Two-time Grammy nominee Andra Day and Google have teamed up to bring awareness to an issue still plaguing our society: racial injustice.
With the support of Google, the Equal Justice Initiative has launched a storytelling project entitled Lynching In America, which aims to shed light on America's racial history and start an open dialogue on the work we must do to end racial injustice across the country.
With her powerful rendition of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit", Andra Day paid tribute to the over 4,000 African Americans lynched in the United States and those who still face racial injustice today.
"We have to be truly honest, we have to face the history of racial terror in our country, " Day told BuzzFeed as she prepared to hit the stage at the Global Citizen Festival to perform her rendition of Holiday's moving song.
Day went on to discuss how important it is for the country to honor the victims of racial injustice: "For me, it’s about telling the honest narrative, it’s about honoring the victims and the heroes of our period of racial terror in the country, and healing and growing from that and then also changing the physical landscape."
"We’re still honoring the men who orchestrated the terror and wanted slavery, but we’re not honoring the victims of lynching," she said.
Day continued, "We’re not honoring their families and the heroes who gave their lives, and that says something about where our heart and where our mind is."
Listen to Andra Day's powerful cover of "Strange Fruit" below.
View this video on YouTube
For more information on this important initiative, click here
