Decades later, however, Suzan-Lori Parks’ script for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” was sent his way for consideration. “[Her signature song], ’Strange Fruit,’ kicked off the civil rights movement as we know it. When you think of civil rights leaders, you think of Malcolm X, you think of Martin Luther King. Like many civil rights figures of the 20th century, the agency was obsessed with silencing her and by almost any means necessary. “And it wasn’t acting, it was being, it was the soul and the spirit of Billie Holiday inhabiting this woman’s body, and it was pretty miraculous.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 22, 2021 15:00 UTC