Good morning and. Wanted im Harold Holzer and i have the privilege of serving as director roosevelt house and speaking for anne kershner, the president of Hunter College. I want to welcome all of you to this Historic Place for this amazing convening that were having. Greetings also to the audience, which will also be privileged to see the event. We have to bring you this morning. And its a truly. One, not only a chance to black history month, not only an opportunity to honor the unsung Billie Holiday, but to do so in the long time home of her favorite america and president franklin d roosevelt. And we have evidence of that, which you may hear along the way today. I havent seen pauls book, but i will find validation, his brand new book. And by the way the brand new book by our convener host Paul Alexander is really what brings us together today. So i am going to hold up better crop his extraordinary new account of Billie Holidays fine final year doesnt that look like an album cover when were all younger its brilliant concept. I love it. Welcome also to Michael MeeropolMargo Jefferson and my friend david margolick. Its so great to have you all here as well. So as of last night have more than 1200 people registered in person or online for this event. Weve never had a response quite like this paul. I have a feeling its mostly billie but all tribute to you as well. I know some of you are many of you are on zoom. Many of you are on zoom. Some of you may be overflow rooms during day and evening, but please be patient. Stay where you are. Stay tuned because the conversation and the commentary and the performances are going to be truly amazing. Again billie really liked fdr and maybe because fdr was the first president to actually contemporary music. Oh yes. His Favorite Singer may have been kate smith. At least thats what he told kate smith, the king of england, during a visit to hyde park. But maybe he had kind of cooler tastes when. He was staying here in town because was and he ran his president ial campaign from here. Fdr was the first president ial candidate to choose his official song from a modern source happy are here again was actually from a 1930 musical called rainbows. I looked in vain for the ultimate connection that the composer and lyricist might have produced a song that Billie Holiday sang. I didnt succeed there, but i did try. And its also notable that during the new deal, which was planned upstairs, fdr, his library during the president ial transition, 1930 233, this small house, in fact, one small room served as the entire transition headquarters for that momentous four month period inaugurate sessions were in march. During that time, the administer nation that was incoming conceived the idea of a Relief Program that not constructed buildings like one of Hunter Colleges buildings not only put farm factory workers back the job, but also for the first time provided federal support to writers artists and yes, musicians. So those the connections and of writers i do want, again acknowledge Paul Alexander, a treasured teacher at hunter and has this his second produced simple for roosevelt house last year he presented a symposium sylvia plath which also enormously wellreceived. If anyone is curious about those sessions, they are available perpetually on the on the roosevelt house website. So be assured will be able to pick up a copy better crop upstairs during the breaks and also books by our special guests to this morning. So paul thank you for everything you did to bring us here and i you to please take it away ladies and gentlemen lets welcome and thank alexander. Welcome to the Billie Holiday symposium at hunter. As i said, im the author of this new book and. To follow first of all, the picture up here is from billie when she was recording strange the recording session where she recorded strange fruit. So she may have been singing it at that point. And as harold said, she was fdr was her favorite. Eleanor was also friends, billie, as were the children who often went to see or at cafes on saturday when she was playing downtown between 39 and 41. So its a very strong connection with the roosevelts, which makes a lot of sense since were having this symposium for her here. Im in terms better crop. My book is different from. A lot of what has been said and written, billie, in the past, because that portrays her as a victim or as a failure. And i see her quite differently and depict her quite differently in my book. I see her for what she was. She was powerful woman who overcame the hardships of her life to create a body of work that made her a preeminent jazz singer and ultimately an american icon. So thats my take on Billie Holiday and the other depictions of her that was seen through the years of our you know, theyre valid, i suppose, from that point of view. But i have quite different point of view of her and thats whatll be reflected in my book, reflected in the symposium today. Obviously strange fruit is probably her most famous song she recorded in 1939. And i wanted to talk a little bit about that beginning about sort of an overview, the song and how it came about. And then by doing that, i also get to talk about an oddity of, billie, and that was her. Unique ability to embroider well, fabricate sessions and periods from, her life, episodes from her life, or at least enhance. And so she did that with strange fruit and her autobiography, lady sings the blues, which came out in 1956 and is Still Available today. So better crop. This is how describe that i wrote the following and her autobiography billie how the song strange fruit came about and this is her from her book the germ of the tone was a poem written by louis allen. I first met him and when he showed me the poem, i got right off allens, suggested that sonny white, who had been my accompanist and turn it into music. So the three of us got together and did the job in about three weeks. I also got a wonderful assist from danny mendelson, writer who had done a for me. He helped me with arranging the song and rehearsing it patiently as end of her quote. And then i write passages may have been provided may have provided yet another scintillating tell for her audience to relish. But none of the facts were true. None of them the creator of the song, as Michael Wells knows, is abel meeropol, who was born in 1903 and raised in a russian jewish family in manhattan. He a bachelors degree from city college. The college year declared, him a gifted poet, and the genius and a masters in arts from the and English Literature from harvard. An english teacher at Dewitt Clinton high school in the meeropol was an aspiring writer and member of the communist party, having joined around 1932, he contributed the young communist league, the theater arts committee, and the lincoln brigade, which was why he chose to publish under the pseudonym lewis allen, an homage to his stillborn son, who would have been given that name. And he did not wish his leftist politics to interfere. His ability to earn a living. Still, he was sympathizer to the partys advocacy for racial equality, particularly in supporting its federal anti lynching legislation throughout the jim crow lynching posed a to blacks, especially in the south in the 1930s, there was a concerted to pass legislation in the us congress to outlaw the practice. Meeropol was saw this as an opportunity to contribute to the political debate when he ran across a picture his in a civil rights magazine. And this is a quote from meeropol way back in the early thirties. He i saw a photograph of a lynching published in a magazine devoted to the exposure and eliminate section of racial injustice. It was a shocking photograph and haunted me for days and quite the picture of two black teenagers, thomas shipp and abrams, lynched and buried in indiana in 1930, was taken by lawrence bowdler. Thats the end of my from the book and let me point out that the federal antilynching legislation would not be passed for almost one full century until it finally signed into law by President Joe Biden and now. Recorded in 1939 by milt cablers commodore records here, the original version of strange fruit. So not trees very strange fruit, blood on the knee. And blood at the root. Black bodies swing in in sun, no breeze, strange fruit from, the popular tree. Has seen, no gallop, so. No gold eyes and the twisted mouth. Scent of may nor young sweet and gray in the sense no burning flame is here is a fruit for crows to look for the rain together for the sun for the sun to write for the trees to drown. Up here is a straight an nba to. Cross. And now to introduce the guest for the morning panel. Id like to introduce the chairman of the Student Committee who helps run this symposium. Julie rosenberg. Good morning everyone. Michael meeropol is an economist, educator and for many years he was a professor of economics and Department Chair at western england university. After retirement there, he taught for four years at John Jay College of criminal justice of the city, university of new. Among his books is surrender how the Clinton Administration completed the revolution. Meeropol is the biological son of julius and rosenberg after the death of his parents, he and his Brother Robert were adopted by abel meeropol, who wrote strange over the years. Meeropol has written about his biological parents. He edited the rosenberg letters and, his parents prison correspondence with his brother authored we are your sons. In addition, meeropol has written and lectured extensively about the importance of strange fruit as an anthem for social reform, appearing for example, in strange fruit story of protest song, a documentary film by katz to speak about abel and the enduring power of strange trees. Welcome Michael MeeropolMichael Meeropol. First of all, i want to thank harold paul for including me on this fabulous, distinguished panel. It is wonderful to be sitting next to david and it is an absolute honor to share the stage with professor jefferson, i met my father when i was ten years old christmas eve, 1953. My brother and i began living with dad and mom. Soon. And during the next seven years before i went away to college, i had the good to live. An extraordinary and yes, privileged life. Robbie and i won the lottery with our adoptive parents and their extended family. And during those years and subsequent years as an adult. From time to time, i would learn things about dads life that me to the inescapable conclusion that he was a most extraordinary human being. Intel, a funny, kind, loving, talented, a true mensch. Since he died in 1986, i have learned, even more about him from the work of musicologist nancy baker. Davids book, filmmaker katz, who was in the audience, and my fathers biographer, David Newstead, about him later and before i get to the meat of my present, then i am going to try to keep to a time limit. I want to acknowledge the works of all four folks. Nancy baker published an article entitled abel meeropol, a. K. A. Lewis allen, political commentator, social conscience, in the journal American Music back in 2000, two. I am not sure its behind a paywall or not online, but you can find this in some libraries anyway. Davids work will be front and center after i finished and joels film is entitled strange fruit well worth, watching it is available on streaming services. Kanopy and vimeo on demand and cant speak enough of it. Even though i was it, i cant speak enough. And finally there is an exhaustively researched, full length biography of, my father, by a man named David Newstead been working on it for eight years. He has agent. He is searching for a publisher. Hes on twitter and instagram and cant make this stuff up. Writes a blog called the philosophy of shaving. Its true. Have never read the blog. Ive read the book and. Its pretty good. I will try to distill what i have learned from these four important points of information, as well as my memories of dad to talk about the man as he grew to be the person who wrote strange fruit set it to music, and then played it for Billie Holiday. Five things one youve already heard he was the son of immigrant from russia to he saw the connection between the oppression of throughout history and the second class citizenship of black americans. Three he was a communist having based on what he saw around him as a child of class immigrants in the first two decades of the last century that the system he lived under was for he was very creative with a keen sense of humor and a feel music. Although he never had any formal music training, took piano lessons when was young and when he was at harvard, he had a job at a gig in, a band, and he told me all he did was play chords. There was they never let him play a solo five. Very important. He was angry his sense of injustice didnt just make him sad it made mad. Okay. Dads mother was pregnant him while she and her husband the two older children made the from odessa on the black sea, new york city. My grandfather jeff meeropol anglicized to leo dads father had experienced at least one pogrom in kiev, the ukrainian province of the russian empire, before moving to odessa. The mirror pulse were atheists. Socialists spoke russian at home, not yiddish. Very important for those of you know about the the yiddish waves jewish immigrants after 1880 most of them were yiddish speakers including my other sets of grandparents to. The connection between antisemite racism and black second class citizenship as. I said, yes, mr. Polski survived, a pogrom in kiev where he was from, his wife, sophie. We called her. You grew up odessa and was probably class because her family owned pharmacy. I was all set to say it in russian because thats how she talked about it. She on the second floor there and she russian, she was literate. She actually had taken some university classes. She had undoubtedly survived at least one pogrom in odessa. Well, dad have been aware of antisemitism. Once told me a story that when he was at harvard and he was with a bunch of fellow jewish, he turns around and theres a couple obviously antisemites going for those of you who dont know what that means, this is making fun of because we talk with our hands. And my father, it made enough of an impression on him because remember, he was born in new york, grew up in new york. You have not experienced that kind personal triggering anti semitism before being in cambridge when he went there for harvard. And that was the first time i realized that this was a antisemitic trope that people would do with. It certainly a hell of a lot better than yelling or beating them up, but its with him long enough to mention it to me. The poem that he wrote five lines very short makes that connection. Its in both nancy bakers article and david newsteds book, i am a. How do i know the . Lynched . Reminds me. Well, i am a. Early in our lives together, mom and dad told and me the story about how dad confronted a cop who seemed totally uninterested in getting medical for a black man whod been injured dad raised such a stink he was arrested and spent a night in jail. Mom told me this, was raphael a jewish fashion cop . And i, the anger in her voice was clear. How dare a be a racist . Well, we know, unfortunately, theres no theres no perfect ness anywhere. Luckily, dad didnt get into a fight with. A cop. He spent one night in jail, and the thing was dismissed. Three. He became a communist he was a High School Student during war. One, his father and had to register for the draft. He didnt obviously he was too young. Thus he knew the russian revolution, the russian war with the white armies massacre. And he knew about the fact that the new soviet union had given , the soviet union, full citizenship. He also knew because was 19, 19, 19, 19, he was already 16 years old, a very obviously well read high student about the race riots that led to black veterans in uniform being lynched, among other because his parents were atheists and he had no formal religious training. He did not have to throw off the religious objections to godless communism that kept Many Americans from embracing left as a child of atheists the way he was relatively rare for first generation american , as paul mentioned, he probably joined the communist party around 32, although theres no record of when he joined the party. We know he joined the party because he talked at with robby and me about some of his activities in the party. He always told another story, he filled out an application for a ph. D. Program in English Literature at Columbia University, went up the steps, stopped at the door, turned around and went back. He wanted to be a creative rather than an academic. And i bet part of it was that despite his skills as teacher, he never really liked it. He, his colleagues and many thought he was good at it, but he wanted to write teaching, put bread on the table. And according to his biography, he and my mother, who also worked as a teacher and now ill ill do the shout out. My mother took classes here at hunter in the 1930s to get her teachers certificates. Theres no record that she got a bachelors, so i dont know how many years you had to take at hunter in the thirties to become a teacher. So they both had teacher salary during the depression. So you can imagine that they helped a lot with both families and im going to say a little bit more about communist party from the history. Alan strecker during most vibrant periods, the communist had been at the center of a dynamic left wing world, composed of dozens organizations, labor unions, dance professional societies, Refugee Relief organizations, adult education, summer camps, Legal Defense groups, choral societies, tenants committees, bookstores, theatrical peace groups