But “Strange Fruit” became a show-stopper – quite literally.
When Billie Holiday first began performing the song at Café Society, in 1939, she was afraid of retaliation. Juxtaposing idyllic, florid scenes of a Southern landscape with uncompromising descriptions of black bodies swaying from a tree in the Southern breeze, his words were blunt and had the desired effect of shocking and appalling listeners.
Written as a poem by Abel Meeropol – a white, Jewish teacher and member of the American Communist Party – and published in 1937 before he set the lines to music, “Strange Fruit” exposes the sheer brutality of racism in the United States at the time by way of a stark, powerful description of a postcard Meeropol had seen depicting a lynching.
While you’re reading, listen to our Protest Anthems playlist here.
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