The Story Behind "Strange Fruit"

       When you take the time to listen to Billie Holiday's song "Strange Fruit," it is hard not to get an eerie feeling of dread. It may cause you to wonder what it was that brought the song into light. Throughout the article Strange Fruit there are multiple different accounts of how the song came to be placed in Billie Holidays’ hands. However, I found Holiday’s account the most convincing. 

In her version of the events, she discusses how Lewis Allen came into the Café Society to show her the poem. Allen knew about the events that surrounded her fathers’ death, and suggested that her accompanist assist them in turning it into a song. She felt as though it really resonated with the story of her father and I believe that is what allowed her to sing the song so passionately. The topic surrounding the song held strongly to the anti-lynching theme. Although Holidays father was not killed by lynching in the direct sense, she felt as though racism and the Jim Crow laws led up to his untimely death. If her father had been able to receive treatment in the state in which he became sick in, instead of having to drive further away to receive treatment at a hospital that had a “Jim Crow ward,” he may not have developed pneumonia due to lack of treatment. Which is what lead to his death in 1937.

        This leads in to how I believe that personal stories are what can make or break an artist. It is also why I seem to find Holiday’s version so convincing. She was able to put her passion and anger towards racism into that song. People are often moved by other peoples grief. I believe that the death of her father allowed for her to fight for this song more passionately and ultimately bring awareness and light to the lynching deaths taking place during that time.