Symbolism In Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit'

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Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit “is probably one of the greatest songs composed telling the chilling story about lynching. A little unknown fact is that it was written by a Jewish man by the name of Abel Meeropol. Initially “Strange Fruit” originated as a poem written by Abel Meeropol, as a protest against lynching of African Americans. Meeropol meet Holiday in a bar, where she read the poem, and decided to make the poem into a song. The record made it to No. 16 on the charts in July 1939. This song is probably Holiday’s most famous song she ever sung throughout her whole life. In the end Strange fruit forces listeners to relive the tragic horrors of living in America as an African American. The vivid lyrics paints a picture that causes a person …show more content…

He starts of the song with the lyrics “Cold empty bed, springs hard as lead” this describes how Armstrong is living in a bad condition. This is an everyday lifestyle for Armstrong he sings “Feel like Old Ned, wish I was dead.” “All my life through, I’ve been so black and blue.” Old Ned is the slang term for the devil, which just like Armstrong is living in hell, but this has been they why he lived his whole life. This song may seem odd to his white audience because he was always seen as a happy Black person who can play jazz. The song continues, but it touches on the racism he has to deal with, because he is black.” My only sin...is in my skin” like African Americans today being black is considered something negative despite your behavior. The only bad act that Louis has ever did wrong is having black skin, which cannot be changed and is given to him from birth. The last stanza in the song is interesting because he says “How would it end...I aint got a friend …My only sin...is in my skin…What did I do...to be so black and blue?” This notes that oppression has Armstrong feeling helpless, and wondering how will this misery end. Louis Armstrong like many African Americans today live with the psychological and depression caused by racism in …show more content…

The main character Dan Freeman, who is the first black CIA agent with the goal of using guerrilla welfare to end white supremacy. After 5 years, he leaves the CIA to work in his native Chicago hometown for a social services agency. By night, he 's using his CIA training to teach a street gang to be the vanguard in an upcoming race war. This movie is basically based on the black power movement in the 1970’s. The movie touches on characters that are uncle tom’s, sambos and coons and how they are against the revolution for black Americans. In the end the movie talks about how the viewer must be ready for the revolution when it comes to their town. This music showed the positive image of both black men and women working together to down the racist system. In conclusion the spook that sat by the door by Sam Greenlee showed positive images that black women and men can relate with their

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