STRANGE FRUIT BILLIE HOLIDAY

When: 1939 What: Song Where: USA

Originally a poem by Abel Meeropol written in 1937 that he turned into a song, famed singer Billie Holiday turned Strange Fruit into one of the first big protest records. The lyrics were inspired by a photo Meeropol had seen of two black men lynched in Indiana. Holiday was introduced to the song lyrics by a nightclub owner and was inspired to sing it, albeit with some trepidation that it could spark uproar for its violent imagery.

As it was, her performance was a hit and she recorded Strange Fruit as a single, but once released it began to draw the ire of the US government and cities began to ban performances of the song from 1940 for fear it would cause civil unrest. Despite this, when the Library of Congress began preserving records for posterity in 2002, it was one of the first 50 to be inducted.