James H. Cone, in his book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, references lots of songs, art, and poetry. For the convenience of anyone reading the book who, like me, might want to hear and see and read further, I’ve created a YouTube playlist of the songs, and assembled links to the images (in red) and the poems here. You can also get a discussion guide here. (I haven’t used it yet, so let me know what you think.)
Poems and images from Chapter 4.
Links to images are in red.
Photo of the lynching of Rubin Stacey
The Lynching of Laura and LD Nelson (photo)
The Lynching of Cleo Wright (the photo is shown at the end of the video)
“Yet Do I Marvel” by Countee Cullen
“Black Christ” by Countee Cullen (This is a long poem. It is available in this collection on Kindle. Note that it is “Hopefully dedicated to White America.” Particularly if you are white, do consider buying and reading it.)
“The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock” by Gwendolyn Brooks (this will download a pdf)
“I Passed Along This Way” by E. Simms Campbell
“By Parties Unknown” by Hale Woodruff
“The Lynching” by Julius Bloch
“The Gospel of Mary Brown” illustration from The Crisis (This will download a .pdf.)
“Night, Death, Mississippi” by Robert Hayden
“The Bitter River” by Langston Hughes
“Good Morning Revolution” by Langston Hughes
“Goodbye Christ” by Langston Hughes
Chapter 5