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Recommended for grades 3–7.

This plan has been adapted for grades 7 and up.

This plan will require 30–45 min per day over a span of 3 days.

Book summary

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song is an illustrated biography of jazz and blues artist Billie Holiday and the origin of her most famous song, Strange Fruit. Beautifully illustrated by Charlotte Riley–Webb, this book examines how Billie Holiday, a young African-American woman and Abel Meeropol, a son of Jewish immigrants, collaborated to create a song during the Harlem Renaissance era that challenged racism and paved the way for the civil rights movement.

NCSS standards

  1. Time, Continuity and Change

  2. Peoples, Places and Environments

  3. Individual Development and Identity

  4. Individuals, Groups and Institutions

  5. Power, Authority and Governance

Materials

  1. Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song

  2. Interactive whiteboard or chart paper

  3. Harlem Renaissance sources

  4. Harlem Renaissance Works Analysis Handout

  5. Wall Walk resources

  6. Wall Walk 3-2-1 Handout

  7. Protest Song/Poem Final Assessment Rubric

Objectives

  1. Students will use the text and primary sources to learn about methods of protest to fight injustices such as lynching and segregation.

  2. Students will create their own protest song or poem about a current injustice.

Procedures

Exploration/introduction

Exploration/introduction objective.

  1. Students will observe and interpret primary sources from the Harlem Renaissance era.

    • Have images of the Cotton Club (https://allthatsinteresting.com/cotton-club#31) in a slide show and 1920s and 1930s jazz/blues music playing when students walk into the classroom. On an interactive whiteboard or chart paper have Billie Holiday's quote posted, “Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough.”

    • Once seated, ask the students if they know what type of music is being played, who originated it, era it became popularized and if they know any famous musicians/singers of this type of music?

    • Ask students about the Cotton Club slide show and if they know what it was and where it was located. Provide brief history of the Harlem Renaissance and note the Cotton Club was Harlem's premier nightclub during the 1920s and 1930s.

    • Explain to students they are going to learn about one jazz singer from this era named Billie Holiday and direct their attention to her quote. Ask the students if...

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