Lillian Smith (author) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lillian Smith
Born	Lillian Eugenia Smith (1897-12-12)December 12, 1897 Jasper, Florida
Died	September 28, 1966(1966-09-28) (aged 68)
Resting place	Laurel Falls: Clayton, Georgia
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	American
Citizenship	American
Education	Piedmont College, Peabody Conservatory
Literary movement	Civil Rights Movement
Notable works	Strange Fruit (novel)
Partner	Paula Snelling

Lillian Eugenia Smith (December 12, 1897 – September 28, 1966) was a writer and social critic of the Southern United States, known for both her non-fiction and fiction works, including the best-selling novel Strange Fruit (1944). Smith was a white woman who openly embraced controversial positions on matters of race and gender equality. She was a southern liberal who was unafraid to criticize segregation and to work toward the dismantling of Jim Crow laws at a time when such actions virtually guaranteed social ostracism.

Early life

Smith was born on December 12, 1897, to a prominent family in Jasper, Florida, the seventh of nine children. Her life as the daughter of an upper middle-class civic and business leader took an abrupt turn in 1915 when her father lost his turpentine mills. The family was not without resources, however, and relocated to their summer residence in the mountains of Clayton, Georgia, where her father had previously purchased property. There, the family operated the Laurel Falls Camp for Girls starting in 1920.

As a young adult financially on her own, Smith was free to pursue her love of music and teaching. She spent a year studying at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia, (1915–16). She also had two stints at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore in 1917 and 1919. She returned home to help her parents manage a hotel and taught in two mountain schools before accepting a position as director of music at a Methodist school for girls in Huzhou (now Wuxing, Zhejiang), China, even though she was not a churchgoer and did not consider herself religious. This time abroad was pivotal in Smith's awareness of the Southern double standard. She studied Chinese philosophy during her time overseas and by living in China was exposed to the similarities between the suppression of the Chinese and the suppression of African-Americans in the States.

As a result of her father's declining health, Smith was forced to return from China in 1925. Back in Georgia, she became the head of the Laurel Falls Camp, a position she would hold for 23 years (1925–48). Under her direction, Laurel Falls Camp soon became very popular as an innovative educational institution known for its instruction in the arts, music, drama, and modern psychology. When her father died in 1930 she took responsibility for the family business and the care of her ill mother.

Personal life and career

During her time at the family camp, Lillian Smith began a lifelong relationship with one of the camp's school counselors, Paula Snelling, of Pinehurst, Georgia. At that time, homosexuality was viewed even more negatively in Southern society than desegregation.

Smith and Snelling began publishing a small quarterly literary magazine, Pseudopodia, in 1936. The magazine encouraged writers, Black or White, to offer honest assessments of modern Southern life and to work for social and economic reform; it criticized those who ignored the Old South's poverty and racial injustice. It quickly gained regional fame as a forum for liberal thought, undergoing two name changes to reflect its expanding scope. In 1937 it became the North Georgia Review, and in 1942, the title was changed to its final form, South Today. South Today ceased publication in 1945. (All issues of Pseudopodia/North Georgia Review/South Today are available online through the Archives Online of Piedmont College Library in Demorest, Georgia.)

In 1944, Smith published the bestselling novel Strange Fruit, which 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 Holiday wrote that Smith chose to name the book after her song "Strange Fruit", which is about lynching, 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, it was banned in Boston and Detroit for "lewdness" and crude language. Strange Fruit was also forbidden to be mailed through the United States Postal System. The ban against the book was eventually lifted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after his wife Eleanor requested it of him.

In 1949, Smith wrote the book Killers of the Dream, a collection of essays that attempted to identify, challenge and dismantle the Old South's racist traditions, customs and beliefs, warning that racial segregation corrupted the soul. She also emphasized the negative implications on the minds of women and children. Written in a confessional and autobiographical style that was highly critical of Southern moderates, it was largely ignored by critics of the time.

Relationship with Paula Snelling

Paula Snelling was one of the individuals Lillian Smith was closest to. She worked with Lillian at Laurel Falls Camp for Girls, as a co-director with Lillian. Outside of camp, she worked as a school teacher and librarian. She wrote as well, but not much is known about her specific works. She was Lillian’s lifelong partner, but they were not out at the time because of the intense backlash that would have come with it. Starting in 1936, Lillian and Paula published a literary magazine called South Today.

Civil Rights activism

One of the ways Smith started openly discussing the problems of segregation was during her counseling of campers at Laurel Falls. This period, also referred to as the creative control over the camp, allowed her to use it as a place to discuss modern social issues, like the dangers of inequality and how to improve their society both for themselves and other women.] In 1955, the civil rights movement grabbed the entire nation's attention with the Montgomery bus boycott, which started the widespread interest of this movement. By this time she had been meeting or corresponding with many southern Blacks and liberal whites for years who knew of the Blacks' concerns. In response to Brown v. Board of Education, the ruling that outlawed segregation in schools, she wrote Now Is the Time (1955), calling for compliance with the new court decision. She called the new ruling "every child's Magna Carta". She knew that both the lives of both blacks and whites depended on the integration of society.

Lillian wrote various speeches and books, targeting the need for desegregation and civil rights. In December of 1956, Smith wrote a speech titled “The Right Way is Not a Moderate Way” for First Annual Institute on Non-violence and Social Change. Unfortunately, she was unable to give this speech due to her cancer, but Rufus Lewis spoke it for her. She was also close with Martin Luther King Jr and was riding with him when he was ticketed in 1960. She was an active member of CORE and supported SNCC, speaking at the first SNCC in October of 1960. She saw the passing of the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts.

Works

Over Lillian Smith's lifetime, she wrote various books over various topics that received both positive and negative reactions. One of Smith's most famous books is Strange Fruit, published in 1944. This work tackles the idea of interracial relationships in the South. During this time in the South, there were various opinions about interracial relationships, most of them including a racist point of view. Because of this, Strange Fruit was banned in some states after the intense amount of criticism that followed it.

Another one of Smith's most well known works is Killers of the Dream, published in 1949. This book contains Smith's memories of being a child being raised in the segregated south and the issues that come with this normalized idea along with the issues of how the South teaches sin. Smith also tackles how this affects children and adults alike, black and whites alike.

Two of Smith's lesser known works are Now is the Time and The Journey. Now is the Time, published in 1955, tackles the idea of desegregating the South and civil rights for Blacks. She calls out the cultural norms of racism and segregation. On the other hand, The Journey, published in 1954, tackles the idea of white privilege and how it affects society. Later on in the book, Smith talks about her struggle with breast cancer, which is her cause of death later on.

Death

Smith battled breast cancer from the early 1950s on, ultimately dying of the disease on September 28, 1966, at the age of 68. Her book The Journey (1954) details some of this battle. She is buried near the old theater chimney at Laurel Falls camp atop Screamer Mountain, in Clayton, Georgia.

Legacy

Today, Strange Fruit remains her most famous work, translated into 15 languages.

In 1999, Lillian Smith received the Georgia Women of Achievement Award.

Since 1968, the Lillian Smith Book Awards have been presented annually, except for 2003 when the Southern Regional Council experienced funding shortfalls. It is the South's oldest and best-known book award, and is presented in fiction and non-fiction categories. It is meant to honor those authors who, through their outstanding writing about the American South, carry on Smith's legacy of elucidating the condition of racial and social inequity and proposing a vision of justice and human understanding. According to Cheryl Johnson, Smith's work examines many different perspectives of American consciousness and is a great source to better understand Southern history post-Civil War through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Complete list of Lillian E Smith's works

Books

• Strange Fruit. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1944.
• Killers of the Dream. New York: W.W. Norton, 1949.
• Killers of the Dream. Rev. ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962.
• Killers of the Dream. Rev. ed. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963.
• The Journey. Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1954.
• Now Is the Time. New York: Viking, 1955.
• One Hour. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1959.
• Memory of a Large Christmas. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962.
• Our Faces, Our Words. New York: W.W. Norton, 1964

Articles

• ”Burning Down Georgia’s Back Porch,” Common Ground, II (Winter, 1942), 69-72.
• “Southerners Talking,” Common Sense, XII (June, 1943), 210-213.
• “Growing into Freedom,” Common Ground, IV (Autumn, 1943), 47-52.
• “Democracy Was Not a Candidate,” Common Ground, III (Winter, 1943), 7-10.
• “Humans in Bondage,” Social Action, February 15, 1944, pp. 6-34.
• “Race Tragedy in the South,” PM Picture News, March 5, 1944, p. M 11.
• “The Doods and the Penneys,” PM Picture News, March 19, 1944, pp. M 2-3.
• “Southern Defensive,” Common Ground, IV (Spring, 1944), 43-45.
• “Today’s Children and Tomorrow’s World,” Childhood Education, XXI (September, 1944), 4-5. With Paula Snelling.
• “Addressed to White Liberals,” New Republics, CXI (September 18, 1944), 331-33.
• … In Primer for White Folks. Ed. Bucklin Moon. Garden City N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1945, pp. 484-87.
• “Panic Days are Recalled,” New York Times, October 27, 1944, p. 22 L.
• “Life with a Best-Seller,” Atlanta Journal Magazine, January 14, 1945, pp. 5-6.
• “Personal History of Strange Fruit,” Saturday Review of Literature, XXVIII (February 17, 1945), 9-10.
• “Building Christian Fellowship,” The Methodist Woman, V (February, 1945), 174-177, 182.
• “What Segregation Does to Our Children,” Child Study, XXII (Spring, 1945), 71-72, 90.
• “Growing Plays: The Girl,” Educational Leadership, II (May, 1945), 349-60.
• “How to Work for Racial Equality,” New Republic, CXIII (July, 2, 1945), 23-24.
• “ Children Talking,” Progressive Education, XXIII (October, 1945), 6-9, 39-40.
• “It’s Growing Time in Georgia,” Nation, CLXIII (July 13, 1946), 34-36.
• “The Right to Grow,” Woman’s Home Companion, LXXIII (October, 1946), 25.
• “Pay Day in Georgia,” Nation, CLXIV (February 1, 1947), 118-119.
• “Postscript to Pay Day,” Nation, CLXIV (February 22, 1947), 231.
• “Summer Camps for Boys and Girls When the Children Come to Rabun County.” In Andrew J Ritchie, Sketches of Rabun County History. Clayton, GA.: n.p., 1948, pp. 429-434.
• “Let Us Dream of Children", The Church Woman, XIV (February, 1948), 4-8.
• “Southern Liberalism,” New York Times, April 4,1948, p. 8 E.
• “The Artist and the Dream,” Phylon, IX (Third Quarter, 1948), 232-233.
• “A Southerner Talking,” Chicago Defender, October 19, 1948, through September 3, 1949, p.7.
• “Georgia Primer.” In Living Literature. Ed. Moiree S. Compere. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1949, pp.56-63.
• “Why I Wrote Killers of the Dream,” New York Herald Tribune Books, July 17, 1949, p.2.
• “Ten Years From Today,” Vital Speeches, XVII (August 15, 1951), 669-672.
• “The South Reacts to Segregation,” New Leader, XXXIV, (September 3, 1951), 2-5.
• “A Declaration of Faith in America,” New York Times Magazine, September 21. 1952, pp. 13, 39-42. Letter, October 5, 1952, Sec. VII, p.6.
• “I Am Thinking of Jane,” Redbook, CI (June, 1953), 24-25, 74-76.
• Portrait of a Family, Redbook, CII (February, 1954), 4.
• “The Unanswered Question,” Confluence, III (March, 1954), 101-110.
• “Prayer for a Better World,” Parents’ Magazine, XXX (December, 1955), 108.
• “The Right Way Is Not a Moderate Way,” Phylon, XVII (Fourth Quarter, 1956), 335-341.
• “The Price of Silence,” New York Post, December 23, 1956, p. M 5.
• “Until We Master Our Ordeal,” Civil Liberties, no. 148 (January, 1957), 2.
• “The Price of ‘Moderation,’” ADA World, XII (February, 1957), 3m.
• “Creative Extremists,” Community, XVI (February, 1957), 3.
• “The Price of Silence,” Congress Weekly, XXIV (February 25, 1957), 5-7.
• “The Right Way Is Not a Moderate Way,” Fellowship, XXIII (February, 1957), 13-19.
• “The Winner Names the Age,” New Leader, Xl (August 26, 1957), 12-14.
• … Progressive, XXI (August, 1957), 6-10.
• … Progressive, XVIII (Third Quarter, 1957), 203-212.
• “Words and the Mob,” Liberation, II (November, 1957), 4-5.
• “No Easy Way, Now,” New Republic, CXXXVII (December, 16, 1957), 12-16.
• “Brainwashed Americans,” AFRO Magazine Section, February 18, 1958, p. 5.
• “The Crisis in The South,” New Leader, XLIII (September 19, 1960), 12-16.
• “The South’s Moment of Truth,” Progressive, XXIV (September, 1960), 32-35.
• “Novelists Need a Commitment,” Saturday Review, XLIII (December 24, 1960), 18-19.
• “The Ordeal of Southern Women,” Redbook, CXVII (May, 1961), 44-45.
• “Integration: What You Can Do About It,” Datebook, III (June, 1961), 34, 58-61.
• “The Whipping.” In Strange Barriers. Ed. J. Vernon Shea. New York: Pyramid Books, 1961, pp. 171-177.
• “Memory of a Large Christmas,” Life, LI (December 15, 1961), 90-94.
• Introduction to Freedom Ride, by James Peck. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962, pp. 9-13.
• “Words That Chain Us and Words That Set Us Free,” New South, XVII (March, 1962), 3-13.
• “Now, the Lonely Decision for Right or for Wrong,” Life, LIII (October 12, 1962), 44.
• “A Strange Kind of Love,” Saturday Review, XLV (October 20, 1962), 18-20, 94. Letter, XLV (November 17, 1962), 25.
• “The Mob and the Ghost.” In Black, White and Gray. Ed. Bradford Daniel. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1964, pp. 266-277.
• “The Day It Happened to Each of Us,” McCall’s, XCII (November, 1964), 124-125, 166-168.
• “Poets Among the Demagogues,” Saturday Review, XLVIII (October 2, 1965), 24, 35.
• “Old Dream, New Killers,” Atlanta Constitution, January 14, 1966, p.4; Letter, New South, XXI (1966), 64.
• “The Final Question,” Fact, III (January-February, 1966), 8.
• “Response.” In Red Clay Reader 3. Ed. Charleen Whisnant. Charlotte, North Carolina: Southern Review, 1966, p. 114.
• Introduction to Ely, by Ely Green. New York: Seabury, 1966, pp. v-xx.
• “The Changing Heart of the South.” In Toward a Better America. Ed. Howard D. Samuel. New York: Macmillan, 1968, pp. 67-71.
• “Bridges to Other People,” Redbook, CXXXIII (September, 1969), 10, 91, 152-153.
• “Letter from Lillian Smith,” New South, XXV (Winter, 1970), 52-54.
• “Two Men and a Bargain.” In The Black Man and the Promise of America. Ed. Lettie J. Austin et al. Glenview, I11.: Scott, Forestman, 1970, pp. 223-243.

Fiction, poetry, drama in South Today

• “The Harris Children’s Town- Maxwell, Ga.,” Pseudopodia, I, 1 (Spring, 1946), 3-4, 9-12.
• “Big Granny,” Pseudopodia, I, 2 (Summer, 1936), 4-5, 15-16.
• “Mountain Monotones: Jabe’s Mule.” Pseudopodia, I, 4 (Winter, 1937), 5-6, 20.
• “Exegesis,” North Georgia Review, II, 4 (Winter, 1937-38), 7-8, 10.
• “And the Waters Flowed On,” North Georgia Review, III, 2 (Summer, 1938), 7-12.
• “Two Sketches,” North Georgia Review, II, 3 & 4 (Fall & Winter, 1938-39), 19-21.
• “Behind the Drums,” North Georgia Review, IV, 2 &3 (Autumn, 1939), 12-21.
• “So You’re Seeing the South,” North Georgia Review, IV, 4 (Winter, 1939-40), 18-22.
• “Figs and Doodle Bugs,” North Georgia Review, V, 1 (Spring, 1940), 15-22.
• “Jordan Is So Chilly,” North Georgia Review, V, 3-4 (Winter, 1940-41), 31-43.
• “Portrait of the Deep South Speaking to Negroes on Morale,” South Today, VII, 1 (Spring, 1942), 34-37.
• “Georgia Primer,” South Today, VII, 3 (Spring, 1943), 29-33.
• “Behind the Drums,” South Today, VIII, 1 (Spring-Summer, 1944), 50.

See also

In Spanish: Lillian Smith para niños