Strange Fruit

Written as a protest poem exposing American racism, Strange Fruit was made famous by Billie Holiday and quickly became an anthem of the civil rights movement.

Published as a poem titled “Bitter Fruit” in 1937, Abel Meeropol often asked friends to set his poems to music. Strange Fruit began making it’s way into the clubs of Greenwich Village and quickly gained a certain success a s a protest song in and around New York.

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

Copyright © 1939 Abel Meeropol
Written by: Lewis Allan (Abel Meeropol)

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