Strange Fruit was a blues song protesting lynching released in 1939. Billie Holiday would sing the song regularly during her career. During the Great Depression African Americans were subject to persecution not only by the state, but by vigilante and terrorist groups. The Black Legion and the Ku Klux Klan attacked African American communities. Billie Holiday's singing expresses the sorrow and fear living under violent conditions. The victims in the song are compared to fruit. The context shows how there was a disregard for the value of African American life. When Billie Holiday performed the song again in 1959, America was changing. The murder of Emmett Till sparked a movement for civil rights. The resistance never stopped and music is a part of movements for justice.
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