Tragedies like this will continue to occur as long as addiction is regarded as some sort of "moral failure" without an understanding of the underlying circumstances. And as much as some may want to attribute the treatment of Holliday to a "different time," the life she endured continues for others who are less monied or influential — in less overt but still insidious ways. Thanks for this reminder of her story.
On changing the narrative...about time we flip the script from damage-centered stories to desires. The addiction story only gets me to judgment and cuts off the curiosity about what she desired and how and why she gave voice to those desires. And what consequences a woman does pay for desire, and for denying those desires.
"One of the things I like most about the song is that it was originally written by a Jewish teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, who used to perform it with his wife in folk venues in the 1930s. The collaboration between a Jewish teacher and a Black jazz singer symbolizes to me the support all marginalized people need to give each other to achieve equality for all."
New York lawmakers didn't like "Strange Fruit." In 1940, Meeropol was called to testify before a committee investigating communism in public schools. They wanted to know whether the American Communist Party had paid him to write the song. They had not — but, like many New York teachers in his day, Meeropol was a Communist.
Journalist David Margolick, who wrote Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, says, "There are a million reasons to disparage communism now. But American Communism, one point it had in its favor was that it was concerned about civil rights very early."
Meeropol left his teaching job at Dewitt Clinton in 1945. He eventually quit the Communist Party.
And that's where the second part of Meeropol's story begins. The link is the pseudonym he used when writing poetry and music: Lewis Allan.
"Abel Meeropol's pen name 'Lewis Allan' were the names of their children who were stillborn, who never lived," says his son, Robert Meeropol. He and his older brother, Michael, were raised by Abel and his wife, Anne Meeropol, after the boys' parents — Ethel and Julius Rosenberg — were executed for espionage in 1953.
Terrific article about one of the most powerful songs I know. The courage it would have taken to sing this to the audiences she played to is remarkable. I knew about her struggles with addiction, but not much about the rest of her difficult life, or the persecution from powerful figures like Anslinger. Thanks for sharing the knowledge, and the other side of history...
Tragedies like this will continue to occur as long as addiction is regarded as some sort of "moral failure" without an understanding of the underlying circumstances. And as much as some may want to attribute the treatment of Holliday to a "different time," the life she endured continues for others who are less monied or influential — in less overt but still insidious ways. Thanks for this reminder of her story.
Thank you for helping to set the record straight.
On changing the narrative...about time we flip the script from damage-centered stories to desires. The addiction story only gets me to judgment and cuts off the curiosity about what she desired and how and why she gave voice to those desires. And what consequences a woman does pay for desire, and for denying those desires.
A powerful post about a powerhouse song (and singer).
I would add, to what you wrote, that the author of the song, is interesting enough to be worth a mention as well.
Kareem recently wrote (currently paywalled, but I'm taking the quote from the e-mailed post): https://kareem.substack.com/p/black-history-month-edition-ron-desantis
"One of the things I like most about the song is that it was originally written by a Jewish teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, who used to perform it with his wife in folk venues in the 1930s. The collaboration between a Jewish teacher and a Black jazz singer symbolizes to me the support all marginalized people need to give each other to achieve equality for all."
And NPR mentions the surprising fact that he was the adoptive parent of the children of the Rosenbergs: https://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/158933012/the-strange-story-of-the-man-behind-strange-fruit
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New York lawmakers didn't like "Strange Fruit." In 1940, Meeropol was called to testify before a committee investigating communism in public schools. They wanted to know whether the American Communist Party had paid him to write the song. They had not — but, like many New York teachers in his day, Meeropol was a Communist.
Journalist David Margolick, who wrote Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, says, "There are a million reasons to disparage communism now. But American Communism, one point it had in its favor was that it was concerned about civil rights very early."
Meeropol left his teaching job at Dewitt Clinton in 1945. He eventually quit the Communist Party.
And that's where the second part of Meeropol's story begins. The link is the pseudonym he used when writing poetry and music: Lewis Allan.
"Abel Meeropol's pen name 'Lewis Allan' were the names of their children who were stillborn, who never lived," says his son, Robert Meeropol. He and his older brother, Michael, were raised by Abel and his wife, Anne Meeropol, after the boys' parents — Ethel and Julius Rosenberg — were executed for espionage in 1953.
I didn’t know any of this. Thanks so much for sharing.
Her entire life was a tragedy, but that only makes her singing more glorious considering it emerged from such bad times.
An excellent article! Kudos.
Terrific article about one of the most powerful songs I know. The courage it would have taken to sing this to the audiences she played to is remarkable. I knew about her struggles with addiction, but not much about the rest of her difficult life, or the persecution from powerful figures like Anslinger. Thanks for sharing the knowledge, and the other side of history...