By Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" it led to her death by FBI

Tonight we discuss some of the actions in the early stages of the FBI leading from the Red Scare era to mid 70s.  They suppressed Russian students in NYC which lead to the creation of the American Civil Liberties Union.  The FBI put a false witness in a murder trial against Elmer Pratt, a Black panther leader and 2 time Vietnam veteran.  He served 27 years in prison before it was discovered the lead witness in the murder trial was an FBI agent who falsely testified and misrepresented his testimony. Pratt eventually won a 4 million dollar lawsuit for being falsely accused.

Billie Holiday was also bullied by the FBI.  Because of her anti racisim stance and singing "Stranger Fruit" at concerts, a song personifying lynching in the South, the FBI followed her and planted drugs on her.  She died at age 44 from liver cancer but also from bullying and stress caused by federal agents over years.

We discuss this and more, plus Don's first hand experience of being surpressed by the government. This includes the uneven suppression of justice and arrests of Black people and other ethnic minorities who have taken the fair share burden of sentencing for minor and major drug crimes.