Who originally wrote the song Strange Fruit?

The song was written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish high school teacher from the Bronx, who published it first as a poem called 'Bitter Fruit' in 1937 under the pseudonym Lewis Allan after seeing a horrific photograph of a lynching.

Why was Strange Fruit so controversial?

It was a direct, unflinching protest against the lynching of Black Americans in the South. Billie Holiday's record label, Columbia, refused to record it fearing backlash from Southern record retailers. The song made Holiday a target for relentless harassment by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

When did Billie Holiday first sing Strange Fruit?

Billie Holiday first performed 'Strange Fruit' in 1939 at Café Society, New York's first integrated nightclub. The performance was meticulously staged: waiters stopped serving, all lights were turned off except a single spotlight on Holiday's face, and there was no encore.

The Schoolteacher and the Song That Killed

Genre: jazz, protest, Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit, 1930s, civil rights

February 24, 2026

A Bronx schoolteacher saw a lynching photograph, wrote a poem under the names of his stillborn sons, and created the most dangerous song in American history

Tracks

1. Strange Fruit — Billie Holiday
2. God Bless The Child — Billie Holiday
3. Gloomy Sunday — Billie Holiday
4. Don't Explain — Billie Holiday
5. Lady Sings The Blues — Billie Holiday
6. Strange Fruit — Nina Simone
7. Mississippi Goddam — Nina Simone
8. Feeling Good — Nina Simone
9. Strange Fruit — Cassandra Wilson

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