Lillian Smith

I am your host, Raymond Williams.

Today we are speaking with Keri Leigh Merritt, author of the new book, An Inconvenient Woman: The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith, the Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America, published by St. Martin's Press.

Keri has previously been on the New Books Network to talk about her books, Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South, and the edited volume, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power.

Keri Leigh Merritt, welcome back to the New Books Network.

Absolutely.

So, um, I told you before we got on, on this, on the microphone that I really enjoyed this book.

I learned a lot about Lillian Smith, someone who I thought I knew, thought, well, thought I didn't know.

But there were some instances, and we'll, we'll probably bring, I'll probably bring that up in a little later, um, some instances where I realized I may have heard of her before, but just didn't make the connection.

I am your host, Raymond Williams.

Today, we are speaking with Keri Leigh Merritt, author of the new book, An Inconvenient Woman, The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith, The Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America, published by St. Martin's Press.

Keri has previously been on the New Books Network to talk about her books, Masterless Men, Poor Whites in the Antebellum South, and the edited volume, Reconsidering Southern Labor History, Race, Class, and Power.

Keri Leigh Merritt, welcome back to the New Books Network.

Absolutely.

So I told you before we got on the microphone that I really enjoyed this book.

I learned a lot about Lillian Smith, someone who I thought I knew, thought, well, thought I didn't know, but there were some instances, and I'll probably bring that up a little later, some instances where I realized I may have heard of her before, but just didn't make the connection.

But I want you to start off by letting us know who was she and how did she defy Jim Crow America?

I am your host, Raymond Williams.

Today we are speaking with Keri Leigh Merritt, author of the new book, An Inconvenient Woman: The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith, the Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America, published by St. Martin's Press.

Keri has previously been on the New Books Network to talk about her books, Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South, and the edited volume, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power.

Keri Leigh Merritt, welcome back to the New Books Network.

Absolutely.

So, um, I told you before we got on, on this, on the microphone that I really enjoyed this book.

I learned a lot about Lillian Smith, someone who I thought I kne- thought, well, thought I didn't know.

But there were some instances, and we'll, we'll probably bring, I'll probably bring that up in the, a little later.

We are back in the Deep South.

A few days ago, we did a show about the American dissident Lillian Smith, the subject of a wonderful new biography by a guest, Kerry Lee Merritt, an inconvenient woman and the extraordinary life of Lillian Smith, the southerner who defied Jim Crow.

She was from Clayton, Georgia, in northern Georgia.

And she was a subject of much vilification and violence.

But to your point, the field parties, I would say, predominantly white, there would be some, you know, some little bit of, you know, some black friends, but mostly like a larger group of white friends, I think at the field parties.

Given, of course, the history, I mean, there's been much written and thought about of why working class blacks and whites don't unite politically, culturally, socially, sexually, and certainly economically.

Is the absence, or is there an argument to be made, Matt, that given that the Wiregrass era is much poorer than the rest of Alabama, which again is saying something given that Alabama is one of the poorest states anyway, and that there isn't this old aristocratic gone-with-the-wind crowd there, the relations between blacks and whites in the Wiregrass, and given also perhaps the absence of the slavery legacy, Have relations historically between blacks and whites in the Wiregrass been slightly different from, I don't know, Clayton in northern eastern Georgia where Lillian Smith lived or Birmingham where you are or Montgomery, which was, of course, the capital of the Confederacy? I mean, did the KKK have a – was there much of a KKK presence historically in the Wiregrass?

Yes.