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Billie Holiday

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@ National Portrait Gallery

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Born Baltimore, MarylandIn 1937, Bronx schoolteacher Abel Meeropol (1903–1986) wrote a poem of protest after viewing a horrific photograph of African American lynching victims. When set to music, his poem became “Strange Fruit”—the haunting indictment of Southern lynching that emerged as one of Billie Holiday’s most iconic songs.Holiday was no stranger to racism. Among the first black vocalists to headline an all-white band when she joined Artie Shaw’s Orchestra in 1938, she suffered discriminatory treatment and racially charged heckling while touring with the ensemble.During an engagement at Café Society in Greenwich Village in 1939, she introduced “Strange Fruit” to an audience that responded first with stunned silence before erupting in vigorous applause. Holiday’s subsequent recording of “Strange Fruit” brought its message to the public at large and helped move “the tragedy of lynching out of the black press and into white consciousness.”Nacida en Baltimore, MarylandEn 1937, un maestro del Bronx llamado Abel Meeropol (1903–1986) escribió un poema de protesta luego de ver una espantosa fotografía de afroamericanos linchados. Más tarde alguien musicalizó el poema y este se convirtió en “Strange Fruit” (“Fruta extraña”), la escalofriante denuncia de los linchamientos sureños que llegó a ser canción emblemática de Billie Holiday.El racismo no le era ajeno a Holiday. Fue una de las primeras vocalistas de raza negra que encabezaron un conjunto de blancos—la orquesta de Artie Shaw, a la que se integró en 1938—y en las giras sufrió tratos discriminatorios y burlas de tono racial. Durante una presentación en el Café Society...
Type:
Image
Format:
Gelatin Silver Print
Rights:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution