Strange Fruit is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. Written by the teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem, it exposed American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had occurred chiefly in the South but also in other regions of the United States.

“Meeropol wrote "Strange Fruit” after seeing a photograph of the 1930 lynching of Tom Shipp and Abe Smith in Marrion, Indiana"
Stone, Chris. “Blood at the Root: "Strange Fruit” as a Historical Document and Pedagogical Tool.“ OAH Magazine of History 18.2 (2004): 54-56.

Abel Meeropol

Billie Holiday