Mixed Experience History Month 2015: Lillian Smith, author & social activist

Lillian Smith (1897-1966) was a social critic and author of the best-selling novel Strange Fruit (1944) about an interracial love affair.  A white woman, Smith championed the rights of women and minorities in her writing and through her community involvement.  According to Wikipedia, Smith “was one of the first prominent Southern whites to write about and speak openly against racism and segregation.”  “Segregation is spiritual lynching,” she once said.  Smith was the author of several books including Killers of the Dream (1949), Now Is the Time (1955), and Our Faces, Our Words (1964).  In a letter to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Smith wrote: “My warmest greetings to you and to your congregation and to your people who are my people too, for we are all one big human family.  I pray that we shall soon in the South begin to act like one.”-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014. Copyright 2015.