Independent Lens
S04E07
S04E0760 min· aired 4/8/2003

Strange Fruit

TMDb0.0
Nexus es917019TMDb ep 532355TVDb ep 862371

Overview

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.