Jazz singer Billie Holiday’s 1939 recording of “Strange Fruit” has become one of the most potent protest songs in U.S. history. Its images of lynched African Americans accompanied the civil-rights movement but still evoke uncomfortable truths today. The song was written by a Jewish Communist high-school teacher, Abel Meeropol. It was originally a poem, written … Continue reading ““Strange Fruit”: a Searing Protest Song”
Aretha Franklin, dubbed “the Queen of Soul”, was one of the most influential musicians in the U.S. charts. She won 18 Grammy awards but also made a massive contribution to the civil rights movement: her songs would become their anthems. Aretha Franklin grew up in the 1950s in Detroit, where her father was a popular … Continue reading “The Soul of Civil Rights”
Detroit tells the true story of an incident during the “race riots” which swept U.S. cities in the summer of 1967. The film, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, has won praise for its portrayal of police corruption and racial tensions during that long hot summer. 1967 is remembered for the hippie Summer of Love, but July … Continue reading “Detroit: Modern History on Film”
