The Singing Bridge

A photographic memorial to lynching victims in the capital of Kentucky.

With work by:
Rebekah Berry

Presented by:
Focus on Race Relations

With Generous Support from:
The Kentucky Foundation for Women

  • About the Exhibit

    The Singing Bridge: A Photographic Memorial to Lynching Victims in the Capital


    Over the past few years, Focus on Race Relations (FORR) has been working with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to help our Franklin County community learn about, acknowledge, and face our history of African Americans who have been lynched. EJI, who has led this charge nationally, acknowledges two lynching victims in our county: Marshall Boston in 1894 and John Maxey in 1909. Although we know there to be more victims, this exhibit focuses on these two men who were both murdered on the Singing Bridge, known also as the Swinging Bridge because of the lynchings.


    Part of remembering and understanding injustice is going to the places where the injustice occurred and coming to understand the place in a new way, a way that makes space for grief and fosters introspection, compassion, and a strong commitment to addressing racial inequities. As photographer Rebekah Berry began learning about the lynchings, it was as if she were seeing the bridge for the first time, though she’d driven over it many times spanning decades. She thought about the terror that Mr. Boston and Mr. Maxey must have experienced, the horror that Black community members must have felt, and the glee and self-righteous rage that must have been coursing through the veins of the white terrorists. She thought about how people might have been spread out to get the best view of the lynchings: some on the bridge, some down on the shore, some in boats. She thought about how people often remember traumatic or frenetic events in flashes of images, mental photographs: the way a shadow falls across a face, the visual rhythm of a railing, the blinding light of a street lamp against the backdrop of the night sky. She paid attention to what she saw and felt, she let the experience change her, and she documented it with her camera in hopes that it could help others to think more about our history of slavery, lynching, and democracy.


    As a white woman, she wondered if any of her ancestors had been in the mobs. Or if the ancestors of any of her friends had. She wondered how many of her Black friends had heard stories about the lynchings from family or community members as children, or if any of them were related to the victims. She thought about how white children often grow up oblivious to things like a bridge that was the site of lynchings, while Black children are forced to learn about racial terror from a very young age. White parents can choose to not teach their children about racism because it’s not their children being harmed. 


    And finally she thought about the incredible amount of courage and strength African Americans had to have in order to just survive in this nation, a nation they were being forced to build up beneath the horrors of the ropes and whips. She thought about the rage that comes from being treated like animals by people who know little of humanity. She thought about the brilliance of spirit and intellect and creativity and activism that is so abundant in Black culture. And she thought about how important music and poetry have been for Black people to survive and thrive in this country they were stolen away to. As such, she decided to title her photographs with songs and poems in order to honor both the struggle and the brilliance and to place the story of Frankfort’s history of racial terrorism at the Singing Bridge in the broader story of African American history and struggle and community and creativity and activism. There are links to videos and other relevant information for each song/poem/piece of writing.

WHEN MALINDY SINGS

inspired by his mother

Poem by Paul Dunbar

performed by

Nina Simone


critical analysis of

The Poem

SOUTHERN HORRORS

Southern Horrors – Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist and civil rights activist who was born a slave in 1862. She was at the forefront of the anti-lynching movement and published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases in order to fight the idea that Black men were dangerous brutes. She researched stories of lynchings from around the nation and compiled statistics to shed light on the problem and fight through false narratives. Wells was also a fierce advocate for women’s rights, and angered white women who expected her to march in the back of the line by going directly to the front during a protest. She was one of the founders of the NAACP.




STRANGE FRUIT

Strange Fruit was written by Abel Meeropol, a teacher who’d been born to Russian Jewish immigrants, in response to the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. It was performed by Billie Holiday, who made it famous and was blacklisted for continuing to perform it. But she continued to do so because she felt it needed to be shared. It had a profound effect on the nation, and as is often the case when Black people speak powerfully about oppression, there was also a strong backlash. In 1999, Time Magazine named it the Best Song of the Century.

Inspiration for the song

Rebekah Berry wrote The Blackbird while reflecting on her visit with Bishop James Dubose, a 90 year old African American man, who talked about growing up in the South and about his memories of lynchings, and as she was learning about the lynchings that took place in Kentucky’s capital. The song talks about the legacy of slavery and lynching, the implications for democracy, and the need to remain committed to racial justice and equity. It is based on a traditional old-time song called The Cuckoo. Bob Hunter, who has been a civil rights activist for over 50 years, generously listened and relistened to the song as it developed over a year and gave invaluable feedback. His wisdom, experience, friendship, and conversation helped create a fertile ground where the song could evolve. Here are the lyrics to the song, and the explanation behind them.

Listen to the song

Performed by Rebekah Berry.

Listen Now

Artist's Notes

My interpretation of the guitar part is meant to sound like a train, a reference to the Underground Railroad. Right after I finished writing the song, as a friend and I were discussing the etymology of a word, the conversation led him to ask me to Google “south sea islands slavery”. It came as a shock to both of us to see the first article shown was titled “Blackbirding”. The term refers to the practice of Europeans tricking or kidnapping people into slavery. I am not sure if the Beatles song “Blackbird” which was about the Civil Rights Movement, is referring to this historical practice, but either way I was stunned to discover this fact, and for me it’s made the concept of the song that much more powerful and relevant. 


Here are the lyrics, and below each verse is a brief explanation so that you can understand my thinking, and therefore the song, better. 


Gonna build me a log cabin

On that mountain so high

So I can see trouble

When it comes nigh


This has to do with African Americans having to constantly be on the lookout, and white abolitionists as well.  John Rankin and his wife had a house on a hill by the Ohio River which they used to hide runaway slaves as they kept a lookout for white people coming to capture them.


Well the blackbird she’s a stealthy bird

So quietly she cries

But she sings her songs of freedom

And she never tells us lies


Slaves on the Underground Railroad had to travel very quietly obviously, and they were in constant fear and often physical pain, but they had to cry silently. Harriet Tubman sometimes used bird songs to communicate during the journey so as not to be discovered by pro-slavery whites. These songs, along with songs like “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd”, were a guiding truth that led to freedom. Also, this refers to how African Americans often still have to hide their pain and advocate for themselves despite having contributed so much to this nation.  Much of American culture, especially music, is built on African and African American traditions and arts - freedom songs, gospel, blues, jazz, rock and roll, ragtime, R&B, hip-hop, rap, and even Appalachian music...much of which has had to do with freedom and oppression. During the Cold War, US jazz musicians were sent around the world to sway nations and their citizens toward democracy and away from communism and to convince them that the "race problem" in the US was not as much of a problem as communists were claiming. The Black musicians, including Louis Armstrong, met, mingled with, and wooed presidents, ambassadors, prime ministers, and generals while knowing that back home in the US their families were not safe or fully free. This program under the US State Dept. was a huge success, and therefore a significant contribution to America's success.


Queen of cotton, oh king of cotton

I know you from old

How you robbed her sacred body

And their children you stole


This is about the rape of Black women by white men and at the demand of white women, the commodification of Black bodies via buying and selling, as well as the forced creation of and breaking apart of enslaved families. 


Gonna head for that log cabin

On that mountain-top so high

So I can see Sojourner

As she rolls by


This is a reference to MLK's speech in which he said, "I've been to the mountaintop...I've seen the Promised Land", and a reference to Sojourner Truth, symbolizing the truth she spread as she traveled around the US - I imagine that she traveled on a train. Also, Lincoln was sent on a train across the country after he died and people came out to honor him as the train rolled by. This verse is a way of acknowledging that there have been so many African Americans that contributed as much to our democracy - they just didn't have access to positions of power like the presidency. Going to the log cabin to look for Sojourner represents intentional seeking out of Black voices and wisdom and stories.


Said the oppressed to the oppressor

This story’s gettin’ old

How you rob my people’s kingdom

Of our silver and our gold


This is talking about the wealth that  has been stolen from the African diaspora - economic, but also psychologically and culturally - especially in the Americas as a result of slavery. It’s also a reference to exploitation of Africa for resources such as precious metals by many nations.


Ida Bell, oh Ida Bell

Go ahead and raise some hell

With your printin’ press and your marchin’ feet

Front of the line, march on down that street


Ida B. Wells was born a slave and became a fierce anti-lynching advocate. She owned a newspaper and was a feminist as well. White women expected her to stay at the back of the line when they marched in protest, but she went to the front of the line. Fierce. 


There’s a broken down old singin’ bridge

But truth be known it was a swingin’ bridge

Down by the school playground that soil you see

Once held the roots of a hangin’ tree


This is a direct reference to Frankfort's lynching history. It’s also about the way Black people often view shared community spaces differently than white people. The project that FORR is working on in collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative is about Franklin county’s history of lynching. At least two men were lynched from our Singing Bridge, also known as the Swinging Bridge by many in the Black community for this reason, and there used to be a hanging tree in or near  what is now a school playground. 


Well the blackbird, he so calmly perched

As he looked me in the eye

And he asked me, “What to the slave

Is the fourth day of July?”


Frederick Douglass asked this question, and it is still relevant today insofar as too many white people don't understand the legacy of slavery and how it plays out in our democracy as well as in the lives of individuals and families and communities. This verse also gets to one of the main points of the song - which is that our democracy as envisioned in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights cannot be fully realized until we fully acknowledge and honor the legacy of slavery and the people it still affects today, and make necessary changes so that our democracy works for everyone. Writing this verse I pictured myself in 2019 looking Frederick Douglass in the eye as he asked me that question from 1852. It’s a glance across time, and a challenge to fight harder for liberty and justice for all.


ROCK MY SOUL

by Louis Armstrong


The phrase “Abraham's bosom” appears in the Bible in Luke 16:22–23 as part of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The story contrasts the beggar who was carried away to Abraham’s bosom with the rich man who ends up tormented in hell. The term "bosom of Abraham" is "used to denote the place of the righteous dead. . . . It connotes the harmony that exists among the righteous in paradise as they await the Resurrection" (Bible Dictionary, "Abraham's Bosom"). Source:  "Rock-a My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham" Performed by Alex Boyé and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (thetabernaclechoir.org)