“Sometimes perfection happens, and this was one of those times… the perfect horror described in a voice which could encompass horror without apparent effort or strain…” Frances Rowe
Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” notorious for its bitter lyrics and haunting music, is known to the world as one of the most effective protest songs of all time. Abel Meeropol, a schoolteacher and political activist, originally wrote the song to express his horror at the lynching of African-Americans at the time. Set to music, various singers sang the song locally in clubs and bars before it finally got into the hands of Billie Holiday. Her performance at the Café Society club in December 1939 gave the song a unique and unforgettable musical interpretation. “Strange Fruit” is now considered to be the first song performed by a black woman to protest lynching and racism.
On August 7, 1930, Lawrence Beitler took a photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, two black men who had been hung by an angry mob in Marion, Indiana. Six years later, Abel Meeropol saw the picture and was inspired to write a poem about it. He published it in a union magazine, The New York Teacher. Meeropol had written poems that have been turned into songs before, including Frank Sinatra’s “The House I Live In”, with the music done by Earl Robinson. However, the music to “Strange Fruit” was set by himself. Meeropol and his wife sang the song among friends at left-wing parties with other progressives. Club owner of Café Society, Barney Josephson, heard the song and asked Meeropol to bring it to the club on the night that Billie Holiday was doing a show. Meeropol played it for Holiday after the show, who agreed to sing it as a favor for Josephson. According to Meeropol, Holiday was not enthusiastic about singing the song. He did not think she even knew what the “strange fruit” were. She sang the song in a very “jazzed up” way, which Meeropol did not approve of. It was only after a few months...