“Strange Fruit” by jazz singer Billie Holiday —with a voice and phrasing like no other —conveys the horror and tragedy of racial lynching.
On Friday it was sung by Pastor Armon Lowery of Newberry’s Mount Zura Full Gospel Baptist Church under a live oak from which people were lynched, and the imagery of the song became real in a way like no other.
It was one of many wrenching moments in a soil collection ceremony in honor of the Newberry Six —a group of African Americans lynched here more than a century ago —as part of a city and countywide truth and reconciliation effort to come to terms with an ugly history.
“As we take this moment to reflect, I want you to look up into the branches of the tree we sit under today,” Newberry Mayor Jordan Marlowe said. “And I want you to think about the fact that the last time this community gathered on this spot, on the very ground your feet are touching, it was to revel in the entertainment that the murder of fellow human beings offered them.”
Soil collected in jars will be taken for display at the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.
The museum and memorial, created by the Equal Justice Initiative, bring to light the country’s history of racial violence and the ways in which racism still shapes society and government policies.
At least 46 lynchings have been documented in Alachua County. Much of the research was done by Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, a University of Florida senior lecturer who died last year.
Marlowe acknowledged Hillard-Nunn’s work on the Newberry Six at Friday’s ceremony.
“If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be here today. We wouldn’t have this work to commemorate these victims without her,” Marlowe said in calling for a moment of silence in her memory.
Historical accounts say the Newberry killings began when an African American man named Boisy Long was accused of stealing hogs in August 1916.
Dr. L.G. Harris and Constable George Wynne tried to arrest Long, but he allegedly fired at both men and fled. Wynne was fatally wounded and Harris was shot but survived.
The Newberry Six were killed because authorities believed they helped Long flee.
James Dennis was fatally shot. Bert and Mary Dennis, Stella Young, the Rev. Josh Baskin and Andrew McHenry were jailed and then lynched by hanging after a mob got them out of the lockup.
A crowd estimated in some records at 200 came from Newberry, Gainesville and elsewhere in the region to watch.
Long was later apprehended and convicted of murder. He was executed Oct. 27, 1916.
Brenda Whitfield, who is part of Newberry’s truth and reconciliation process, called on Friday to be the beginning of an effort for other communities to also confront the racial injustices of their pasts.
“There are very few monuments or memorials that address the history and legacy of lynching and the struggle for racial equality,” Whitfield said. “Most communities do not actively recognize how their race relations were shaped by terror lynchings. We are here today to recognize the people whose lives were lost and the families who suffer from the loss of their loved ones.”
On display was a painting done by Newberry High School student Chavela Chazes-Perez —a dark depiction of a tree trunk with roots underneath that appears to form outlines of human figures.
The soil ceremony is a symbolic way to put the spirits of the dead to sleep and to unite the community.
First, descendants of those who had a role in the lynchings put a small scoop of dirt in jars for each of Newberry Six. Then, anyone who wanted to could join in. County commissioners, Sheriff Clovis Watson and other leaders were among them.
Keiana West, a justice fellow at the Equal Justice Initiative, said before the ceremony that many people are aware of Emmett Till, a teenager who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955.
“But most people don’t know the names of lynching victims in their own communities,” West said. “We think it is very important that the broader community is engaged in this work, that they understand the racial terror that happened in their own backyards so that it can become part of the public memory so we can commit to not doing those things again.”
