Strange Fruit

Plot

Strange Fruit is a 1944 bestselling novel debut by American author Lillian Smith that dealt with the then-forbidden and controversial theme of interracial romance. The title was originally "Jordan is so Chilly", with Smith later changing the title to Strange Fruit. In her autobiography, singer Billie Holliday wrote that Smith chose to name the book after her song "Strange Fruit" , which was about the lynching and racism against African Americans although Smith maintained that the book's title referred to the "damaged, twisted people (both black and white) who are the products or results of our racist culture." After the book's release, the book was banned in Boston and Detroit for "lewdness" and crude language. Strange Fruit was also banned from being mailed through the U.S. Postal Service, With the ban against the book being lifted by President Roosevelt after his wife Eleanor Roosevelt requested it of him."