Du Bois. [23] LA Times noted that Siouxsie and the Banshees's version contained "a solemn string section behind the vocals" and "a bridge of New Orleans funeral-march jazz" which enhanced the singer's "evocative interpretation". (15 Tracks That Changed The World) CD", "100 Songs of the South | accessAtlanta.com", "Strange Fruit: A protest song with enduring relevance", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strange_Fruit&oldid=997228600, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 30 December 2020, at 15:36. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday's show at Café Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Strange Fruit is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. "Strange Fruit" is a song recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939, written by Abel Meeropol and published in 1937. For his impertinence, Abel got written up by the Party functionary. We dropped from public sight and within a couple of years our names were changed to Meeropol.”. But there was only so much protection a network of friends could provide each other. It’s a story so fantastical, and containing so many celebrated names, that it’s hard to believe it hasn’t stuck better into the mainstream. As the tumultuous present unearths the radical past, Hollywood keeps putting out films that capitalize on public interest while propping up existing power structures. Recently, Sing in Solidarity, a choir composed of members of Democratic Socialists of America (of which I am a member), sang it for the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the party, perhaps standing off to the side of the partygoers, is the poet-songwriter Abel Meeropol (also known by his pen name, Lewis Allan), the author of famous anti-lynching song, “Strange Fruit.” He stands beside his wife, Anne Meeropol, a public school teacher and union organizer. Meeropol wrote the anti-lynching poem, "Strange Fruit", which was originally published in the Marxist publication The New Massesand was subsequently set to music. Ecosystem Destruction Fueled the Pandemic. Abel and Anne are going to be their new parents. Under constant threat of persecution, the New York City left was necessarily close knit. Vivian. Perhaps we can use the time alone to think collectively, to reflect together on how we might reconstruct the public realm of our cities. Their tale is a radical epic so poignant that one wonders where the 10-part miniseries is. It’s easier to think of the story as a Coen Brothers film (I’m seeing John Turturro and Frances McDormand cast as the Meeropols) than as history. The song was recorded and performed by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone among other artists. "Strange Fruit: the first great protest song", Bettye LaVette Unleashes Cover of Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’, "Video: Listen To Edward W. Hardy's Haunting String Quartet Arrangement Of 'Strange Fruit'", "Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time", "Music Is Love! ‘Strange Fruit’ by Abel Meeropol is a poem on the genocide of black people in America. He wrote "Strange Fruit" (1937), which was recorded by Billie Holiday. Anne Meeropol sang and played it on her nylon string guitar at Teachers’ … In our phone interview in September 2020, Robert Meeropol spoke to me for over an hour, with tremendous fluidity and frankness, about the circumstances surrounding his parents’ execution and how he and his brother were adopted by the Meeropols. Billie Holiday Original label Abel Meeropol . In 1953, when he was six years old, the United States government executed his parents for "conspiring to steal the secret of the atomic bomb." It first appeared as a poem, “Bitter Fruit,” in the New York Teacher, a publication for the New York City Teachers Union. “There was this, that, and the other thing. [9] Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. The poem was meant to be a critique of the real-life lynching of two African-American men by a mob of white people who were never trialed or convicted for their acts as a group. Strange Fruit If you listen carefully to the lyrics of Billy Holiday's version of the Abel Meeropol song, "Strange Fruit, " you will realise it is a protest song about the lynching of African Americans in the Southern United States.Black victims are portrayed as "strange fruit, " as their dead bodies hang from trees, rotting in the sun, swaying to and fro in the wind, and being eaten by crows. 3 The photograph so haunted Meeropol that he wrote a poem about it entitled "Bitter Fruit," published in 1937 in The New York Teacher, the journal of the teachers union. People who grew up on the American left, and especially the Jewish American left, might feel a flicker of recognition at the mention of their birth names. Courtesy of Robert and Michael Meeropol One of Billie Holiday's most iconic songs is "Strange Fruit," a haunting protest against the inhumanity of racism. I think that misses the truth. However, its delusionally “pragmatic” messaging had a real effect on liberal political discourse and practice. [30][31], Billie Holiday's performances and recordings, Last edited on 30 December 2020, at 15:36, Review: Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights, "Strange Fruit is still a song for today", "The Strange Story of the Man Behind 'Strange Fruit, "Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching". Robert Meeropol believes that this is exactly how Abel intended the song to be used. The point of ‘Strange Fruit’ was that it was an attack song. Here, Abel wrote television scripts. The Party at the time was a hotbed of creative activity. At that point we had been shuttled around so much… we said OK. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were the first U.S. civilians to be executed for espionage during peacetime. Hearing this story made me feel bound to my new community, and made me think how powerful a collective memory like this can be. Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time? [11], The lyrics are under copyright but have been republished in full in an academic journal, with permission.[12]. “Between Capitalism and Community” by Michael A. Lebowitz, Counterfire reviews “The Dawning of the Apocalypse” by Gerald Horne, Marx & Philosophy on Gerald Horne’s “Jazz and Justice”, Left Voice reviews Rob Wallace’s “Dead Epidemiologists” + This Is Hell interviews Rob Wallace, Time Talks–so does Gerald Horne: about “The Dawning of the Apocalypse”, Upper Ocean Temperatures Set a New High Record in 2020, Record number of billion-dollar disasters struck U.S. in 2020. Abel Meeropol (February 10, 1903 - October 30, 1986) was an American writer, teacher and song-writer, best known under his … Later, his song was popularized by Billie Holiday and became well-known for confronting racism in America head-on. The Meeropols were living back in New York City in 1954 when they adopted the Rosenberg boys. He also attended a socialist reading group that the Communist Party ran for Hollywood screenwriters. My story would begin with the Christmas party at the Du Bois’ and end with Robert and Michael being reunited with the Meeropols, after they had won their legal battle. I would zero in on the interconnected network of unions, socialist organizations, and civil rights groups that events like the execution of the Rosenbergs left in tatters. This piece’s history is compelling. When put to music by composer Fred Katz, “Beloved Comrade” became an anthem sung at socialist funerals. [9][10] Though Meeropol had asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set "Strange Fruit" to music himself. It was no doubt this same fearless, clearheaded nature that made him write an anti-lynching song at the height of Jim Crow and to adopt the sons of the Rosenbergs at the height of the Cold War. Meeropol is the adopted son of a Jewish schoolteacher, Abel Meeropol, who saw one of these postcards in the 1930s and was prompted to write the song Strange Fruit - … He barely escaped blacklisting by changing jobs, moving around the country, and lying and obfuscating when interrogated by government agents. Meeropol later recalled how the photograph "haunted me for days" and inspired the writing of the poem, Strange Fruit. Tel: 212-691-2555. The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, writing that hers was "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch". It was through the union that they came to know teacher and Party member, Alice Citron. For the rest of us, the saga of the songwriter and the sons of the murdered “spies” seems like a secret history, a potshard buried beneath the sand that speaks of a whole fallen civilization. With Dorothy Thigpen, Milton Gabler, Farah Jasmine Griffin, C.T. The Meeropol boys today are in their 70s. Eventually, it would also lead him to return to the community he’d left behind, blacklists be damned. "Strange Fruit," written by Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol in 1937, takes a harrowing and unflinching look at American racism. [23] Rene Marie's rendition was coupled with Confederate anthem "Dixie", making for an "uncomfortable juxtaposition", according to Pellegrinelli. “A lot of what he wrote was biting satire and had a nasty edge to it. [6][7][8] In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings, inspired by Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. His show, The West Wing, is admittedly very bad art. Transcript: James Baldwin’s ‘Little Houses’ and Abel Meeropol’s ‘Strange Fruit’ Paul Gilroy: My name is Paul Gilroy, I'm the Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the study of Racism and Racialisation at University College London. Emanuel Hirsch Bloch, the Rosenbergs’ lawyer and a renowned left-wing defense attorney who had defended numerous people accused of communist sympathies, acted temporarily as their guardian. In 1937 Abe Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from New York, saw a photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. ‘Strange Fruit’ has often been described as a dirge-like ballad. DSA understands that. The new movement needs its own works of art, and the means to make those works are within reach. Maybe you already know that these people flew in the same circles because they were at some point either members of the Communist Party or, at the very least, friendly to the socialist cause in America. Robert Meeropol is the younger son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and the adoptive son of "Strange Fruit” composer Abel Meeropol. [7], Meeropol published the poem under the title "Bitter Fruit" in January 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine of the Teachers Union. Southern trees bear a strange fruit, The tragic effect gets embodiment in the poem by the use of Meeropol’s bitter irony. Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit” (1939) “Strange Fruit” was written by Abel Meeropol, a white English teacher from New York City, as a protest against the horrors of lynching. As a result, Meeropol and Holiday both faced intense scrutiny from authorities. New York NY 10001-5304 The room is decorated for Christmas. They remained friendly with Party members throughout his childhood. The only way the Meeropols’ story would get approved by network executives is if it were pitched by someone like Aaron Sorkin—who would no doubt fill his script with speechifying neoliberals. Abel Meeropol's biography and life story. Robert Meeropol recalls: They were at this study group reading Lenin or something and Abel raised his hand to the party functionary who was doing the teaching and he said, “I don’t know why I have to read all this stuff. It also made me think about how small and secretive the left was for so many decades, and in some ways continues to be. The song was highly regarded; the 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies,[7] in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling recording. “We were actually seized by New York City police and sent to an orphanage. Michael and Robert Rosenberg went to live with the Meeropols in January of 1954. It needs to be able to frame those stories for widespread consumption. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. [15] When Holiday's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, owner of the Commodore label. [14] Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. Perhaps you’ve already guessed the secret behind this odd convergence of people. “We were told that we were going to go live with them,” Robert Meeropol, the youngest son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, recently told me of meeting his adoptive parents for the first time. First performed by Meeropol's wife and their friends in social contexts,[10] his protest song gained a certain success in and around New York. The song consists of 12 lines comparing a southern idyll (“Pastoral scene of the gallant South”) with a brutal lynching (“The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth”). [16] Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. It was in this era that an up-and-coming jazz singer named Billie Holiday was introduced to Abel Meeropol at Café Society, the first integrated nightclub in New York City. In the 1930s, the Communist Party USA swelled to about 80,000 members at the height of its popularity. As lefty public school teachers, the Meeropols were both heavily involved in the New York City Teachers Union. Through this daisy chain of personal ties, the Meeropols were ultimately able to adopt Robert and Michael. This material has been combed over in countless books and articles. Diana Ross recorded the song for her debut film, the Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and it was included on the chart topping soundtrack album. Abel Meeropol writing rhythm and rhyme Injustice inflicted on fellow men Jewish poet formed by events of his time Razor-sharp lines flowing out of his pen His thoughts wandering to the news of the south Whites lynching blacks on barren southern trees Strange fruit harvest as related mouth to mouth Democracy swings on a killing breeze Strange FruitWritten by Abel Meeropol as a poem.Famously performed by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. It is also not an impossible one, as the existence of independent left media (like this magazine) proves. Abel Meeropol (February 10, 1903 – October 29, 1986) was an American songwriter and poet whose works were published under his pseudonym, Lewis Allan. 1) ‘Strange Fruit’ was inspired by lynchings that took place in 20th-century America The song was first written as a poem and published under Abel Meeropol’s pseudonym, Lewis Allan, in 1937. To acknowledge this fact is to acknowledge the need for ambitious left-wing storytelling that can act as a counternarrative. It’s as if a DSA member on Twitter were writing left-wing fan fiction. It encouraged cultural work and supported artists through organizations like John Reed Clubs for writers and the Pierre Degeyter Club for musicians. I know who the workers are, I know who the owners are, I know who our allies are, I know who our enemies are, that’s good enough for me! It is this part of the story, the part about the left showing deep care for their own, that I might seize on for my imaginary prestige TV show. She was one of the trustees of the fund that was raised for Robert and Michael’s upbringing. Abel was a public school English teacher (he taught a young James Baldwin at Dewitt Clinton High School in the Bronx in the early 1940s) who gave half his salary to the Communist Party. [2] The song has been called "a declaration of war" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement". “Strange Fruit” is a poem written by American-Jewish songwriter and poet Abel Meeropol in 1937, and was famously covered and recorded by Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan) in … The poem specifically focuses on the horrific lynchings that took place primarily across the American South, in which black individuals were brutally tortured and murdered—and often strung up from trees to be gawked at—by white supremacists. [3], Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife and singer Laura Duncan and performed it as a protest song in New York City venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden. According to Robert Meeropol, Abel had a visceral “anger over injustice and a willingness to act upon that.” Alongside these deep feelings also appears to have been a uniquely attuned moral clarity. In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings, inspired by Lawrence Beitler 's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. Subscribe to the Monthly Review e-newsletter (max of 1-3 per month). [23] Journalist Lara Pellegrinelli wrote that Jeff Buckley while singing it "seems to meditate on the meaning of humanity the way Walt Whitman did, considering all of its glorious and horrifying possibilities". In our current moment of widespread helplessness, when narrativizing our past would be a therapeutic and politically expedient practice, left-wing history is instead being rewritten by liberals like Aaron Sorkin. To be sure, rebuilding those links in the chain of memory and teasing out the secrets of the American left won’t be an easy task. It was very artistic. Robert Meeropol remembers Malvina Reynolds singing “Little Boxes” on their living room sofa. Germany draws another line in the sand for the U.S. Twitter’s ban on Trump will only deepen the U.S. tribal divide, Marxism and feminism – Marxism and Women’s Liberation extract, American capitalism’s endless military drive, were arrested in 1950 after being accused of sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviets, photographs of Robert and Michael Rosenberg, a real effect on liberal political discourse, International Commission of Inquiry to open hearings on racist police violence in the U.S. on MLK Day, “Your Economics Professor is almost Certainly a Charlatan”, The Continuing Korean War in the Murderous History of Bombing, Disability and Welfare under Monopoly Capitalism, Fighting the “Immigrant Threat” Narrative, New! 134 W 29TH ST STE 706 It protests the lynching of Black Americans, with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. My feeling of exclusivity each other he has been over examined and lost of. 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