Strange Fruit

Strange Fruit, a song originally produced by Billy Holiday and written by the New York City school teacher Abel Meeropol in the mid 1930's, was a dark song that depicted the many terrible lynchings that had being invoked for years prior to the song's writing. This song has strong historical precedence being one of the first outwardly protest against the social stigma that was discrimination. Songs at the time weren't usually used to convey societal issues and certainly were not known do it in a morbidly brutal fashion. It is a short poem with only three stanzas but each and every line was birthed from the chilling reality of the fate and strife of African American people of the early 1900's. Since it's "debut" dozens of artists have performed the song, in their own unique fashion but with each the message is still the same.
Nina Simone's Production
Billie Holiday's Production
India Arie's Production