STRANGE FRUIT
The song “Strange Fruit,” has been described as the “song of the century” in 1999 by Time Magazine. It was popularized by the famous American jazz singer, Billie Holiday. It is among the greatest and best-known protest songs in American history. At this time of Black History Month in the US, it would be appropriate to recognize the fascinating story behind this great song. The shocking lyrics are as follows: 1. “Southern trees bear a strange Fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root / Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze / Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees / 2. Pastoral scene of the gallant South / The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth / Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh / Then the sudden smell of burning flesh / 3. Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck / For the rains to gather, for the wind to suck / For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop / Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Extra judicial killing, referred to as “lynching,” was prevalent in the US between the period 1830 to the beginning of the civil rights era in 1955 to 1960. Its victims were minorities, mainly African Americans, but included Whites, Mexicans, Native Americans and other immigrants. It is estimated that over 4,000 persons were lynched from 1883 to 1941. Although the lynchings were mainly by hanging, other methods, such as shooting, burning alive, thrown off bridges, dragging behind a vehicle, were used. The last known lynching was that of Emmet Till, a 14-year-old child from Chicago who was visiting relatives in the Mississippi. He appeared to have been beaten, shot to death and mutilated before being dumped in a river. It was alleged that he had whistled to a white woman. At his funeral, his mother insisted that the casket remained open so that the world could be seen what was done to her child. The accusing woman’s husband and brother-in-law were acquitted for the murder.
The song was first written in 1930 as a poem, “Bitter Fruit,” by a Jewish school teacher, Abel Meeropol, who was also a poet and song writer and member of the Communist Party. He had seen a distressing photograph of the lynching of two teenagers, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Indiana which upset him so much that he was inspired to write the poem. Meeropol later said, “I wrote Strange Fruit because I hate lynching, and I hate injustice, and I hate the people who perpetuate it.” He later set the song to music, and it was performed at trade union meetings and even at Madison Square Garden by jazz singer Laura Duncan. It was introduced to Barney Josephson, the owner of Café Society and Meeropol was invited to play it for Billie Holiday. With great difficulty Holiday was able to record it in 1939. Recording studios wanted nothing to do with it. Her haunting performance was described by Meeropol as “a startling, most dramatic and effective performance.” The song became Holiday’s greatest hit and one of the world’s greatest protest songs.
Meeropol was incredibly brave for writing such a song at such a time in America, being himself Jewish, an unwanted minority. As a communist, he was regarded as a dangerous minority. But he did something else that underlined his humanity. At a Christmas party at the home of WEB DuBois, the first African American to get a PhD from Harvard University and teach as a professor, a Pan Africanist, civil rights activist and communist, Meeropol, also a Harvard graduate, met two boys, Michael, 10, and Robert, 6. No one wanted them because they were the children of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who has been executed as spies for the Soviet Union. Meeropol and his wife, Ann, who had no children of their own, Ann having suffered two miscarriages, agreed to take in the children. They adopted the children, who took the Meeropol surname, and grew into adulthood, spending their lives campaigning for pardons for their parents, finally admitting their father’s guilt while maintaining their mother’s innocence. Michael is a professor of economics. Robert is an anthropologist.
The courage of Billie Holiday must also be noted. From a deeply traumatic childhood of poverty, to a severely addicted adult, she suffered the indignity of all Black performers who had to endure the segregation and exploitation that accompanied touring. In these highly disadvantageous conditions, including being later being persecuted by the FBI because of the song, Holiday not only persisted in recording “Strange Fruit,” but included it in her repertoire. It was the last song in her programme, the lights were dimmed and service was paused, while she delivered this haunting melody to stunned audiences. She still remembered the death of her own father, a veteran, who had suffered from gas poisoning in the war, who could have been saved, but could not get one of the beds in the veteran hospital, because he was a ‘Negro,’ until it was too late.
I take this opportunity to wish African Americans and indeed, all American people, a successful and productive Black History Month.
