Billie Holiday

fashion, Jazz allowed the African American community to express themselves freely. Jazz music helped promote racial equality and social injustice, and to point out, it helped fuel the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, the song “Strange Fruit’ by Billie Holiday became the anthem of the beginning of the…

to be used to spread a message, create awareness or motivate movement for social change. Many of these songs continue to make an impact on society years after they are released. For example, ‘Strange Fruit’ written by Abel Meeropol and sung by Billie Holiday in 1939, is a song that protests the lynching of African American’s in the southern states of the US. Lynchings in the US was the organized torture, mutilation and ultimately killing by hanging of African Americans accused of crimes. These…

American popular music from the 1930's reflects the cultural and social characteristics that shaped the American identity during the period. The music of the thirties is important when trying to understand the American people during a time of new technology, a massive growing in the population of cities, and a large scale depression. Over the course of the thirties, American taste in music changed dramatically. In the mainstream it moved from the bland and unchallenging "sweet" sound of Guy…

recent event of having a raging racist elected as the USA’s new president. That is why I have decided to write my essay on “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol performed most famously by Billie Holiday. “Strange Fruit” is perhaps the most iconic protest song in recent memory. With a haunting piano intro followed by Billie Holiday’s shaking voice this song shot to fame being nominated for a bevy of awards, and for good reason, it lingers in your mind the lyrics and it pulls no punches, telling the…

Many songs throughout history have tried to help correct wrongdoings or educate the world about those wrongdoings. An example song really hits me hard is “Strange Fruit” most notably song by Billie Holiday. The story behind the song starts in Indiana in 1930. Three black men were in the county jail and awaiting trial for the death of a white man and supposed rape of his girlfriend. A mob gathered outside of the jail. The mob tried to get into the prison using sledgehammers. Eventually, the mob…

“You do not always know what I am feeling.” The feeling of disappointment from being misunderstood, the opening line of “For Grace, After A Party” speaks not only to him and his own generation but also many generations to follow. Frank O’Hara was known for his works being “spontaneous acts, revised minimally or not at all, then scattered generously, half forgotten.” (Norton 506). O’Hara was a complicated and imaginative poet that became a focal point of mid 1900s literature due to his relatable…

In the Harlem Renaissance African American had endured centuries of slavery and the struggle for abolition. Starting in about 1890, African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers. African American culture was reborn in the Harlem Renaissance. The migration eventually relocated hundreds and thousands of African Americans from rural South to the urban North. The Movement also included the new African-American cultural expressions across the urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United…

styles, much of which can be traced back to women who chose to stand out from the crowd. Billie Holiday, one of the earliest influences in Rock and Roll, helped lay the foundation for this musical genre. Holiday, a woman well beyond her time,…

issue they black man has A very hard time, maybe understanding the issue that the whites may have against him.But They do not address the issue the have with him in to kill a mockingbird. The evolution of black music it’s a classic hit. But billie holiday is talking about slavery. how the blacks were slaughtered and how she says that the people who killed the blacks are rotten and strange fruit. Also how the blacks were sweet and innocent. she also been saying and singing this song because we…

hunted by people such as the Ku klux Klan. African Americans faced hard times but became successful later on. As Africans moved to america they wanted to help successful businesses and have good times. They became famous jazz musicians such as billie holiday or chick Webb. As this style got more famous more people didn’t like it. So they decided to make their lives terrible. They abused them and…