LEWISTON, Idaho – A screening of the documentary movie “Breaking the Silence: Lillian Smith” will be shown on Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Lewis-Clark State College Silverthorne Theatre as part of the activities for Black History Month in February at the college. Smith’s great niece, Sue Ellen Lovejoy from Portland, Ore.,will join for the screening and participate in the discussion afterwards.
The event is free and open to the public. The showing is presented by Community Education at LC State and is part of the Silverthorne Series.
Smith was one of the first white southern authors to crusade against segregation. She was born in 1897 to a wealthy family and spent most of her life in Georgia as a social justice crusader, speaking out against the cruelties of racism and segregation. The film is a documentary of her life by Atlanta filmmaker Hal Jacobs and his son Henry Jacobs.
Smith had a best-selling novel “Strange Fruit,” which came out in 1944 and dealt with the then-taboo and controversial theme of interracial romance. The book was banned in Boston and Detroit for its lewd and crude language and the U.S. Postal Service also banned it from being mailed. That was later lifted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after his wife, Eleanor, requested the book.
For more information on the event, contact the Community Education office at cece@lcsc.edu or 208-792-2447.