Sunday Stories: Strange Fruit

One of history’s most iconic and impactful songs, “Strange Fruit” was written by a white Jewish high school teacher from the Bronx. Abel Meeropol wrote the poem in response to a photograph of a lynching. After it appeared in the union publication New York Teacher, he set the lyrics to music, and it ultimately fell into the hands of the great Billie Holiday. In this installment of Sunday Stories honoring Black History Month, discover the story behind one of the twentieth century’s most powerful protest songs.