Which poet wrote ‘Strange Fruit’, a poem about lynching, subsequently recorded as a song by Billie Holiday?

Abel Meeropol (1903-1986) was a Jewish-American poet and songwriter who wrote ‘Strange Fruit’ in 1937. He was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, New York City. His poem was subsequently recorded and performed by the American jazz and swing music singer Billie Holiday (1915-1959) in 1939. She was an African American jazz and swings music singer, recognized for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. Subsequently it has been performed by other noted artists.

The lyrics are a protest about the lynching of black Americans comparing the victims to the fruit of trees. At the time, lynchings of black Americans had reached a peak in the southern U.S. Some commentators called the song “a declaration” and “the beginning of the civil rights movement”.

Originally, Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife and American black singer Laura Duncan with their first performance heard at Madison Square Gardens in New York City in 1938. It was Meeropol’s horror at lynchings, inspired by photographer Lawrence Beitler’s (1885-1960) pictures of hanging bodies surrounded by a large white crowd including women and children that motivated Meeropol to write the poem, first published under the title ‘Bitter Fruit’