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 EqualityCongress of Racial Equality
(CORE), civil-rights organization founded (1942) in Chicago by James Farmer. Dedicated to the use of nonviolent direct action, CORE initially sought to promote better race relations and end racial discrimination in the United States.
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 (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).