i point out in my book that three main man on milt gabler, barney josephson, abel meeropol, white jewish lefties and lefties i mean, that's really that was her base of support early on and billie knew exactly what she was you know she was very much aware of what cafe society represented. and in fact in an interview the mid-forties with pie magazine said she herself was a communist so as i one thing john hammond was always busy. oh well john was busy chastising blacks for a little too lazy if you're a vanderbilt. frankie newton wasn't wasn't a vanderbilt it was yeah but but frankie newton, whom he said was prissy, a leftist as well. so know. and frankie newton was on that record. yes, he was. yeah. yes, sir. i'm here here. i'm michael meyers in new york, civil rights coalition. my question is to the first part of the discussion in roosevelt. we're in the roosevelt house. i really want to know, was billie holiday ever invited to the white house? yeah, she was. and what were the circumstances and why didn't you not? why did strange fruit and the and the and and the movement of blacks for eq

even milt gabler conceded it was a downer, at least initially. its appeal was more limited.ven rarefied, the people who bought record were the same folks read w.e.b. dubois in crisis and knew masses listened to the almanac singers they marched for and in some cases off to loyalist spain. they were disproportionately jewish, as were for that matter. meeropol we've already heard about josephson, the man who staged that of cafÉ society, eddie and milt gabler. strange was yet another of those wonderful black jewish collaborations yore which by definition meant it wasn't part of the mainstream. it's cult status makes it fanciful that that federal narcotics agents even listen to it, let alone hounded holiday for it. as a recent book and movie has have represented and as lewis porter refuted in jazz in an article in jazz times, that claim is no truer than. the suggestion in the in the film ladies sings the blues that wrote strange fruit herself after happening upon a lynching while touring in the south, meeropol worked assiduously in his last years, remind people that it was he --

marseilles, but if "strange fruit" wasn't music to dance by, nor it was music to march to, even milt gabler read w.e.b. dubois and listened to the almanac singers and marched for and in some cases marched off to loyalist spain. they were disproportionately jewish, mirapol, we heard about josephson, the man who had cafe society. "strange fruit" was another one of the black-jewish collaborations of yore which by definition meant it wasn't part of the mainstream. its cult status makes it fanciful that that federal narcotics agents listened to it, let alone, hounded holiday for it as a recent book and movie have represented and as lewis porter refuted recently in an article in "jazz times." that claim is no truer than the suggestion in the film "lady sings the blues" that holiday wrote it herself while happening upon a lynching while touring in the south. it was to remind people that it was he, damn it, who had written it and when you go through the clippings and the files, you see many letters to the editor that he was forever writing saying this was mine. i did it. holiday kept singing it tho