TXlib]

9. Did you ask why he wanted it scanned?

If you haven't, ask him what he wanted it for.

[Trajan]

10. About a year or two ago ...

A non fiction photographic book was released ... It contained the very kind of photographs which you saw: ... private photos held by the families of those who either TOOK them, or came to possess them ...

I dont recall the name of the author (I seem to remember she was interviewed on NPR) ...

and: . I think the name of the book was "Strange Fruit" .. amazingly enough ...

I also seem to recall that the author was a person of color, who felt that the 'personal' quality of these objects, and how they were held by individuals or families as heirlooms, gave the book a different level of meaning .....

Perhaps a book two is in the works ? ...

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. I saw that book

And....well, I can't say I how I felt about it, other than that I felt its power at speaking truth.

The photograph in question in this thread ABSOLUTELY has to be made public somehow - I imagine the Smithsonian is a good start, or any other organization that is working on this topic.

To hide it is to deny a truth. And to deny a truth is to be, at least partially, an accomplice in the oppressive system.

[Xithras]

11. Keep it

Photographs are powerful things, a reminder of the way things once were. That photograph carries a message that words cannot relay. It's a message that we cannot forget lest we repeat it.

[pansypoo53219]

14. damn

my aunt and uncle used to live outside cookeville, now in sparta.

actually you might want to send a cpy of the photo to the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, Wi. The elderly black man that runs it was a surviver of a lynching. I don't remember the whole story, but they just had another thing on our NPR station.

america's black holocaust museum inv.
2233 n.4th st
milwaukee, wi 53212(not sure)

[Seldona]

16. Ahh god...

Made me nauseous.

On a separate note I lived in Volusia County Florida about 5 years ago.

Met a group of guys through work. Real nice guys. We did allot of partying and fishing, hanging out, that kind of thing.

Well one day we are sitting in my buddies bass boat, after about a year of hanging with these guys, and one proceeds to ask me how I feel about my race!

Everything is real quiet, and everyone (there were 3 others) is looking at me real intently.

Well being Oneida Indian, but it was pretty much hidden by the tan I had year round, I said 'well OK I suppose'.

I was in shock. Never heard a bad word about race out of these guys. Not once.

They handed me literature on the clan.

Man was that spooky. They were all frigging KKK.

I just sort of got real busy when one of them called after that.

Should have spoken up, but sitting alone in the Florida wilderness with a bunch of Clansmen was not the perfect place to do it.

Well anyway, don't know why but this made me think of that.

I would turn it over to the FBI or something. Maybe it could help.

Who knows?