Person · 1915–1959
Billie Holiday
The incomparable jazz singer whose phrasing turned every song into a confession — and whose "Strange Fruit" indicted lynching.
A defining voice of [[jazz]] and protest.
"Lady Day" sang with an emotional depth no one has matched, bending time and tone around a lyric. In 1939 she recorded "Strange Fruit," a haunting protest against lynching that became one of the most powerful songs in American history.