Category: lillian e smith

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+ lillian e smith, race, southern literature, strange fruit, white supremacy

Community Complicity in White Supremacy in Lillian Smith’s “Strange Fruit”

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Lillian Smith’s Strange Fruit ends with the lynching of Henry McIntosh and the community members’ reactions to the murder. Following Ed Anderson murder of Tracy Deen, the townspeople, specifically the poor white mill hands, seek vengeance and they accuse Henry of murdering Tracy because Henry moved Tracy’s body off of the road into the palmetto bushes. The fact that Henry is innocent doesn’t matter. The mob, … Read More Community Complicity in White Supremacy in Lillian Smith’s “Strange Fruit”

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+ ernest j gaines, lillian e smith, strange fruit, the autobiography of miss jane pittman

Southern Connections Between Lillian Smith & Ernest Gaines

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Early in my career, I became immersed in the work of Ernest Gaines because I worked at the Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. This position allowed me to dig deep into Gaines’ work, utilizing the archives at the center as well as Gaines himself. I had the opportunity to sit down with Gaines, multiple times, and just talk. … Read More Southern Connections Between Lillian Smith & Ernest Gaines

+ christianity, howard thurman, jesus and the disinherited, lillian e smith, punk, religion, strange fruit

Christianity and the Manipulation of Power

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I don’t remember the first time I heard Regan Youth’s “Jesus Was A Communist” (also titled “Jesus Was A Pacifist”), but I remember the impact it has had on me. On the song, Dave Rubinstein sings, over and over again for four verses, “Jesus was a communist/Jesus was a pacifist/Jesus was a communist/Jesus didn’t like the rich.” Reagan Youth pointed out the intersections between … Read More Christianity and the Manipulation of Power

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+ american literature, georgia literature, lillian e smith, Literature, race, religion, strange fruit

Lillian Smith and the “Sex-Race-Religion-Economics” Tangle

by Unknown's avatar

Over the past week, I’ve been reading Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream for my Women in the Civil Rights Memoir course and her debut novel Strange Fruit for a book club at the end of January. If memory serves, this is the third, maybe fourth, time I have read each of these books. However, I have never read them at the same time, moving back and forth between the … Read More Lillian Smith and the “Sex-Race-Religion-Economics” Tangle

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+ history, killers of the dream, lillian e smith, politics, southern history

The Importance of Lillian Smith’s “Killers of the Dream” 75 Years Later in 2024

by Unknown's avatar

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the initial publication of Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream, and as I reread it this past week, I kept thinking about its continued relevance today, especially during 2024, a year which, and I do not feel this is hyperbole, carries within it a huge deal of historical significance for the United States and our democratic experiment. Countless … Read More The Importance of Lillian Smith’s “Killers of the Dream” 75 Years Later in 2024

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