In “The White Christian and His Conscience,” Lillian Smith breaks down the ways that religion, specifically Christianity, works to maintain power and how it causes individuals to lose their conscience, causing them to live, ostensibly, with the warring teachings of Jesus and the white supremacist society they exist within. Smith, also, presents readers with analogies between Southern white Christians and Nazi Germany, at one … Read More We Must Transform the World!
Last year marked some major anniversaries from Lillian Smith: the 80th anniversary of her first novel Strange Fruit, the 75th of her memoir Killers of the Dream, and the 70th of her memoir The Journey. Over the course of the year we have done numerous things to celebrate these anniversaries, including events such as “Celebrating Lillian E. Smith” in the spring and articles in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Augusta … Read More Lillian E. Smith: 80th Anniversary Exhibition
+ killers of the dream, lillian e smith, racism, ruby bridges, solomon northup, twelve years a slave, white supremacy
On my social media feeds over the past year, I have seen individuals post about the fact that the individuals who screamed at students outside schools in Little Rock, Memphis, New Orleans, and elsewhere don’t want history taught because it will illuminate their actions. I understand this argument; however, what I’m more interested in the ways that white supremacy, patriarchy, and other ideoligies get … Read More The Spreading Disease and the Creation of Monsters
+ christianity, howard thurman, jesus and the disinherited, lillian e smith, punk, religion, strange fruit
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
+ american literature, georgia literature, lillian e smith, Literature, race, religion, strange fruit
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
Interminable Rambling 