Abel Meeropol under the pen name Lewis Allan wrote a poem as a protest to lynchings, specifically the lynchings of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. Meeropol was a schoolteacher in the Bronx and his poem was published in The New York Teacher magazine. After no one would put his poem to music he decided to do it himself and his wife Laura Duncan, an African American vocalist performed the song at Madison Square Garden. In 1939 Billie Holiday performed the song at Cafe Society and through some wrangling was recorded at Columbia but released by the more obscure label called Commodore in 1939. Billie Holiday actually feared retaliation for the song " Strange Fruit " but persisted in keeping it in her song list.

The reference of "Strange Fruit" is to the men being beaten, lynched and photographed and that their bodies looked like fruit hanging from the trees. The harsh metaphor chilled some but the song grew in popularity and regained recognition in the 50s and 60s. It is included in the Songs of the Century list and Holliday's version received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1978.