How Am I to Be Heard?

This compelling volume offers the first full portrait of the life and work of writer Lillian Smith (1897–1966), the foremost southern white liberal of the mid-twentieth century. Smith devoted her life to lifting the veil of southern self-deception about race, class, gender, and sexuality. Her books, essays, and especially her letters explored the ways in which the South’s attitudes and institutions perpetuated a dehumanizing experience for all its people — white and black, male and female, rich