Billie Holiday

Strange Fruit is still a song for today. The Guardian. "On the last day of 1999, Time magazine selected Strange Fruit as its choice for the best song of the passing century. ... Released in 1939, the record eventually sold over a million copies and became one of the most influential songs of all time."

Like many musicians of her time Billie Holiday used marijuana and other drugs, and suffered due to the growing drug war. Times are worse today in some ways. See Jim Crow, and search for info on the drug war and modern-day Jim Crow. See Race, ethnicity, and the drug war.

Full quote:

Drug War Victim Billie Holiday at 100. By Ellen Komp, April 8, 2015. Tokin Woman.