“Strange Fruit” Performed by Billie Holiday

Still from a recorded performance of “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday. Full video on YouTube.

The legacy of "Strange Fruit," written by Abel Meeropol and popularized by Billie Holiday, offers an unflinching view of the horrors of the Reconstruction era and highlights a dark history of violence against Black activists and performers.

• Watch Billie Holiday perform "Strange Fruit" (free) >
• Listen to recordings of "Strange Fruit" by Black artists (free) >

The Making of "Strange Fruit"

On August 7, 1930, a large white mob publicly lynched Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. Both 19 years old, the two were accused of murdering a white man and raping a white woman. Mr. Shipp and Mr. Smith’s brutalized bodies were hung on display in the public square for hours for thousands of people to take photos. Their bodies were eventually dismembered so onlookers could take pieces as souvenirs. The alleged assault victim, Mary Ball, testified years later that she had not been raped. This was one of the thousands of public lynchings that happened during the Reconstruction Era (EJI).

In 1936, Abel Meeropol, a Jewish American public high school teacher in the Bronx, NY, saw a photograph of the lynching. It haunted him so much that he wrote a poem, entitled “Bitter Fruit,” about the incident. The poem was published in 1937 in The New York Teacher, the journal of the teachers union. The poem was also later published in the Marxist journal The New Masses. Later, he put the poem to song, performing it with his wife and African American singer Laura Duncan at protests (USHMM).

But the song was popularized when Billie Holiday added it to her repertoire. She chose to perform it not just because of her Black identity, but also because the song reminded her of her father, who died at 39 from lung disease after being turned away from a hospital for his race (Biography). Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York’s first integrated nightclub, in 1939 and continued to end all her performances with it, regardless of controversy.

Holiday’s performances of “Strange Fruit” gained the attention of Federal Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry Anslinger. A known racist, Anslinger believed that drugs caused Black people to overstep their boundaries in American society. He stated that Black jazz singers — who smoked marijuana — created the devil's music. He particularly didn’t like that Billie Holiday was a Black woman that “didn’t know her place” (Politico). His ruthless prosecution of Black artists was the start of the War on Drugs, a global campaign that disproportionately impacted young Black Americans.

After learning that Holiday had a history of drug use, Anslinger and his agents ruthlessly hounded her, initially attempting to blackmail her to stop performing the song. Through hiring a Black agent to befriend her and conspiring with her abusive husband, he had Holiday tried and convicted in 1947. Upon her release in 1948, the federal government refused to renew her cabaret performer’s license, mandatory for any performer playing or singing at any club or bar serving alcohol (Progressive). Still, Anslinger and his agents chased after her.

When she was 44 years old, she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. En route, she stated, “they are going to arrest me in this damn bed”. And she was right. Agents swarmed the hospital room and claimed to find drugs hanging on the wall, far from where Holiday could reach them from bedrest. They arrested her, handcuffing her to the bed, removing all of her personal items from the room, and refusing her any visitors or adequate treatment. Despite protests from her friends and supporters, she died days later in July 1959 (Politico).

“Strange Fruit,” and Billie Holiday’s persistence in performing it, is one of the most formative protest songs of our century. Billie Holiday’s legacy should not only be celebrated because of her defiance of white supremacy but her brilliance despite it. She lived her life in full and without apology. She was openly bisexual, uncompromising in her opinions, and unparalleled in her talent. It’s a shame that we lost such a Black illuminary because of our society’s racial inequities. I want this lesson to be remembered not for Billie Holiday’s bravery, but for the shameful acts of white supremacy that try – and fail – to dim the light of Black brilliance.

Reflection Questions

• Consider the Black media you consume. Is it all "issue-related" content, like the lyrics of "Strange Fruit" we've highlighted today? What Black history do you celebrate that's not rooted in white supremacy?
• Billie Holiday was unashamed to live openly in a time that persecuted her for her racial identity and bisexuality. How can you be a better ally for the Black and LGBTQ+ community?

Learn More

• Listen to the works of Billie Holiday. We recommend the playlists Billie Holiday in 1956 and Billie Holiday in 1957 on Spotify.
• On the night of the lynching that inspired “Strange Fruit,” two men were murdered, but a third, 16-year-old James Cameron, was badly beaten but survived. He also went on to found three chapters of the NAACP, served as Indiana's State Director of the Office of Civil Liberties and founded America's Black Holocaust Museum. Listen to his story on NPR.
• View objects related to Billie Holiday currently on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).
• “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” a new movie directed by Lee Daniels, tells the story of Billie Holiday and her persecution by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The movie stars Andra Day and was released on February 26, 2021 (NYTimes).
• Read “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs” by Johann Hari (Bookshop).