Lena Horne. Image courtesy Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images.
Lena Horne. Image courtesy Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images.
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.
Content warning: Please note that this episode contains graphic images of racial violence.
This video was originally published on The CJM's Facebook Live on February 7, 2021.
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Black Sabbath: The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations was a musical journey through a unique slice of recording history—the Black-Jewish musical encounter from the 1930s to the 1960s. In contrast to the oft-told story of how Jewish songwriters and publishers of Tin Pan Alley and Broadway transformed Black spirituals, blues, and jazz into the Great American Songbook, scant attention has been paid to the secret history of the many Black responses to Jewish music, life, and culture. From Johnny Mathis singing “Kol Nidre” to Aretha Franklin's 1960s take on “Swanee,” visitors learned how Black artists treated Jewish music as a resource for African American identity, history, and politics.
Lena Horne. Image courtesy Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images.