Strange Fruit
Holiday's protest ballad
Strange Fruit is a song, most famously performed by Billie Holiday, that uses the metaphor of fruit hanging from trees to describe the lynching of Black Americans in the South.
The phrase has become shorthand for this history of racial violence and terrorism.
The photograph was a strange fruit image—a mob gathered beneath a hanging body.
- Billie Holiday"Strange Fruit" vocalist
- jazz standardEssential repertoire piece
- painBodily or emotional distress
- lynchingExtrajudicial killing by mob
- swingSuspended recreational seat
knot · Jim Crow · rope · racial violence · blood · protest songs · hanging tree · racial injustice · Nina Simone · tree · mob violence · Southern Gothic · Deep South · civil rights · activism · protest literature · Emmett Till · historical memory
- protest songsOhio, Bella Ciao, protest songs, protest song, protest anthem
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