Restoring the Legacy of Lillian Smith: The Forgotten Southern White Woman Who Fought Jim Crow in the 1930s

Long before the modern civil rights movement captured the national consciousness in the 1950s and 1960s, a remarkable Southern white woman was already waging a fierce and lonely battle to dismantle the architecture of segregation. Lillian Smith, a bestselling author and visionary activist, began fighting Jim Crow as early as the 1930s. Her sharp critiques of white supremacy, coupled with her progressive worldview, made her a literary sensation—and a dangerous target. Her books were censored, publicly burned, and banned across multiple cities in the United States. Yet, despite her profound contributions to American social justice, many people today have no idea who she was.

In a compelling reflection, historian and author Kerri Leigh Smith—writer of An Inconvenient Woman—explores the life and enduring legacy of this pioneering figure, shedding light on a historical voice that deserves to be widely recognized and honored.

The journey to rediscovering Lillian Smith often begins in the landscapes she once called home. The first time Kerri Leigh Smith arrived on Old Screamer Mountain, which served as Lillian Smith’s primary residence for sixty-eight years, it was early autumn. The seasonal transition was in full swing, with leaves beginning their slow descent into their final weeks of life, illuminating the clear sky with a vibrancy that seemed almost unnatural in the context of decay. Amid the brilliant oranges, reds, and golds, there were also maroons, mustards, and burnt siennas—a stark reminder of how mournfully short life can be. Having visited Clayton, Georgia, many times before to hike the trails and admire the Appalachian landscape, the historian had never visited this specific site. Yet, it immediately felt serenely familiar, evoking a deep sense of home.

As the months of research unfolded, the modern author discovered striking parallels between her own life and that of Lillian Smith. Both were born in other Deep South states—Smith in Florida and Kerri Leigh Smith in Mississippi—and both eventually claimed Georgia as their home, despite bitterly disagreeing with the vast majority of the state’s white citizenry during their respective times. Both experienced childhoods burdened by troubling and complex relationships with their mothers. Both were profoundly educated by travel, particularly abroad, during their teenage years and young adulthood. Furthermore, both women had their life’s work interrupted by serious illness and were forced to overcome several major personal losses.

Their ideological alignments were equally synchronized. Both believed that the key to dismantling systemic racism involved a multifaceted combination of personal relationships, education, art, psychology, and policy. They began their public speaking careers through civil rights organizations and colleges across the South, alongside private organizations in New York. Both shared personality traits that could be described as impatient, morally rigorous—or perhaps righteous—and admittedly, sometimes a bit too intolerant of intolerance. Ultimately, both women occupied a space far more progressive than most white Americans of their respective generations.

Intensely intrigued by the tiny, wire-framed woman from Old Screamer Mountain, the historian began researching in earnest. The findings were immediately enthralling. Lillian Smith was a white woman who challenged segregation decades before it became a mainstream political battleground, a bestselling author whose works faced aggressive censorship and book burnings, and a lesbian who lived openly with her lifelong partner, Paula Snelling. It became increasingly clear that Smith had been nearly erased from the historical narrative because she posed—and arguably still poses—a fundamental threat to prevailing hierarchies and entrenched power structures.

Despite this historical sidelining, Lillian Smith and her ideas undoubtedly deserve to be known by every American. Her essays should be standard reading in educational curricula, and entire college courses should be dedicated to examining her written works and lifelong activism. As the historical interest evolved into a full-length book project, Kerri Leigh Smith began working closely with Matthew Teutsch, who served as the Director of the Lillian Smith Center prior to its defunding by Piedmont University. For years, Teutsch worked tirelessly to restore Smith’s rightful place in history. Those efforts culminated on April 20, 2022, when Lillian E. Smith finally received her own historical marker from the Georgia Historical Society.

The text inscribed on the marker encapsulates her formidable impact. It notes that Smith openly challenged Jim Crow and provided a critical white voice on Southern race relations through her writings, including her landmark novel Strange Fruit and her searing memoir Killers of the Dream, as well as a literary magazine co-edited with her life partner, Paula Snelling. Through her extensive involvement with civil rights organizations, Smith also forged a significant friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By explicitly recognizing Paula Snelling as Lillian’s life and intellectual partner, the marker achieved a historic milestone. It stands as one of—if not the only—historical markers in the Deep South to formally recognize a same-sex relationship. It is also one of the rare markers in the entire state of Georgia dedicated to honoring a woman. In a geographic region heavily saturated with Civil War markers, the revolutionary nature of Lillian Smith’s plaque cannot be overstated. Among thousands of monuments dedicated largely to men, and virtually none acknowledging LGBTQ+ individuals, her plaque remains a solitary beacon honoring a white Southerner’s unwavering dedication to civil rights.

By the time the marker was officially approved, Kerri Leigh Smith had delivered several public speeches on the importance of Lillian Smith and her work, cementing her status as a leading expert on the author. When Dr. Teutsch invited her to deliver the keynote speech for the historic marker dedication, it became a defining moment. At that precise juncture, the author knew she had to prioritize the project and complete An Inconvenient Woman, marking the first book in forty years to deal fully with Smith’s life, work, and sexuality.

The dedication speech focused on how Lillian Smith unflinchingly exposed the moral failings and sins of white America while simultaneously maintaining an enduring sense of hope, effectively lighting a path forward. Smith possessed a unique approach; she scolded and preached, yet she also welcomed back ideological sinners with open arms and a forgiving heart. She argued that the fundamental key to achieving true social peace lay in creating new, constructive identities for white supremacists whose self-images had been shattered by the forces of modernity and progress.

As Smith famously wrote, when a person gives up long-held defenses, they will not feel secure unless something equal or better is returned to them. She emphasized the necessity of providing people with new beliefs and new images of themselves to substitute for the old, destructive paradigms.

These principles—forging new beliefs and new self-images—remain potent recipes for healing society today. As articulated during the historic marker dedication, keeping Lillian Smith’s name and her vital mission alive is imperative to both guide and inspire contemporary generations. Her life serves as a powerful reminder of the arduous, often selfless, and sometimes dangerous labor required to build an equitable, peaceful, and loving society, encouraging modern citizens to take up the mantle in honor and remembrance of her and all fearless freedom fighters.