Students carry on Ida B. Wells' anti-lynching legacy

In last dozen years, Northwestern University journalism students and their professor have been instrumental in proving the innocence of many prisoners in Illinois, several of whom had been sentenced to death. Their investigative journalism sparked the ending of the death penalty in Illinois

Lynching prompted the classic Billie Holiday song,"Strange Fruit," which she recorded in 1939 over the objections of her record company: "Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees." The song's lyrics were inspired by this photograph. Time magazine denounced he song as "musical propaganda."