When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty—claimed, "I ain't never read that book."[19]. It was also in this period that Abel Meeropol wrote the poem, “Beloved Comrade.” The poem, at eight lines, is even shorter and sparer than “Strange Fruit.” Addressing a dead friend (“To you, beloved comrade, we make this solemn vow / The fight will go on”), it comforts them in the knowledge that the struggle that they had fought and died for would continue until the final victory (“Sleep well, beloved comrade, our work will just begin / The fight will go on till we win”). Abel and Anne are going to be their new parents. 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. In 1940 Meeropol, a socialist, was called to testify before a committee investigating communism and asked whether the US Communist Party had paid him to write Strange Fruit. The tragic effect gets embodiment in the poem by the use of Meeropol’s bitter irony. It was an attack on the perpetrators of lynching.” It was also in this period that Abel Meeropol wrote the poem, “Beloved Comrade.” [15] When Holiday's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, owner of the Commodore label. Hearing this story made me feel bound to my new community, and made me think how powerful a collective memory like this can be. 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. "[21] In an attempt to have a two-thirds majority in the Senate that would break the filibusters by the southern senators, anti-racism activists were encouraged to mail copies of "Strange Fruit" to their senators. [20] Holiday's 1939 version of the song was included in the National Recording Registry on January 27, 2003. 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. (1) Abel Meeropol, Strange Fruit (1939) This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Robert Meeropol believes that this is exactly how Abel intended the song to be used. 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. What are its downsides?” She did not learn these things. “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 Meeropols were living back in New York City in 1954 when they adopted the Rosenberg boys. Abel had written “Strange Fruit” when the left was rallying in support of an anti-lynching bill in the Senate. The poet presents an image of a tree that bears strange fruit. Their tale is a radical epic so poignant that one wonders where the 10-part miniseries is. 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. [9] Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. It is also not an impossible one, as the existence of independent left media (like this magazine) proves. 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. In an article written by BBC Meeropol is quoted saying, “I wrote Strange Fruit because I hate lynching, and I hate injustice, and I hate the people who perpetuate it.” He wrote "Strange Fruit" (1937), which was recorded by Billie Holiday. My feeling of belonging came part and parcel with a feeling of exclusivity. It needs to be able to frame those stories for widespread consumption. 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. The point of ‘Strange Fruit’ was that it was an attack song. Hardy. 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. “There was this, that, and the other thing. It first appeared as a poem, “Bitter Fruit,” in the New York Teacher, a publication for the New York City Teachers Union. It made me feel as if I had just brushed aside half a century’s worth of dust and discovered a part of my own past. Leftist solidarity was a theme that ran throughout Abel’s songwriting career and political life. [9][10] Though Meeropol had asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set "Strange Fruit" to music himself. 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. “Abel was no turn-the-other-cheek liberal,” said Robert Meeropol. Meeropol, his wife, and black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden. The point of ‘Strange Fruit’ was that it was an attack song. They are waiting patiently for the orphaned sons of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to arrive. [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". “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. I think that misses the truth. Subscribe to the Monthly Review e-newsletter (max of 1-3 per month). Crowdsourcing funds for left-wing art won’t be an easy task either. Billie Holiday Original label Abel Meeropol . While Hollywood isn’t going to tell the real story of the Meeropols anytime soon, if I were to make that TV series, I would open it on a party scene in the front parlor of a Brooklyn brownstone. 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 It was through the union that they came to know teacher and Party member, Alice Citron. 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! Southern trees bear a strange fruit, ‘Strange Fruit’ has often been described as a dirge-like ballad. [16] Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. I felt rejuvenated and included. The new movement needs its own works of art, and the means to make those works are within reach. With Dorothy Thigpen, Milton Gabler, Farah Jasmine Griffin, C.T. It was here that a news bulletin interrupting their Yankees game informed them of the hour of their parents’ impending execution. It was most famously performed by Billy Holiday, who first sang “Strange Fruit” in 1939. Vivian. [9] During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer. Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position. Robert Meeropol remembers Malvina Reynolds singing “Little Boxes” on their living room sofa. VivreMusicale 1,277 views The symbolic tree has blood on the leaves and in its root. Holiday recorded two major sessions of the song at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. "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! [27] Nina Simone recorded the song in 1965,[28] a recording described by journalist David Margolick in the New York Times as featuring a "plain and unsentimental voice". Manny [Emanuel Hirsch] Bloch knew about Abel’s reputation as the author of “Strange Fruit” and knew that Abel and Anne were both supportive of my birth parents, Robert Meeropol told me. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. “At that point, right-wing groups tried to have us taken from Abel and Anne, and a court custody battle developed,” Robert Meeropol told me. He wrote "Strange Fruit" (1937), which was recorded by Billie Holiday. 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". Composed in 1937 by left-wing New York City school teacher, poet and songwriter Meeropol, it was a visceral call to action in a time when people of conscience fought for anti-lynching legislation. [4] It was also included in the "Songs of the Century" list of the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Du Bois. Meeropol, a member of the American Communist Party, using the pseudonym, Lewis Allan, published the poem in the New York Teacher and … To acknowledge this fact is to acknowledge the need for ambitious left-wing storytelling that can act as a counternarrative. I was new to the left, having joined DSA after volunteering for Bernie Sanders in 2016. 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. It is vital that the left continue to punch back at these rewritings of radical history. The Meeropol boys today are in their 70s. Probably written for Spanish Civil War soldiers from the International Brigades, it was sung by Josh White for Franklin Roosevelt and by Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert in memory of Sacco and Vanzetti (two Italian anarchists framed for murder and executed in 1927). It was written by Abel Meeropol (1903-1986), a teacher, poet and songwriter, who published under the name Lewis Allan. It is long past time that we claimed our past, and publicly narrated our stories—stories like Abel and Anne Meeropol’s—and won back the (currently Sorkinized) political ground in the popular imagination. Before Sorkin produces his take on the Rosenbergs, and we have to endure a walk and talk between Roy Cohn and Joseph McCarthy, I think it’s time to start sharing our own history. 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. There she first sang his song “Strange Fruit” to hushed and astonished audiences. Its author recognized “Strange Fruit” as a necessary statement then–and it remains so now. His show, The West Wing, is admittedly very bad art. He also attended a socialist reading group that the Communist Party ran for Hollywood screenwriters. It was an attack on the perpetrators of lynching.” It was also in this period that Abel Meeropol wrote the poem, “Beloved Comrade.” Robert Meeropol is the younger son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and the adoptive son of "Strange Fruit” composer Abel Meeropol. Pollution Makes It Worse. 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. Columbia gave Holiday a one-session release from her contract so she could record it; Frankie Newton's eight-piece Café Society Band was used for the session. How Robert and Michael were going to live—and who they were going to live with—remained an open question after their parents were executed. “We were actually seized by New York City police and sent to an orphanage. It covers a range of contemporary themes: children separated from parents, the political persecution of dissidents, and social justice warriors doing battle against a racist, xenophobic, increasingly fascistic America. The sons of accused spies, taken under the wings of famous civil rights icons, wind up in the care of radical artists and activists. [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. Through this daisy chain of personal ties, the Meeropols were ultimately able to adopt Robert and Michael. Eventually, it would also lead him to return to the community he’d left behind, blacklists be damned. [17] Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song.[18]. Perhaps we can use the time alone to think collectively, to reflect together on how we might reconstruct the public realm of our cities. He barely escaped blacklisting by changing jobs, moving around the country, and lying and obfuscating when interrogated by government agents. 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. [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". In her 1956 autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday suggested that she, together with Meeropol, her accompanist Sonny White, and arranger Danny Mendelsohn, set the poem to music. Mary Filippo began in 2004 to audit economics classes in the hope that she could “learn something about globalization. ‘Strange Fruit’ has often been described as a dirge-like ballad. 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." In 1937, after seeing a photo depicting the lynching of a black man in the south, Bronx-born high school teacher Abel Meeropol wrote a poem entitled "Strange Fruit" that begins with the words: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root." By 1953, photographs of Robert and Michael Rosenberg, in suits and Brooklyn Dodgers caps, had been plastered across newspapers for three years. Abel Meeropol (February 10, 1903 – October 29, 1986) was an American songwriter and poet whose works were published under his pseudonym, Lewis Allan. Does it really help people in developing countries? For 30 years he has been a progressive activist, author and speaker. It encouraged cultural work and supported artists through organizations like John Reed Clubs for writers and the Pierre Degeyter Club for musicians. The Bernie Sanders campaigns understood that. The point of ‘Strange Fruit’ was that it was an attack song. (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. Strange FruitWritten by Abel Meeropol as a poem.Famously performed by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. 50+ videos Play all Mix - Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol YouTube The Negro Speaks of Rivers poem by Langston Hughes music by Margaret Bonds - Duration: 4:07. This piece’s history is compelling. Directed by Joel Katz. Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. The song's best known recordings and performances were by Billie Holiday and Josh White. It’s December 1953. It’s as if a DSA member on Twitter were writing left-wing fan fiction. Abel Meeropol (February 14, 1903 – October 29, 1986) was an American songwriter and poet whose works were published under his pseudonym, Lewis Allan. Meeropol was a member of the American Communist Party, but would later quit. The man behind "Strange Fruit" is New York City's Abel Meeropol, and he really has two stories. There was always a stream of writers and artists and performers coming and visiting. 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. Ecosystem Destruction Fueled the Pandemic. As lefty public school teachers, the Meeropols were both heavily involved in the New York City Teachers Union. The song was highly regarded; the 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies,[7] in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling recording. I would instead focus my story on the left-wing community in New York City who rallied around the Rosenberg family. In 1936, Abel Meeropol, a Jewish American public high school teacher in the Bronx, NY, saw a photograph of the lynching of two African American teenagers, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. “Strange Fruit” This anti-lynching poem was written by Abel Meeropol, a teacher, songwriter, and member of the American Communist Party. 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! Robert Meeropol suspects that Abel and Anne only quit the Party in order to adopt him and his brother. Like many artistic New York City lefties, the Meeropols joined the Communist Party in the 1930s. Meeropol wrote the anti-lynching poem, "Strange Fruit", which was originally published in the Marxist publication The New Massesand was subsequently set to music. "Strange Fruit" is a song recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939, written by Abel Meeropol and published in 1937. 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”). Their sons, Robert and Michael, were three and seven when their parents were arrested in 1950 after being accused of sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviets. I first learned the Meeropols’ story in 2018 when, as a member of Sing in Solidarity, I was taught to sing “Beloved Comrade” for a memorial to Heather Heyer—the young woman murdered in the Charlottesville terror attack in 2017. ‘Strange Fruit’ by Abel Meeropol is a poem on the genocide of black people in America. 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. 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. “A lot of what he wrote was biting satire and had a nasty edge to it. [9] It was recorded on April 20, 1939. The left, however, is currently small (relatively speaking) and neoliberal cultural hegemony isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. 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. Considering the vivid images and sustained metaphor of the song “Strange Fruit,” it shouldn’t be surprising that it began as a poem. 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. It was very artistic. But we also need to do our own storytelling, to make creative narrative works that mythologize our own past. Holiday's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978. My story would focus not on the government’s case against the Rosenbergs, nor Bloch’s defense. The Party at the time was a hotbed of creative activity. In 1945, the Meeropols, fearful of being blacklisted like Alice Citron and so many of their fellow Teachers Union members, left their teaching jobs and took off for Los Angeles. 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. This was a radical union and many of its members were also members of the Communist Party. His type of artistry was ideal for writing politically powerful songs. ‘Strange Fruit’ has often been described as a dirge-like ballad. It also made me think about how small and secretive the left was for so many decades, and in some ways continues to be. So, he met them, he liked them, and he said, “OK, you can adopt them!”. After being blacklisted in the 1940s and fired from her teaching job, Citron went on to work as Shirley Graham Du Bois’ personal secretary. 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. Abel Meeropol watches as his sons, Robert and Michael, play with a train set. The house belongs to Black socialist and civil rights activist W.E.B. We can see the current left movement’s need for such works in the wildly successful career of a writer like Sorkin. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the great majority of victims were black. Abel Meeropol's biography and life story. The song was recorded and performed by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone among other artists. Lynching was a practice that involved mob-style execution without trial, most often by hanging, and almost exclusively of … Bloch was informed of the Meeropols’ request to adopt the boys through Shirley Graham Du Bois, wife of W.E.B. One version of events claims that Barney Josephson, the founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Blood on … The room is decorated for Christmas. Perhaps you already know what the Du Bois’, the Meeropols, and the Rosenbergs all had in common. ... Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from New York City named Abel Meeropol, who was outraged after seeing a photograph of a horrific lynching in a civil-rights magazine. Anne Meeropol sang and played it on her nylon string guitar at Teachers’ … [23] Rene Marie's rendition was coupled with Confederate anthem "Dixie", making for an "uncomfortable juxtaposition", according to Pellegrinelli. Meeropol later recalled how the photograph "haunted me for days" and inspired the writing of the poem, Strange Fruit. As a result, Meeropol and Holiday both faced intense scrutiny from authorities. But the Meeropols won the legal battle and we were reunited with them in the fall of 1954. [29] The group's rendition was selected by the Mojo magazine staff to be included on the compilation Music Is Love: 15 Tracks That Changed The World . While Abel Meeropol was a communist, “Beloved Comrade” belongs to no faction and has been sung in solidarity by many left-wing movements. However, before the adoption had been formalized, Bloch suffered a heart attack and died. When put to music by composer Fred Katz, “Beloved Comrade” became an anthem sung at socialist funerals. 134 W 29TH ST STE 706 Under constant threat of persecution, the New York City left was necessarily close knit. [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. 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. “There was no regular job,” Robert Meeropol recalls. But there was only so much protection a network of friends could provide each other. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. [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. Where the 10-part miniseries is Meeropol ( 1903-1986 ), which was recorded and performed by Billie Holiday meaning... Left-Wing storytelling that can act as a necessary statement then–and it remains so now that ran throughout Abel ’ songwriting... 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