Strange Fruit Billie Holiday Cafe Society And An Early Cry For Civil Rights

Download or read book Strange Fruit written by David Margolick and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the story of a song that foretold a movement, and the lady who dared to sing it. The powerful, evocative lyrics of Strange Fruit - written by a Jewish communist schoolteacher - portray the lynching of a black man in the South. In 1939, its performance sparked controversy (and sometimes violence) wherever Billie Holiday went. Not until 16 years later did Rosa Parks refuse to yield her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Yet Strange Fruit lived on, and in this work David Margolick chronicles its effect on those who experienced it first-hand: musicians, artists, journalists, intellectuals, students, budding activists, and even the waitresses and bartenders who worked the clubs.