This video from SALT was produced in 2014 to honor the 75th anniversary of Billie Holiday's first recording of "Strange Fruit."

The narrators take a faith-based/religious lens, which we think is pretty interesting, drawing parallels between the story of the Marion, IN lynching that inspired the writing of the protest song, "Strange Fruit," and passages from the Bible.

The video also speaks to the power of art and performance. Of Abel Meeropol and his writing of "Strange Fruit," Rev. Dr. Frank A. Thomas (one of the two narrators) says,

One day after her birthday, another Nina Simone-focused Strange Fruit Mention of the Day highlights her “five greatest isolated vocals”: “Billie Holiday is the artist...most intrinsically linked with ‘Strange Fruit’... During the ’60s, Simone paid tribute to Holiday by covering the classic. Sadly, the lyrics were still relevant as Black people fought for their rights to be recognized as equal citizens. She was a key player in the Civil Rights Movement, and the raw emotion in her voice throughout this isolated version of ‘Strange Fruit’ will touch your core.”

#StrangeFruit Mention of the Day: A news segment discusses the origin of the anti-lynching protest song, "Strange Fruit," written by Abel Meeropol and performed by Billie Holiday. The segment includes interviews with Abel's sons, RFC Founder Robert Meeropol and his brother Michael Meeropol.

#OnThisDay, February 14, 1910 Abel Meeropol was born. He was a teacher and a poet, most famous for writing the anti-lynching poem, "Bitter Fruit," which he would later adapt to music and retitle as the song, "Strange Fruit."

He once said, “I wrote ‘Strange Fruit’ because I hate lynching, and I hate injustice, and I hate the people who perpetrate it.”

Strange Fruit Mention of the Day // Chuck D, frontman for Public Enemy and RFC Advisory Board member, collaborated with Audible to create "Songs That Shook the Planet" about Black protest songs, including the anti-lynch protest anthem, "Strange Fruit."

Today’s Strange Fruit Mention of the Day features “Tony-nominated and Bessie-winning choreographer Donald Byrd and his Seattle-based company Spectrum Dance Theater” and their Feb 10-13 dance-theatre performance of Strange Fruit at Montclair State University.

As Byrd explains, "For 100+ years, there's been no acknowledgement for the most part about these lynchings. It's a little bit like those people have not been buried. We are offering a prayer up to them. To their memory."

Today’s visually stunning Strange Fruit #MOTD comes from an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Available through Jan. 17, 2022, “Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories,” highlights 50 quilts spanning 300 years.