Abel Meeropol

Strange Fruit is a poem written by Abel Meeropol and was later performed by the famous Billie Holiday, Nina Simon, and recently sampled by Kanye West. The poem started off by Meeropol seeing a picture, taken by Lawrence Beitler, of two colored men being lynched that haunted him for days and lamentably inspired him to write Strange Fruit. Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were the two colored men hauled out of jail by a multitude of Caucasians and were lynched the night of August 7, 1930. Additionally

Billie Holiday was first known as Elanora Fagan, but soon changed her name to Billie Holiday, after her favorite actress, Billie Dove. “Strange Fruit" was her biggest hit. The lyrics were from a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a teacher and a social activist. According to Carmen McRae, her friend and an American jazz singer, Billie once burned her hair with a curling iron, right before she performed. So Carmen quickly went out and bought some flowers to cover up Billie’s missing hair. After that

The Voice of Billie Holiday       A woman stands before you, and although she isn't a politician, she expresses her moving thoughts on issues that affect all Americans. Her voice isn't harsh or demanding in tone. Her stature is slender and traced in a shimmer of light that reflects from her dress. A southern magnolia is lying comfortably above her ear. She sings. She sings of incomprehension, of hate, and of a race's pain. She sings low and confused. She sings as "Our Lady of Sorrow"(Davis

In strange fruit, Billie Holiday reveals part of the dreadful truth and inhuman racisim of America’s past. With great imagery and description she describes the scene of lynching taking place in southern states. Elizabeth Blair, a producer and reporter, describes the intuition of the song by stating “While the lyrics never mention lynching, the metaphor is painfully clear.” From what I also have read in other articles, ‘Strange Fruit’ quickly became famous. It became known as the “original protest

Strange Fruit The song Strange Fruit was first recorded by the famous jazz singer Billie Holiday and release in 1939. The genre of the song was blues and jazz. Strange Fruit was an early cry for the Civil Rights Movement, exposed racism, and performed the practice o hanging. The song has simple lyrics, that carry a huge strength, and haunt you even when the song is over. The juxtaposition of the beautiful landscape, the scent of flowers, with the blood of human beings brutally beaten, gives a powerful

Written by Abel Meeropol in 1937 and recorded as a jazz melody by Billie Holiday in 1939, Strange Fruit was composed to raise the awareness of the stone-broke suffering of African-Americans. Meeropol wrote the elegy to expose the social and ethical wrongdoings of his time, depicting the cruelty inflicted upon African Americans which lacked mercy, and communed about the violence and racism in their lives. What were the issues in the 1930s? In the United States of America, African Americans were

in spy activities.(Moss, 225) On Friday, June 19, 1953 Ethel and Julius were electrocuted in New York State's Sing Sing Prison. Their sons, Michael who was ten and Robert who was six were sent to foster homes and later were adopted by Anne and Abel Meeropol in 1957.(Moss, 224) How did the FBI find out that the Rosenbergs were spying and how did the investigation begin? The investigation began when the FBI found a name, Klaus Fuchs, written in a notebook of a Russian spy. Dr. Fuchs had worked on Manhattan

The United States and Communist Russia endured a complicated relationship in the first half of the 20th century. In the early 1940’s the U.S. had encouraged an alliance with the Soviets against their common enemy, Nazi Germany. This short-lived accord began to deteriorate as WW II ended. By 1947 U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union had shifted from one of cooperation to a policy of containment. In 1949, when the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb, it was a widely-held belief in the U.S. that

The brothers established The Rosenberg Son’s Legal Fund to raise money for legal fees. Anne Meeropol had been a professional fundraiser for years so she helped Robbie and Michael plan their first fundraising event in New York City. At the small event attended by friends and supporters Robbie found it comforting and easy to discuss his parent’s

Great Expectations - Clothing Does Not Make the Man       In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens explores the perception that the value of a man increases with his attainment of material wealth. Dickens probes the truth of such a system of values through Pip's quest for material gain. This quest is the literal pursuit of a better suit of clothing but is conducted without regard for the kind of man wearing the suit. Thus Dickens poses the question: does it profit a man to gain the world