An alternative anthem that we love from Activist Artist, Jean Rohe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1iC1zt24A.

#artistsasactivists #strangefruit

Lyrics, with gratitude to Dr. Martin Luther King and Abel Meeropol, via Billie Holiday, provided by the artist:

Atlantic and Pacific flow
The Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico
The land between sustains us all
To cherish it, our tireless call

Arise! Arise!

I see the future in your eyes.
To a more perfect union we aspire
And lift our voices from the fire.
We reached these shores from many lands
We came with hungry hearts and hands
Some came by force and some by will
At the auction block, in the darkened mill

CHORUS

We died in your fields and your factories
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
With an old coat hanger in a room somewhere
A trail of tears, an electric chair

CHORUS

Our great responsibility
To be guardians of our liberty
'Till tyrants bow to the people's dream
And justice flows like a mighty stream