When Barney Josephson, the manager of Cafe Society, a popular, desegregated Greenwich
Village nightclub, heard “Strange Fruit,” he arranged a meeting between Billie Holiday and
Meeropol. After some initial hesitation, Lady Day wanted to record the song but her record label
refused. Her persistence landed the song on a specialty label and Holiday began performing it
regularly in live shows in 1939.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
Holiday's passionate interpretation of “Strange Fruit” introduced white audiences to powerful
images of racism, inequality, and hate crimes… images that were now impossible to ignore.
“‘Strange Fruit’ probably did more to put Billie on the map than anything she ever did,” wrote
Michael Brooks in the booklet that accompanied the three-CD box: Billie Holiday – The Legacy.
“It was totally unlike any song written up to then, and it enraged those people it didn't scare.”
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, between 1882 and 1968, mobs lynched 4,743
persons in the United States, over 70 percent of them African-American.
(Author's note: Abel Meeropol and his wife Anne later adopted Robert and Michael Rosenberg,
the orphaned children of the executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.)
Village nightclub, heard “Strange Fruit,” he arranged a meeting between Billie Holiday and
Meeropol. After some initial hesitation, Lady Day wanted to record the song but her record label
refused. Her persistence landed the song on a specialty label and Holiday began performing it
regularly in live shows in 1939.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
Holiday's passionate interpretation of “Strange Fruit” introduced white audiences to powerful
images of racism, inequality, and hate crimes… images that were now impossible to ignore.
“‘Strange Fruit’ probably did more to put Billie on the map than anything she ever did,” wrote
Michael Brooks in the booklet that accompanied the three-CD box: Billie Holiday – The Legacy.
“It was totally unlike any song written up to then, and it enraged those people it didn't scare.”
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, between 1882 and 1968, mobs lynched 4,743
persons in the United States, over 70 percent of them African-American.
(Author's note: Abel Meeropol and his wife Anne later adopted Robert and Michael Rosenberg,
the orphaned children of the executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.)
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