Strange fruit : raising students’ awareness of racism through song

Abstract

This chapter presents a multimodal lesson plan for upper-intermediate or advanced high school English language learners (ages 16–18) that uses Billie Holiday’s 1939 recording of “Strange Fruit” (poem by Abel Meeropol) to raise awareness of historical and contemporary racism. It covers the song’s origins in the 1930 Marion, Indiana lynching, its jazz/blues genre, vivid imagery and symbolism (e.g., lynching as “strange fruit”), and historical context (Jim Crow laws, segregation). Activities include pre-reading context-building, vocabulary and grammar work (adjectives, -ing forms, stress/pronunciation), gap-fill exercises, discussion of stylistic effects, personal responses, and creative follow-ups (e.g., poetry, visual art, rap adaptations, or linking to modern migration issues). The lesson emphasizes sensitive delivery, creative reader response, and song as protest while connecting language learning to social awareness.