Events leading up to Billie’s death.
—In 1939, Billie Holiday recorded the first great protest song of the Civil Rights Movement, ‘Strange Fruit’
—“Strange Fruit” was originally a poem written by Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings and later set it to music. First performed by Meeropol’s wife and their friends in social contexts, his protest song gained a certain success in and around New York
—The song soon came to Billie Holiday’s attention, and after so many frequent requests of that song, she closed out EVERY performance with it. The waiters would stop serving ahead of time for complete silence, the room would darken, a spotlight would shine on Holiday’s face, and there would be no encore
—Radio stations in the South wouldn’t
play it, record labels wouldn’t record it, oa
BUT YET, the song rose in the charts selling over I million copies. Despite the success, a government agency was determined to shut her down.
—One night in 1939, Holiday received a warning from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to never sing the song again. This order was led by FBN commissioner Harry Anslinger, also known as an “extreme racist in the 1920’s”. He had a mission to eradicate all drugs everywhere, and believed jazz music was the problem. His attack on this genre of music was racially led.
—Holiday’s known struggles with alcohol, drugs,
and vocal voice against white supremacy made
her a target. He sent undercover agents after
her, including arranging for her abusive husband to set her up.
—She was put on trial (The United States of
America vs. Billie Holiday) just wanting to
recover, but was sent to prison and her cabaret
license was revoked. That didn’t keep her
down. She continue to perform “Strange Fruit” even at a sold out show at Carnegie Hall
—In 1959, Holiday collapsed and was sent
to the hospital with liver disease and goes into heroin withdrawal. Her friend managed to have the hospital give her methadone to help her recover.
—Arslinger’s team arrested her on her hospital bed cutting off her methadone medication after claiming to have found heroin in her bedroom. I0 days later, Holiday died.
In other words, they murdered her.
