Smith, Lillian

Smith, Lillian, 1897–1966, American writer and social critic, b. Jasper, Fla. She was a social worker in Georgia for several years. Her best-selling novel Strange Fruit (1944) is set in the South and depicts the tragic love of a white boy for a black girl. Smith was active in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) but resigned when CORE supported the use of violence as a means to its ends. Her nonfiction works include Killers of the Dream (1949), Now is the Time (1955), and Memory of a Large Christmas (1962).

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