Community Complicity in White Supremacy in Lillian Smith’s “Strange Fruit”

Lillian Smith’s Strange Fruit ends with the lynching of Henry McIntosh and the community members’ reactions to the murder. Following Ed Anderson murder of Tracy Deen, the townspeople, specifically the poor white mill hands, seek vengeance and they accuse Henry of murdering Tracy because Henry moved Tracy’s body off of the road into the palmetto bushes. The fact that Henry is innocent doesn’t matter. The mob, whipped up into a frenzy and seeking retribution takes Henry and lynches him on the ballfield in front of a large crowd of Maxwell’s white residents. The act of state-sanctioned violence, along with the community members’ thoughts following Henry’s lynching, highlight how even someone who condemns the violence succumbs to it.

Tom Harris, the owner of a mill, thinks about the role Henry’s lynching has on the psyche of the community. After one of his workers approaches him about higher wages, Tom sits and ponders what is about to happen, specifically that “it took one dead n***** a year to keep Bill’s liver regulated.” In his mind, he sees Tracy’s family sitting up with there son as his body lies in the coffin and in the same thought he knows that Henry will disappear: “Men would sit up with the corpse and Henry would vanish in the night. That would be all.” Tom could do something about it, stop Henry’s murder, but…