Independent Lens

Strange Fruit (4x7)

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Radio stations banned it, but when Billie Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" the whole world listened anyway. Sprung from the pen of an unknown Bronx schoolteacher named Abel Meeropol, the song continues to mesmerize musicians and civil rights advocates alike with its chilling vision of a lynching. This program shows how a little-known Jewish songwriter and an African- American icon created a song that changed America.