Lyric discussion by eunice13 

I guess I am beleaguering a topic that was already beautifully addressed by SLYcrafts but this is such an important song and Billie Holiday's strength and bravery are greatly misrepresented when a History teacher claims that she did not want to do it and was pressured into doing it. The opposite happened. People were trying to prevent her. Her own label refused to record it Some clubs would not allow her to sing it. There were a few times when people in the audience physically attacked her. So it was through her own indomitable will that the song ever came out for us to hear it

This article briefly describes the history of Strange Fruit You'll understand why Billie Holiday cried after singing it:

ladyday.net/stuf/vfsept98.html

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