"Strange fruit": Billie Holiday and the civil rights movement

Résumé du document

Eleanor Fagan, better known as Billie Holiday, is one of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the 20th century. Among her most outstanding works is the song "Strange Fruit", which took Billie Holiday from the realm of love songs and lighter entertainment to a status of symbol of political involvement in the civil rights cause. "Strange Fruit", written and performed at the end of the 1930s, rose to fame in a context where the civil rights movement had yet to take off. It is only later on, in the 1960s, in the midst of the most active decade for the civil rights movement, that Billie Holiday's song truly began to be utilized as an iconic piece by leaders and activists of the cause. "Strange Fruit" became a staple of anti-racist resistance in the United States, yet Billie Holiday is not usually considered a political figure or a "protest singer" in the traditional sense.

This discrepancy raises many questions on the nature of Billie's actual involvement and interest in the civil rights cause and on the extent to which and reasons why "Strange Fruit" has been appropriated by the civil rights movement. I argue that it is not Billie Holiday's actual political contribution, but the need of every rising political movement of opposition for powerful cultural symbols of resistance that explains the importance of Billie and her song for the civil rights movement.

Extraits

[...] Before “Strange Fruit,” Billie had liked to think of herself as of the and she saw her voice as a regular instrument and so thought of herself as one of the musicians, but “Strange Fruit” put her in the spotlight in a brand new way. Margolick describes this as “Holiday's evolution from exuberant jazz singer to chanteuse of lovelorn pain and loneliness. Once Holiday added it to her repertoire, some of its sadness seemed to cling to (Margolick: 22). The public respected Billie's courage in taking up the task of singing this song. What was the nature of Billie's actual involvement in the civil rights cause? [...]

[...] Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press Margolick, David. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry For Civil Rights. [...]

[...] Strange Fruit was released in the same year as “Gone with the a film which showed condescendence towards blacks. Margolick writes that “while lynching was a conspicuous theme in black fiction, theater, and art, it did not feature prominently in black music ( ) Before Meeropol and Holiday came along, no one had ever confronted the topic so directly” (Margolick 56). The innovative nature of the “Strange Fruit” phenomenon hoisted Billie Holiday to the status of Civil Rights advocate, even though the term is anachronistic, and even though she had probably not foreseen the profound impact the song would have on some parts of American society. [...]

[...] The widespread belief that Billie wrote the song factors into her image as a civil rights activist and a politically involved figure. Since her authorship of “Strange Fruit” has been disproved, potential evidence of her actual involvement against racism will have to be found elsewhere, perhaps in her affection for the song and her heartfelt, peculiar interpretation of it. Billie Holiday first performed “Strange Fruit” at New York's Café Society, which would become the starting point for the song's rise in popularity. [...]

[...] However, the most poignant lines were cut out, which has been interpreted as the producers of the film feeling that the audience was still unprepared for the hardness of the lyrics. In terms of political legacy, the Boston Globe referenced the song in 1963 when “three young civil rights workers, later found murdered, disappeared in Mississippi. But for the young idealists of the civil rights era, the song was simply too depressing or too bitter or too redolent of black victimhood” (Margolick: 135). [...]