On this day in 1915, the talented, iconic blues singer Billie Holiday was born. The activist artist performed and popularized Abel Meeropol's powerful and haunting anti-lynching protest song, "Strange Fruit."
Meeropol, the father of the RFC's founder Robert Meeropol, originally wrote the song as a poem entitled “Bitter Fruit” before changing the name and setting it to music. Holiday first sang it live at Cafe Society in New York City, and continued to perform the song despite great personal cost, including severe harassment and targeting by the FBI. Since then, a great many artists have released their own renditions—Nina Simone's among the most notable—and the song continues to influence art and culture around the world.