Song of the day: Strange Fruit / Billie Holiday

"Strange Fruit" originated as a poem written by Jewish-American writer, teacher, and songwriter Abel Meeropol. He was inspired by a photograph of a lynching so he wrote the “Strange Fruit” poem. The song was recorded by Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan) in 1939. The song protests the lynching of Black Americans, with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees.