Written by a Jewish communist called Abel Meeropol, Strange Fruit was not by any means the first protest song, but it was the first to shoulder an explicit political message into the arena of entertainment. Unlike the robust workers' anthems of the union movement, it did not stir the blood; it chilled it. “That is about the ugliest song I have ever heard," Nina Simone would later marvel. Read complete story from www.guardian.co.uk.
