Strange Fruit - wikipedia Strange Fruit For other uses, see Strange Fruit ( disambiguation ). `` Strange Fruit '' Single by Billie Holiday B - side `` Fine and Mellow '' Released 1939 Format 78 rpm Recorded April 20, 1939 Genre Blues, Jazz Label Commodore Songwriter ( s ) Abel Meeropol Billie Holiday singles chronology `` I 'm Gonna Lock My Heart '' ( 1938 ) `` Strange Fruit '' ( 1939 ) `` God Bless the Child '' ( 1942 ) Audio sample file help `` Strange Fruit '' is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. Written by teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem and published in 1937, it protested American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the South at the turn of the century, but continued there and in other regions of the United States. According to the Tuskegee Institute, 1,953 Americans were murdered by lynching, about three quarters of them black. The lyrics are an extended metaphor linking a tree 's fruit with lynching victims. Meeropol set it to music and, with his wife and the singer Laura Duncan, performed it as a protest song in New York City venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden. The song continues to be covered by numerous artists, including Nina Simone, UB40, Jeff Buckley, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Dee Dee Bridgewater and has inspired novels, other poems, and other creative works. In 1978, Holiday 's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Lyricist E.Y. Harburg referred to the song as a `` historical document ''. It was also dubbed, `` a declaration of war... the beginning of the civil rights movement '' by record producer Ahmet Ertegun. Contents 1 Poem and song 2 Billie Holiday 's performances and recordings 3 Influence 4 Other versions 5 Honors 6 In popular culture 6.1 Politics 6.2 Literature 6.3 Cuisine 7 Bibliography 8 References 9 External links Poem and song Meeropol cited this photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930, as inspiring his poem. `` Strange Fruit '' was originated as a poem written by American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings. In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings, inspired by Lawrence Beitler 's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. He published the poem under the title `` Bitter Fruit '' in 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine. Though Meeropol had asked others ( notably Earl Robinson ) to set his poems to music, he set `` Strange Fruit '' to music himself. His protest song gained a certain success in and around New York. Meeropol, his wife, and black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden. The lyrics are under copyright but have been republished in full in an academic journal, with permission. Billie Holiday 's performances and recordings Barney Josephson, the founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York 's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday 's show at Cafe Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules : Holiday would close with it ; the waiters would stop all service in advance ; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday 's face ; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer. Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. When Holiday 's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, whose Commodore label produced alternative jazz. Holiday sang `` Strange Fruit '' for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. Columbia gave Holiday a one - session release from her contract so she could record it ; Frankie Newton 's eight - piece Cafe Society Band was used for the session. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. On the recording, Holiday starts singing after 70 seconds. Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song. Holiday recorded two major sessions of the song at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. The song was highly regarded ; the 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies, in time becoming Holiday 's biggest - selling recording. In her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday suggested that she, together with Meeropol, her accompanist Sonny White, and arranger Danny Mendelsohn, set the poem to music. The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work Strange Fruit : The Biography of a Song, writing that hers was `` an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch ''. When challenged, Holiday -- whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty -- claimed, `` I ai n't never read that book. '' Billie Holiday was so well known for her rendition of `` Strange Fruit '' that `` she crafted a relationship to the song that would make them inseparable ''. Influence In October 1939, Samuel Grafton of the New York Post described `` Strange Fruit '' : `` If the anger of the exploited ever mounts high enough in the South, it now has its Marseillaise. '' Other versions Notable cover versions of this song include Nina Simone, René Marie, Jeff Buckley. Siouxsie and the Banshees, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and UB40. Nina Simone dramatized `` Strange Fruit '' in the context of the Civil Rights movement with a plain and unsentimental voice. Journalist Lara Pellegrinelli wrote that Jeff Buckley while singing it `` seems to meditate on the meaning of humanity the way Walt Whitman did, considering all of its glorious and horrifying possibilities ''. Rene Marie 's rendition was coupled with Confederate anthem `` Dixie '', making for an `` uncomfortable juxtaposition '', according to Pellegrinelli. Siouxsie and the Banshees 's version was selected by the Mojo magazine staff to be included on the compilation Music Is Love : 15 Tracks That Changed The World. Honors 1999 : Time magazine named Strange Fruit as `` Best Song of the Century '' in its issue dated December 31, 1999. 2002 : The Library of Congress honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to add to the National Recording Registry. 2010 : The New Statesman listed it as one of the `` Top 20 Political Songs ''. 2011 : The Atlanta Journal - Constitution listed the song as Number One on `` 100 Songs of the South ''. In Popular culture This section gives self - sourcing examples without describing their significance in the context of the article. ( June 2017 ) Politics British singer Rebecca Ferguson publicly declined an invitation from president - elect Donald Trump to sing at his inauguration, saying that she would perform only if she could sing Billie Holiday 's `` Strange Fruit ''. Literature Lillian Smith 's novel Strange Fruit ( 1944 ) was said to have been inspired by Holiday 's version of the song. Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette and John Totleben 's comic book Swamp Thing # 42 ( 1985 ) features a story titled `` Strange Fruit '' for a horror story about southern racism. Mark Waid and artist J.G. Jones produced a comic book dealing with themes of racism and civil rights, entitled Strange Fruit for Boom ! Studios. Patrick Phillips titled his non-fiction book Blood at the Root : A Racial Cleansing in America ( 2016 ) after a phrase in the lyrics. Cuisine The Cambridge, Massachusetts restaurant The Friendly Toast included a drink called Strange Fruit, after Smith 's novel, on a menu of cocktails named after banned books. In 2015 this generated controversy, as a patron took the name as a reference to the song and found it inappropriate. The drink was later removed from the menu. Bibliography Clarke, Donald ( 1995 ). Billie Holiday : Wishing on the Moon. München : Piper. ISBN 3 - 492 - 03756 - 9. Davis, Angela ( 1999 ). Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. Vintage Books. ISBN 0 - 679 - 77126 - 3. Holiday, Billie ; Dufty, William ( 1992 ). Lady Sings the Blues. Edition Nautilus. ISBN 3 - 89401 - 110 - 6. Autobiography. Margolick, David ; Als, Hilton ( 2000 ). Strange Fruit : Billie Holiday, Café Society and an Early Cry for Civil Rights ( Hardcover ed. ). Running Press. ISBN 0 - 7624 - 0677 - 1. Margolick, David ; Als, Hilton ( 2001 ). Strange Fruit : The Biography of a Song ( Paperback ed. ). Ecco. ISBN 0 - 06 - 095956 - 8. References Jump up ^ `` Billie Holiday recording sessions ''. Billieholidaysongs.com. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Lynching Statistics for 1882 - 1968 ''. Chesnuttarchive.org. January 29, 1999. Archived from the original on January 19, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2013. Jump up ^ `` War and Social Upheaval : the American Civil Rights Movement - lynching ''. Histclo.com. Retrieved July 21, 2013. ^ Jump up to : `` Strange Fruit ( 1939 ) -- Billie Holiday ( written by Abel Meeropol ) ''. Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings. Jump up ^ `` Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday ( lyrics ) ''. Jump up ^ `` Hall of Fame ''. Retrieved June 16, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Strange Fruit : Anniversary Of A Lynching ''. NPR. August 6, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2013. Jump up ^ Margolick, David ( 2000 ). Strange Fruit : Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights. Philadelphia : Running Press. pp. 25 -- 27. ^ Jump up to : Moore, Edwin ( September 18, 2010 ). `` Strange Fruit is still a song for today Index Strange Fruit is still a song for today ''. The Guardian. Retrieved September 23, 2010. Jump up ^ Blair, Elizabeth ( Host ) ( September 5, 2012 ). `` The Strange Story Of The Man Behind ' Strange Fruit ' ''. Morning Edition. NPR. ^ Jump up to : Lynskey, Dorian ( 2011 ). `` 33 Revolutions Per Minute ''. London : Faber & Faber. ISBN 0 - 571 - 24134 - 4. Jump up ^ Margolick, Strange Fruit, pp. 36 -- 37. Jump up ^ Meeropol, Abel ( 12 July 2006 ). `` Strange fruit ''. International Journal of Epidemiology. 35 ( 4 ) : 902 -- 902. doi : 10.1093 / ije / dyl173. Retrieved January 6, 2013. Jump up ^ Margolick, Strange Fruit, pp. 40 -- 46. Jump up ^ Margolick, Strange Fruit, pp. 61 -- 62. Jump up ^ Billy Crystal, 700 Sundays, pp. 46 -- 47. Jump up ^ Margolick, Strange Fruit, pp. 31 -- 32. Jump up ^ Perry, Samuel ( 2012 ). `` '' Strange Fruit, '' Ekphrasis, and the Lynching Scene ``. Rhetoric Society Quarterly. 43 : 5 : 449 -- 474. Jump up ^ Lynskey, Dorian ( February 15, 2011 ). `` Strange Fruit : the first great protest song ''. The Guardian. ^ Jump up to : Pellegrinelli, Lara ( 22 June 2009 ). `` Evolution Of A Song : ' Strange Fruit ' ''. npr.org. Retrieved 23 February 2015. ^ Jump up to : Margolick, David ( 2000 ). `` Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights ''. NYTimes. ISBN 0 - 7624 - 0677 - 1. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2017. Jump up ^ `` Music Is Love ! ( 15 Tracks That Changed The World ) CD ''. Mojo ( magazine ). June 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2017. Siouxsie and the Banshes 's rendition from their 1987 Through the Looking Glass album was selected to feature on this compilation Jump up ^ Billy Crystal, 700 Sundays, p. 47. Jump up ^ McNally, Owen ( March 30, 2000 ). `` ' Song of the century ' chilling : Graphic lyrics of ' the first unmuted cry against racism ' are making a comeback ''. Ottawa Citizen. Jump up ^ `` National Recording Registry 2002 ''. loc.gov. Retrieved 29 January 2018. Jump up ^ Smith, Ian K ( March 25, 2010 ). `` Top 20 Political Songs : Strange Fruit ''. New Statesman. Retrieved March 25, 2010. Jump up ^ `` 100 Songs of the South accessAtlanta.com ''. Alt.coxnewsweb.com. Retrieved April 20, 2011. Jump up ^ Jamieson, Amber ( 2 January 2017 ). `` Rebecca Ferguson says she will play Trump inauguration if she can sing Strange Fruit ''. The Guardian. Retrieved 14 January 2017. Jump up ^ Bass, Erin Z. ( December 12, 2012 ). `` The Strange Life of Strange Fruit ''. Deep South Magazine. Jump up ^ Towers, Andrea ( June 30, 2015 ). `` Mark Waid and J.G. Jones preview powerful historically based comic, Strange Fruit ''. Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Jump up ^ Anderson, Carol ( 2016 - 09 - 28 ). `` American Apartheid : A Georgia County Drove Out All Its Black Citizens in 1912 ''. The New York Times. ISSN 0362 - 4331. Retrieved 2017 - 12 - 08. Jump up ^ `` Friendly Toast pulls a drink called ' Strange Fruit ' off its menu ''. Jump up ^ `` Restaurant Learns the Hard Way Why You Never Name a Cocktail ' Strange Fruit ' ''. External links `` Strange Fruit '', Independent Lens, PBS Strange Fruit, Newsreel documentary `` Strange Fruit '', Shmoop, analysis of lyrics, historical and literary allusions - student & teaching guide Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics `` Strange Fruit '' at MusicBrainz ( information and list of recordings ) BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music, Series 17, Strange Fruit `` Strange Fruit : A protest song with enduring relevance '' `` Strange Fruit ''. Radio Diaries ( Podcast ). PRX. Retrieved 2015 - 09 - 04. Billie Holiday Discography Awards and nominations Albums Billie Holiday Sings / Solitude An Evening with Billie Holiday Billie Holiday Billie Holiday at JATP Stay with Me Music for Torching Velvet Mood Lady Sings the Blues Body and Soul Songs for Distingué Lovers Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport All or Nothing at All Lady in Satin Last Recording The Essential Billie Holiday : Carnegie Hall Concert Recorded Live Lady in Autumn : The Best of the Verve Years Lady Day : The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933 -- 1944 Remixed and Reimagined Songs `` Ai n't Nobody 's Business '' `` As Time Goes By '' `` Billie 's Blues '' `` Blue Moon '' `` Body and Soul '' `` Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans ? '' `` Do n't Explain '' `` Easy Living '' `` Embraceable You '' `` Everything Happens for the Best '' `` Everything Happens to Me '' `` Fine and Mellow '' `` Gloomy Sunday '' `` God Bless the Child '' `` Good Morning Heartache '' `` I Cover the Waterfront '' `` I Loves You, Porgy '' `` I Thought About You '' `` I 'll Be Seeing You '' `` I 'll Get By '' `` I 've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm '' `` Just One of Those Things '' `` Lady Sings the Blues '' `` Left Alone '' `` Love for Sale '' `` Lover Man ( Oh, Where Can You Be ? ) '' `` Me, Myself, and I '' `` Miss Brown to You '' `` My Man '' `` Moonlight in Vermont '' `` Night and Day '' `` No More '' `` Now or Never '' `` Our Love Is Different '' `` P.S. I Love You '' `` Pennies from Heaven '' `` Please Do n't Do It Here '' `` Preacher Boy '' `` Sophisticated Lady '' `` Stormy Blues '' `` Strange Fruit '' `` Summertime '' `` These Foolish Things ( Remind Me of You ) '' `` Too Marvelous for Words '' `` Trav'lin ' Light '' `` What a Little Moonlight Can Do '' `` What Is This Thing Called Love ? '' `` Who Needs You ( Baby ) '' `` Why Was I Born ? '' `` Willow Weep for Me '' `` You Go to My Head '' Related topics `` Angel of Harlem '' Lady Sings the Blues ( book ) Lady Sings the Blues ( film ) Lady Sings the Blues ( soundtrack ) Book Lynching in the United States Victims Before 1900 ? McIntosh ( 1835 ) Francis McIntosh ( 1836 ) Elijah Parish Lovejoy ( 1837 ) Joseph and Hyrum Smith ( 1844 ) Josefa Segovia ( 1851 ) Pancho Daniel ( 1858 ) Joshua Boyd ( 1863 ) Henry Plummer ( 1864 ) Bill Sketoe ( 1864 ) Clubfoot George ( 1864 ) Steve Long, Ace and Con Moyer ( 1868 ) Wyatt Outlaw ( 1870 ) Alexander Boyd ( 1870 ) Jim Williams ( 1871 ) David Jones ( 1872 ) Jo Reed ( 1875 ) Michael Green ( 1878 ) Joseph Standing ( 1879 ) John J. Hoover ( 1880 ) Big Nose George Parrott ( 1881 ) Charles Thurber ( 1882 ) John Wesley Heath ( 1884 ) Eliza Woods ( 1886 ) Amos Miller ( 1888 ) Joseph Vermillion ( 1889 ) George Meadows ( 1889 ) Ella Watson ( 1889 ) Ellen Watson ( 1889 ) Brown Washington ( 1890 ) Jim Taylor ( 1891 ) Dick Lundy ( 1891 ) Joe Coe ( 1891 ) Robert Lewis ( 1892 ) Ephraim Grizzard ( 1892 ) Samuel J. Bush ( 1893 ) John Peterson ( 1893 ) Alfred Blount ( 1893 ) Henry Smith ( 1893 ) Stephen Williams ( 1894 ) Amos Hicks ( 1894 ) Jacob Henson ( 1896 ) John Anderson ( 1898 ) Sam Hose ( 1899 ) 1900 -- 1940 Fred Rochelle ( 1901 ) Walker Davis ( 1903 ) David Wyatt ( 1903 ) Marie Thompson ( 1904 ) Bunk Richardson ( 1906 ) Ed Johnson ( 1906 ) Slab Pitts ( 1906 ) William Burns ( 1907 ) Jim Miller ( 1909 ) James Hodges ( 1909 ) Matthew Chase ( 1909 ) `` Mose '' Creole ( 1909 ) `` Pie '' Hill ( 1909 ) Grant Richardson ( 1910 ) King Johnson ( 1911 ) Name unknown ( TX ) ( 1911 ) Will Porter ( 1911 ) Zachariah Walker ( 1911 ) Mary Jackson ( 1912 ) Rob Edwards ( 1912 ) George Saunders ( 1912 ) Robert Perry ( 1913 ) ? Anderson ( 1913 ) Charles Fisher ( 1914 ) John Evans ( 1914 ) Leo Frank ( 1915 ) Name unknown ( MS ) ( 1915 ) Jesse Washington ( 1916 ) Anthony Crawford ( 1916 ) Jeff Brown ( 1916 ) Frank Little ( 1917 ) Charles Jones ( 1917 ) Ell Persons ( 1917 ) Robert Prager ( 1918 ) Mary Turner and her unborn baby ( 1918 ) Hazel `` Hayes '' Turner ( 1918 ) Jim McIlherron ( 1918 ) Olli Kinkkonen ( 1918 ) Wallace Baynes ( 1919 ) Will Brown ( 1919 ) Wesley Everest ( 1919 ) Willie Baird ( 1920 ) Roy Belton ( 1920 ) Dick Rowland ( attempted ) ( 1921 ) Joe Pullen ( 1923 ) Jack Trice ( 1923 ) Samuel Smith ( 1924 ) Raymond Bird ( 1926 ) J.C. Collins ( 1928 ) George Hughes ( 1930 ) James Cameron ( 1930 ) Raymond Gunn ( 1931 ) Matthew Williams ( 1931 ) George Armwood ( 1933 ) Cordie Cheek ( 1933 ) Claude Neal ( 1934 ) Austin Callaway ( 1940 ) After 1940 Felix Hall ( 1941 ) Johannes Kunze ( 1943 ) Robert `` Bobbie '' Hall ( 1943 ) Willie James Howard ( 1944 ) Recy Taylor ( 1944 ) John Cecil Jones ( 1946 ) Willie Earle ( 1947 ) Lamar Smith ( 1955 ) George W. Lee ( 1955 ) Emmett Till ( 1955 ) Judge Edward Aaron ( 1957 ) Willie Edwards ( 1957 ) Mack Charles Parker ( 1959 ) Louis Allen ( 1964 ) Lemuel Penn ( 1964 ) Frank Morris ( 1964 ) James Reeb ( 1965 ) Jimmie Lee Jackson ( 1965 ) Vernon Dahmer ( 1966 ) Wharlest Jackson ( 1967 ) Carol Jenkins ( 1968 ) Henry Marrow ( 1970 ) Arthur McDuffie ( 1979 ) Michael Donald ( 1981 ) Mulugeta Seraw ( 1988 ) Yusef Hawkins ( 1989 ) James Byrd, Jr. ( 1998 ) David Ritcheson ( 2006 ) Brandon McClelland ( 2008 ) James Craig Anderson ( 2011 ) Multiple victims Marais des Cygnes, KS, massacre ( 1858 ) Great Hanging at Gainesville, TX ( 1862 ) New York City draft riots ( 1863 ) Detroit race riot ( 1863 ) ? Lachenais and four others ( 1863 ) Fort Pillow, TN, massacre ( 1864 ) Plummer Gang ( 1864 ) Memphis massacre ( 1866 ) Gallatin County, KY, race riot ( 1866 ) New Orleans massacre of 1866 Reno Brothers Gang ( 1868 ) Steve Long and two half - brothers ( 1868 ) Pulaski, TN, riot ( 1868 ) Samuel Bierfield and Lawrence Bowman ( 1868 ) Opelousas, LA, massacre ( 1868 ) Bear River City riot ( 1868 ) Chinese massacre of 1871 Meridian, MS race riot ( 1871 ) Colfax, LA, massacre ( 1873 ) Election riot of 1874 ( AL ) Juan, Antonio, and Marcelo Moya ( 1874 ) Benjamin and Mollie French ( 1876 ) Hamburg, SC, massacre ( 1876 ) Thibodeax, LA, massacre ( 1878 ) New Orleans 1891 lynchings ( 1891 ) Ruggles Brothers ( CA ) ( 1892 ) Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell ( 1892 ) Phoenix, SC, election riot ( 1898 ) Wilmington, NC, insurrection ( 1898 ) Julia and Frazier Baker ( 1898 ) Pana, IL, riot ( 1899 ) Atlanta race riot ( 1906 ) Kemper County, MS ( 1906 ) Walker family ( 1908 ) Springfield race riot of 1908 Slocum, TX, massacre ( 1910 ) Laura and L.D. Nelson ( 1911 ) Harris County, GA, lynchings ( 1912 ) Forsyth County, GA ( 1912 ) East St. Louis, IL, riots ( 1917 ) Elaine, AR, race riot ( 1917 ) Lynching rampage in Brooks County, GA ( 1918 ) Longview, TX, race riot ( 1919 ) Omaha race riot of 1919 Knoxville riot of 1919 Red Summer ( 1919 ) Duluth, MN, lynchings ( 1920 ) Ocoee, FL, massacre ( 1920 ) Tulsa race riot ( 1921 ) Perry, FL, race riot ( 1922 ) Rosewood, FL, massacre ( 1923 ) Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith ( 1930 ) Tate County, MS ( 1932 ) Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes ( 1933 ) Roosevelt Townes and Robert McDaniels ( 1937 ) Beaumont, TX, Race Riot ( 1943 ) O'Day Short, wife, and two children ( 1945 ) Moore 's Ford, GA, lynchings ( 1946 ) Harry and Harriette Moore ( 1952 ) Anniston, AL ( 1961 ) Freedom Summer Murders ( James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner ) ( 1964 ) Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore ( 1964 ) General Lynching Lynching in the United States List of lynching victims in the United States Indiana White Caps Jim Crow laws Ku Klux Klan Nadir of American race relations Red Shirts Anti-lynching movement American anti-lynching activists Anti-lynching movement American Crusade Against Lynching Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill `` Flag Salute '' N.A.A.C.P. Paul Robeson `` Strange Fruit '' Ida B. Wells Lynching defenders or deniers David Horowitz John Trotwood Moore Benjamin Tillman Memory America 's Black Holocaust Museum Civil Rights Memorial The Legacy Museum The National Memorial for Peace and Justice National Museum of African American History and Culture Southern Poverty Law Center Related articles James Allen ( collector ) Battle of Liberty Place The Birth of a Nation Mississippi Burning Mississippi Cold Case The Ox - Bow Incident Silent Parade Summer in Mississippi Sundown town They Wo n't Forget The United States of Lyncherdom ( Twain ) Vendetta ( 1999 film ) Categories Lynching in the United States Lynching deaths in the United States Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strange_Fruit&oldid=853147939 '' Categories : 1939 songs Billie Holiday songs Lynching in the United States History of African - American civil rights Songs against racism and xenophobia Songs based on actual events Songs based on poems United States National Recording Registry recordings Works originally published in American magazines Protest songs Hidden categories : Articles with hAudio microformats Articles needing additional references from June 2017 All articles needing additional references Articles using small message boxes MusicBrainz work same as Wikidata Articles with MusicBrainz work links Talk Contents About Wikipedia Brezhoneg Deutsch Ελληνικά Español فارسی Français Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Polski Português Русский Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe 12 more Edit links This page was last edited on 2 August 2018, at 19 : 01 ( UTC ). 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Question: what is the strange fruit in the song
Answer: lynching victims