Thank you for bringing the history of this song, poem, and story to light.
I am working on a folk drama about slave guides at Mammoth Cave in the 1840-60s. Gathering historic and new music to fill the “curriculum” so that future performers learn the social, geological, and musical roots of exploration leadership during that dynamic time.
I’d like to discuss how this tune might fit somewhere into the book of the libretto CURIOSITY, A Saga of Mammoth Cave by my father, Roger W. Brucker.
Hi Ellen, I'd be happy to chat, however you'd like to do it! You can send me a direct message through Substack and we can go from there. I would not call myself anything like a historian or expert on songwriting or any music, or on the enslavement of African Americans in the U.S., for that matter, but I have done some work with helping a local songwriting group promote themselves, and connect up with others like indie filmmakers, in the past. Louise Haynes, of Social Issues in Song, is actually a professor who teaches Japanese students about world history through song, and you may want to chat with her, too; we did a collaborative project together recently in which she adapted my story on a level to teach her Japanese students, and her audience; you can also find a brief interview she did with me, on her blog. (I linked to it at the end of this article.) I've also noticed there's a writer here who did quite a series of articles on this song, at a much deeper level than I have, I haven't actually managed to talk to that writer but if Ican find him again here, I'll let you know. While I expect there's various Harriet Tubman museums and resources around the country, you may want to communicate with some around here, where I live in Maryland, at the pretty new Harriet Tubman Railroad Underground Railroad Visitor Center, in Church Creek, MD; the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, in Cambridge, MD; the Enoch Pratty Library, in Baltimore, which put on a very good Harriet Tubman exhibit, recently; the Maryland Center for History and Culture; and he Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, which is not on the same scale as the National Museum of African American History in DC, but still has research resources and capacities, I understand. There's also a Maryland Anti-Lynching Memorial Project which does an anti-lynching conference in November for the last 7 or so years. And, since I moved from Baltimore to North Bethesda, MD, I live right next door to the Josiah Henson Memorial and Park (the Rev. Josiah Henson being the real-life person whose survival-during-slavery-and-escape-from slavery story who inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and so much of the American anti-slavery movement, as well as a very cruel campaign by white supremacists and slavery supporters to create and promote a distorted, racist, demeaning caricuture of him and his legacy), and could put you in touch with the educational programmer around here, if you'd like. They're in touch with some of his living descendants, at least some who live in Canada, which also has a museum for him, I understand.
I read that she was troubled, and had a lot of problems, for sure. But she gave a voice to civil rights and resistance with a power, distinction, passion and conviction like few others. And her songs haunt and inspire me today, like few others do. She brings herself to my attention, whether I will or no. And she demonstrated a resilience to perform the work she did, and continue to live, despite the challenges she faced. So, I’d say, she deserves to be a Campfire Hero, for sure.
I just mentioned two other NIna Simone songs, on the interview I did with Louise Haynes on her Social Issues in Song blog, which now includes and version of this story adapted for her students in Japan learning about world history through song. I linked to her version, and my article, at the end of the story, now, come see!
You're welcome, Perry. When you get the chance, check out Louise Haynes' "Social Issues in Song" publication, also here on Substack; if you liked mine, I'm sure you'll like hers! She told me that she was planning an episode/article (not sure how she references hers) also on "Strange Fruit," and we've been discussing her abridging this one for use for her audience of English as a second language learners, which really quite appeals to me, in part, because one of the things I do for my day job (and love to do) is provide language access to limited English proficient individuals. Hope you and your reading audience have a great new year, and I'll look to check out your publication in the new year, as well.
Excellent
Thank you!
Main sources for this story include:
1) The Strange Story of the Man Behind 'Strange Fruit,' NPR Music, Morning Edition, 9/5/2012, https://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/158933012/the-strange-story-of-the-man-behind-strange-fruit.
2) Rosenberg Fund for Children, About Abel Meeropol, https://www.rfc.org/node/4101.
3) Abel Meeropol Social Justice Writing Award, Straw Dog Writers Guild, 11/12/2017, https://strawdogwriters.org/abel-meeropol-award.
4) In Case You Were Wondering About the Abel Meeropol Social Justice Award..., Straw Dog Writers Guild, 9/15/2017, https://strawdogwriters.org/blog/case-wondering-abel-meeropol-social-justice-writing-award.
5) The Jewish Story Behind 'Strange Fruit,' Jewish Philly Blog, 11/2/2017, https://blog.jewishphilly.org/the-jewish-story-behind-strange-fruit#:~:text=What%20you%20may%20not%20know,1903%20to%20Russian%2DJewish%20immigrants..
6) American Masters, The Story Behind Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," 4/12/2021, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/the-story-behind-billie-holidays-strange-fruit/17738/.
7) 'Strange Fruit,' Billie Holiday and Nina Simone Transform a Haunting Poem, udiscovermusic, 4/20/2024, https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/strange-fruit-feature/.
8) "Strange Fruit" Shellac Record, Recorded by Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra, Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, https://womenshistory.si.edu/herstory/activism/object/strange-fruit-shellac-record.
9) Billie Holiday and Strange Fruit, The Kennedy Center, https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/music/billie-holiday--strange-fruit/.
10) Billie Holiday Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday Official Site Signature Song, https://billieholiday.com/signaturesong/strange-fruit/.
11) "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday (1939) , World History Commons, https://worldhistorycommons.org/strange-fruit-billie-holiday-1939#:~:text=The%201939%20recording%20eventually%20sold,National%20Recording%20Registry%20in%202002.
12) "Strange Fruit"--Billie Holiday (1939), Added to the National Registry (2002), Cary O'Dell, https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/StrangeFruit.pdf.
13) History Channel: How Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' Confronted an Ugly Era of Lynchings, 5/10/23 (updated), https://www.history.com/news/billie-holiday-strange-fruit-lynchings.
14) NAACP, History of Lynching in America, https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/history-lynching-america.
15) Why Congress failed nearly 200 times to make lynching Crime, The Washington Post, 7/5/2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/07/05/how-congress-failed-nearly-200-times-to-make-lynching-a-federal-crime/.
16) Strange Fruit: The Most Shocking Song of All Time?, BBC, 4/17/2019, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190415-strange-fruit-the-most-shocking-song-of-all-time.
17) Biden signs bill making lynching federal hate crime into law, CNN Politics, 3/30/2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/29/politics/biden-emmett-till-antilynching-act/index.html.
Thank you for bringing the history of this song, poem, and story to light.
I am working on a folk drama about slave guides at Mammoth Cave in the 1840-60s. Gathering historic and new music to fill the “curriculum” so that future performers learn the social, geological, and musical roots of exploration leadership during that dynamic time.
I’d like to discuss how this tune might fit somewhere into the book of the libretto CURIOSITY, A Saga of Mammoth Cave by my father, Roger W. Brucker.
Hi Ellen, I'd be happy to chat, however you'd like to do it! You can send me a direct message through Substack and we can go from there. I would not call myself anything like a historian or expert on songwriting or any music, or on the enslavement of African Americans in the U.S., for that matter, but I have done some work with helping a local songwriting group promote themselves, and connect up with others like indie filmmakers, in the past. Louise Haynes, of Social Issues in Song, is actually a professor who teaches Japanese students about world history through song, and you may want to chat with her, too; we did a collaborative project together recently in which she adapted my story on a level to teach her Japanese students, and her audience; you can also find a brief interview she did with me, on her blog. (I linked to it at the end of this article.) I've also noticed there's a writer here who did quite a series of articles on this song, at a much deeper level than I have, I haven't actually managed to talk to that writer but if Ican find him again here, I'll let you know. While I expect there's various Harriet Tubman museums and resources around the country, you may want to communicate with some around here, where I live in Maryland, at the pretty new Harriet Tubman Railroad Underground Railroad Visitor Center, in Church Creek, MD; the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, in Cambridge, MD; the Enoch Pratty Library, in Baltimore, which put on a very good Harriet Tubman exhibit, recently; the Maryland Center for History and Culture; and he Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, which is not on the same scale as the National Museum of African American History in DC, but still has research resources and capacities, I understand. There's also a Maryland Anti-Lynching Memorial Project which does an anti-lynching conference in November for the last 7 or so years. And, since I moved from Baltimore to North Bethesda, MD, I live right next door to the Josiah Henson Memorial and Park (the Rev. Josiah Henson being the real-life person whose survival-during-slavery-and-escape-from slavery story who inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and so much of the American anti-slavery movement, as well as a very cruel campaign by white supremacists and slavery supporters to create and promote a distorted, racist, demeaning caricuture of him and his legacy), and could put you in touch with the educational programmer around here, if you'd like. They're in touch with some of his living descendants, at least some who live in Canada, which also has a museum for him, I understand.
It sounds like an honest, realistic view, and one with which I happen to agree. I’m an atheist and, would like to think, humanist, myself.
I read that she was troubled, and had a lot of problems, for sure. But she gave a voice to civil rights and resistance with a power, distinction, passion and conviction like few others. And her songs haunt and inspire me today, like few others do. She brings herself to my attention, whether I will or no. And she demonstrated a resilience to perform the work she did, and continue to live, despite the challenges she faced. So, I’d say, she deserves to be a Campfire Hero, for sure.
I’m thinking I will likely have a story on Nina Simone, in the future. I’m pretty sure Louise already has one, on her blog.
I just mentioned two other NIna Simone songs, on the interview I did with Louise Haynes on her Social Issues in Song blog, which now includes and version of this story adapted for her students in Japan learning about world history through song. I linked to her version, and my article, at the end of the story, now, come see!
You're welcome, Perry. When you get the chance, check out Louise Haynes' "Social Issues in Song" publication, also here on Substack; if you liked mine, I'm sure you'll like hers! She told me that she was planning an episode/article (not sure how she references hers) also on "Strange Fruit," and we've been discussing her abridging this one for use for her audience of English as a second language learners, which really quite appeals to me, in part, because one of the things I do for my day job (and love to do) is provide language access to limited English proficient individuals. Hope you and your reading audience have a great new year, and I'll look to check out your publication in the new year, as well.
Thanks, you too!