The song “Strange Fruit,” one of the most haunting jazz ballads of the past century, was made famous by Billie Holiday. But it was written by a Jewish man named Abel Meeropol, who was inspired to write the story after seeing a photograph of two young black men being lynched.
The lynching occurred over 80 years ago, on August 6, 1930. Three young black men were accused of shooting a white man. A mob came to the town jail, demanding to be let in. The sheriff refused, and people took sledgehammers to the jail doors. They carried away two of the young men, beat them, and hung them from a nearby tree.
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