Along with the inspiring and affirming messages from our supporters (highlighted in the cover story of our most recent newsletter), we also receive a steady stream of communication from our grantees. These updates come from parents of kids we’re supporting and from the young people themselves. The notes often thank us for making music or dance or drama programs available to them or invite us to celebrate a milestone event, like a graduation or award.

“My daughter studied the KKK at school... she is not only worried about the government repression [for my organizing] but about the possibility of racist physical attacks against us as well.”

It’s been an ugly, painful week marked by multiple, high profile hate crimes around the country. Unfortunately, this is not an aberration but a continuation of assaults that have intensified since Trump’s election – the attacks on immigrants, activists, communities of color, women, journalists, faith groups, and folks who identify as LGBTQ.

On October 15, 2018, Rosenberg Fund for Children executive director Jenn Meeropol joined nonprofit foundation leaders, editorial boards, and

(guest blog by RFC Communications Director, Amber Black)

Two topics consistently engage our supporters more than any others: the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and the song “Strange Fruit.” It’s been 65 years since the parents of our founder were executed, and 80 years since Abel Meeropol (the man who along with his wife Anne, adopted the Rosenbergs’ orphaned sons) wrote the anti-lynching anthem first as a poem and then set it to music.

But all these decades later, both the case and the song pop up virtually every day in a huge array of contexts including hard news and popular culture. So we’ve begun to spotlight them in a “Strange Fruit” and Rosenberg “Mention of the Day” on our social media.