Lillian Smith

Country

United States

Birth-Death

1897-1966

Occupation and achievements

Lilian Smith was a renowned writer who wrote about racism as a white woman in the deep South. Her worked pushed boundaries in its unabashed criticism of segregation and its fervor in dismantling Jim Crow laws. Her work Strange Fruit (1944) dealt with the taboos of interracial romance and was inspired by Billie Holidays song of the same title on anti-black lynchings. The book was even banned in Boston and Detroit at a certain point for its 'lewdness'. Her second book Killers of the Dream (1949) evaluated the contradictions and hypocrisies that existed within southern communities and argued that white identity was built on white supremacy.