In the 1930s, the Communist Party USA swelled to about 80,000 members at the height of its popularity. Blood on … 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. It was most famously performed by Billy Holiday, who first sang “Strange Fruit” in 1939. Through this daisy chain of personal ties, the Meeropols were ultimately able to adopt Robert and Michael. They are waiting patiently for the orphaned sons of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to arrive. Many people know that the man who wrote the song was inspired by a photograph of a lynching. The photograph helped inspire the poem and song "Strange Fruit" written by Abel Meeropol -- and performed around the world by Billie Holiday. The point of ‘Strange Fruit’ was that it was an attack song. 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. It was an attack on the perpetrators of lynching.”. 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 material has been combed over in countless books and articles. [23] Rene Marie's rendition was coupled with Confederate anthem "Dixie", making for an "uncomfortable juxtaposition", according to Pellegrinelli. Monthly Review Foundation 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. “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. The tragic effect gets embodiment in the poem by the use of Meeropol’s bitter irony. Tel: 212-691-2555. The Meeropol boys today are in their 70s. Robert Meeropol suspects that Abel and Anne only quit the Party in order to adopt him and his brother. I actually wouldn’t approach the trial or the appeals much at all. Recently, Sing in Solidarity, a choir composed of members of Democratic Socialists of America (of which I am a member), sang it for the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. It is also not an impossible one, as the existence of independent left media (like this magazine) proves. [23] LA Times noted that Siouxsie and the Banshees's version contained "a solemn string section behind the vocals" and "a bridge of New Orleans funeral-march jazz" which enhanced the singer's "evocative interpretation". The left, however, is currently small (relatively speaking) and neoliberal cultural hegemony isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. 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. 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. VivreMusicale 1,277 views 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. [9] It was recorded on April 20, 1939. 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. 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. It encouraged cultural work and supported artists through organizations like John Reed Clubs for writers and the Pierre Degeyter Club for musicians. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. [20] Holiday's 1939 version of the song was included in the National Recording Registry on January 27, 2003. ‘Strange Fruit’ has often been described as a dirge-like ballad. 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. This piece’s history is compelling. ‘Strange Fruit’ has often been described as a dirge-like ballad. (1) Abel Meeropol, Strange Fruit (1939) [22], Notable cover versions of this song include Nina Simone (whose version was sampled in Kanye West's "Blood on the Leaves"[23]), René Marie,[23] Jeff Buckley,[23] Siouxsie and the Banshees,[24] Dee Dee Bridgewater,[24] Josh White,[25] UB40,[24] Bettye LaVette[26] and Edward W. [3], Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife and singer Laura Duncan and performed it as a protest song in New York City venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden. ... 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. 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. Later, his song was popularized by Billie Holiday and became well-known for confronting racism in America head-on. “There was this, that, and the other thing. 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. "[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. "Strange Fruit" is a song recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939, written by Abel Meeropol and published in 1937. [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. "Strange Fruit," written by Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol in 1937, takes a harrowing and unflinching look at American racism. What are its downsides?” She did not learn these things. 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. 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. Strange FruitWritten by Abel Meeropol as a poem.Famously performed by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. 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. Hearing this story made me feel bound to my new community, and made me think how powerful a collective memory like this can be. They remained friendly with Party members throughout his childhood. “Abel was no turn-the-other-cheek liberal,” said Robert Meeropol. When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty—claimed, "I ain't never read that book."[19]. [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. But there was only so much protection a network of friends could provide each other. [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 was very artistic. My feeling of belonging came part and parcel with a feeling of exclusivity. Meeropol, a member of the American Communist Party, using the pseudonym, Lewis Allan, published the poem in the New York Teacher and … 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. It was in this era that an up-and-coming jazz singer named Billie Holiday was introduced to Abel Meeropol at Café Society, the first integrated nightclub in New York City. Abel changed the title to “Strange Fruit” and set the poem to music in November of 1938. Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit” (1939) “Strange Fruit” was written by Abel Meeropol, a white English teacher from New York City, as a protest against the horrors of lynching. For that movement to grow, however, it needs to be able to tell its stories to the uninitiated. [5], "Strange Fruit" originated as a poem written by Jewish-American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings. 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. However, its delusionally “pragmatic” messaging had a real effect on liberal political discourse and practice. Subscribe to the Monthly Review e-newsletter (max of 1-3 per month). Abel had written “Strange Fruit” when the left was rallying in support of an anti-lynching bill in the Senate. [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". The Rosenbergs were executed June 19, 1953. It protests the lynching of Black Americans, with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Michael and Robert Rosenberg went to live with the Meeropols in January of 1954. But the Meeropols won the legal battle and we were reunited with them in the fall of 1954. Robert Meeropol believes that this is exactly how Abel intended the song to be used. The symbolic tree has blood on the leaves and in its root. “We were actually seized by New York City police and sent to an orphanage. The song was highly regarded; the 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies,[7] in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling recording. It was also what enabled him and Anne to adopt the sons of the Rosenbergs. “Between Capitalism and Community” by Michael A. Lebowitz, Counterfire reviews “The Dawning of the Apocalypse” by Gerald Horne, Marx & Philosophy on Gerald Horne’s “Jazz and Justice”, Left Voice reviews Rob Wallace’s “Dead Epidemiologists” + This Is Hell interviews Rob Wallace, Time Talks–so does Gerald Horne: about “The Dawning of the Apocalypse”, Upper Ocean Temperatures Set a New High Record in 2020, Record number of billion-dollar disasters struck U.S. in 2020. For the rest of us, the saga of the songwriter and the sons of the murdered “spies” seems like a secret history, a potshard buried beneath the sand that speaks of a whole fallen civilization. The poem was meant to be a critique of the real-life lynching of two African-American men by a mob of white people who were never trialed or convicted for their acts as a group. After being blacklisted in the 1940s and fired from her teaching job, Citron went on to work as Shirley Graham Du Bois’ personal secretary. [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 . His type of artistry was ideal for writing politically powerful songs. 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. [2] The song has been called "a declaration of war" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement". [9] Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. It was an attack on the perpetrators of lynching.” It was also in this period that Abel Meeropol wrote the poem, “Beloved Comrade.” 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! Abel had a spare, imagistic style and could use simple language to devastating emotional effect. The song has been covered by numerous artists, including Nina Simone, UB40, Jeff Buckley, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Robert Wyatt, and Dee Dee Bridgewater. The man behind "Strange Fruit" is New York City's Abel Meeropol, and he really has two stories. The new movement needs its own works of art, and the means to make those works are within reach. A Land Grant in Maine: The Gift That’s Been Giving Since 1767, Let’s Get Serious About Inequality and Socialism, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Their tale is a radical epic so poignant that one wonders where the 10-part miniseries is. He barely escaped blacklisting by changing jobs, moving around the country, and lying and obfuscating when interrogated by government agents. It was here that a news bulletin interrupting their Yankees game informed them of the hour of their parents’ impending execution. It’s even been fictionalized by E.L. Doctorow in The Book of Daniel (a beautiful example of navel-gazing Sorkinesque white guy writing if there ever was one). There she first sang his song “Strange Fruit” to hushed and astonished audiences. Hardy. Strange Fruit. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. 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. Holiday's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978. [9] During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer. 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. I think that misses the truth. I think that misses the truth. In 1937 Abe Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from New York, saw a photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. [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". Under constant threat of persecution, the New York City left was necessarily close knit. Anne Meeropol sang and played it on her nylon string guitar at Teachers’ … It is this part of the story, the part about the left showing deep care for their own, that I might seize on for my imaginary prestige TV show. The song was recorded and performed by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone among other artists. "Strange Fruit" originated as a poem written by Jewish-American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings. 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