In last dozen years, Northwestern University journalism students and their professor
have been instrumental in proving the innocence of many prisoners in Illinois,
several of whom had been sentenced to death. Their investigative
journalism sparked the ending of the death penalty in Illinois
Lynching prompted the classic Billie Holiday song,"Strange Fruit,"
which she recorded in 1939 over the objections of her record
company: "Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, strange fruit
hanging from the poplar trees." The song's lyrics were inspired by this photograph. Time magazine denounced the song as "musical propaganda."
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