After I read the article Strange fruit about Billie Holiday, and her career after singing strange fruit, it feel like I understand a lot more how hard it was during that time, Not just for black female singers, but for black people in general. I think the song itself opened up the eyes of a lot of people, black and white about racism, and lynching itself. Something that really stood out to me was that fact that it specified Billie holiday didn’t understand the meaning of the song when it was first brought to her attention, and that Allen Lewis had to explain it to her. It stated “At first, Lady was slow to understand the songs imagery, but her bewilderment decreased as Allen patiently emphasized the cadences, and their significance.”- (184-185) At first I found it hard to believe because when I first heard the song and it’s lyrics, I automatically knew that I was about lynching, but as I continued to read the article I understood why she wouldn’t have known.

            Billie Holiday said herself that she had never experience seeing lynching or being around it, but she did connect the song to her father’s death. On page 187, it was said that her father inhaled poisonous gases during World War I and due to the hospitals being segregated, he had to wait until they reached a black hospital to get him treated. By the time he reached the hospital, it was too late to help him and he died in the hospital from a hemorrhage. In Billie Holidays eyes “...Strange Fruit resonated her with her own anger about her father’s death and with her desire to protest the racism that had killed him.” – (187) After reading this it helped me get a better understanding of how she felt about the song from first hearing it to after understanding what it entailed. I feel like because of how today is where people are now educated on racism and lynching, I think that’s why it automatically clicked in my head to what the words were saying compared to Holiday because this was taught to me, where it wasn’t taught to her.

            Another part that really stood out to me and made me kind of upset was when she would perform, some black people would even know the meaning of the lyrics. For example when she was going to perform strange fruit at a club in Los Angeles but then changed her mind over a comment a women made. The woman questioned “Why don’t you sing that sexy song you’re so famous for? You know the one about naked bodies swinging in the trees.” – (195) I found this to be both sad and ridiculous because of how completely oblivious the woman was to the message in the song. I know that her previous songs were about love, but it is honestly not that hard to figure out it’s a black man hanging from a tree, dead. I also think the song became more important to her, especially after occasions like that because it probably want her to make black people more aware of what’s happening in the world at that time.

            Today, thanks to Billie Holiday singing “Strange Fruit” and many other artist after her \ raising awareness of racism in the world, it has helped shape lives to a lot of black people and people in general as well as open eyes to some who might have not experienced racism, but now know it is everywhere.