Strange Fruit

Billie Holiday records Strange Fruit, which is the first anti-lynching song. The song was released in Billie Holiday’s first recording in the April 20 in the year 1939. The song Strange Fruit was written by a Jewish high-school teacher Abel Meeropol from the Bronx. It was originally written as a poem, which focused on the American racism (lynching of African Americans).

The poem was originally published in the year 1936 in an union magazine The New York Teacher. In the poem Abel expressed his horror at lynchings.

Nowadays the song has been covered by numerous artist, for example in 1978 Holiday’s version of the song was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

More information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Holiday
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Fruit