The lynching of black men, widespread throughout the U.S. but most common in Southern states, struck a dissonant chord within New York City schoolteacher Abel Meeropol. His grim protest poem "Strange Fruit," published in 1937 under the pseudonym Lewis Allan, attempted to capture the haunting spectacle of lynched bodies hanging from trees. Meeropol showed the poem to African American blues singer Billie Holiday, who, according to her autobiography Lady Sings the Blues, "dug it right off. It seemed to spell out all the things that had killed Pop (Holiday's father had died of pneumonia after several segregated southern hospitals refused to treat him)." With her accompanist Sonny White she quickly turned the poem into a song and performed it frequently at the club Café Society in New York City. When she attempted to record the song with Vocalion Records, they refused, fearing that the song would hurt their business in the South. Holiday eventually released the song with Commodore Records in 1939. Throughout the years, "Strange Fruit" has been recorded by such other prominent African American singers as the late Josh White and Carmen McRae as well as the enigmatic, exiled Nina Simone.