BLACK HISTORY MONTH, DAY 1: Strange Fruit Strange Fruit is a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a white, Jewish high school teacher from the Bronx and a member of the Communist Party, as a protest against lynchings. In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings. He had seen Lawrence Beitlers 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 often asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set Strange Fruit to music himself and the piece gained a certain success as a protest song in and around New York. Meeropol, his wife, and black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden. Here is one of Nina Simones versions of Strange Fruit interspersed with an interview done with her in 1969. Please be advised, there are some graphic images in this video and it may not be suitable for all viewers.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 11:13:51 +0000
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