A Holiday Named Billie
You've heard the magical voice during the holidays behind “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” but have you ever heard the remarkable story of the civil rights activist behind the favorite tune?
A girl named Eleanora was born into poverty in Philadelphia, starting her first job at the age of 6. She dropped out of school in the 5th grade and became an errand girl at a brothel.
At the age of 12, she moved to Harlem New York, where she was arrested for prostitution. She needed to find legal work to support herself and her mother, so she tried to become a dancer at a Harlem speakeasy.
They told her there were no openings for dancers. They needed a singer. So Little Eleanora taught herself to sing. Her secret? Pouring all of her biggest feelings into song.
As a teen, she was discovered by the famous jazz writer and producer John Hammond. He described her voice as the best he had ever heard.
Eleanora wanted a new look and a fresh start. She began wearing white gardenias in her hair. At the age of 18, she cut her first record and her first commercial recording session.
Two years later, she starred in a film alongside Duke Ellington and later in a film with her idol, Louis Armstrong.
She called herself Billie Holiday and became the first black woman to work with a white orchestra.
But the constant racial attacks made touring very difficult. She was often required to use service elevators and staff entrances. She was not even allowed to use the toilets in some instances.
Billie chose to perform in small venues instead. One day when Billie was only 23 years old, she was performing in one of New York’s first integrated nightclubs, Cafe Society in Greenwich Village.
For her final song of the night, she asked the waiters to stop serving dinner guests and to turn off every single light in the house, except for a single light on stage. The room went silent as she began to sing an unknown song- raw and full of emotion…
"Southern trees bear a Strange Fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange Fruit hanging from the poplar trees..."
The song was wildly controversial, but she sang it with determination at the end of each performance for the next 20 years.
She never sang an encore. she wanted her audience to face the truth.
Holiday once said she never enjoyed singing “Strange Fruit,” but she knew she had to- because the things that took her own father were still happening in the south.
Many civil rights activists and white allies applauded Holiday for her bravery. Others walked out the door. But one man was determined to silence Billie Holiday.
Harry Anslinger was a known racist and Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner who believed that drugs caused Black people to overstep “their boundaries in society.” He used to say that Black jazz singers sang the “devil's music.”
When Anslinger told Holiday to stop performing "Strange Fruit," she refused, so he made a plan to ruin her career. he had his men frame her, and she was sent to prison for almost two years.
When billie was released from prison in 1948, the federal authorities would not reissue her cabaret performer’s license.
Still determined to sing her message, she performed to sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, successfully toured Europe and performed on the tonight show.
In 1959, Billie Holiday was hospitalized with heart and lung problems. Harry Anslinger reappeared, still determined to destroy her. He was a powerful man. Although Billie was showing signs of recovery, Anslinger forbid doctors to offer her further treatment and she died within days.
Billie Holiday is an example of the power of music. She transformed a song with a message of political protest into a work of art for millions to hear. After her death, she was awarded the grammy lifetime achievement award.
She has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She has won 23 Grammys posthumously and was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell have named holiday as one of their greatest influences.
Time magazine declared “Strange Fruit” the song of the century in 1999. It has been honored by the Library of Congress and added to the National Recording Registry.
Today, A statue of Billie Holiday stands in Baltimore at the corner of Lafayette and Pennsylvania Ave.
“You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave.”
— BILLIE HOLIDAY
