BLACK SONGS MATTER #5. Continues tomorrow.

A Caffè Lattè tribute…

 

BLACK

SONGS

MATTER

Some remain iconic; some were a call to arms; while others imagined a world where prejudice and injustice ceased to exist. Here are 100 songs by black voices that are the soundtrack to the struggle that continues to this day for equality, respect and dignity. They serve to carry the message that Black Lives Matter. 

5

STRANGE FRUIT

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday packed her reading of “Strange Fruit” with such raw emotion and gravitas that it singlehandedly changed popular music. The recording was fast adopted as an iconic civil rights anthem. Abel Meeropol wrote a poem as a reaction to lynchings he saw in a photograph. He set his words to music. Holiday recorded it in 1939 and it soon became her signature song.