When the writer of Strange Fruit (Jewish school teacher, Abel Meeropol) first heard Billie Holliday sing his song, he wept. The song was about the lynching of two black men - Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. It was banned from being played in the Southern states of the US. He originally wrote the song as a poem based on a harrowing photograph taken by Lawrence Beitler. The song is a famous anthem of the civil rights movement.