Forty Seven Books Nominated for 2019 Lillian Smith Book Awards

The Southern Regional Council (SRC) recently announced that forty seven books have been nominated for the Lillian Smith Book Awards for 2019 to be presented in Decatur, Georgia on September 1, 2019.

SRC was founded in 1919 to combat racial injustice in the South. SRC initiated the Lillian Smith Book Awards shortly after Smith's death in 1966 to recognize authors whose writing extends the legacy of the outspoken writer, educator and social critic who challenged her fellow Southerners and all Americans on issues of social and racial justice. Since 2004 the awards have been presented by SRC in a partnership with the University of Georgia Libraries, whose Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library houses a historic collection of Lillian Smith's letters and manuscripts. The Georgia Center for the Book became a partner in 2007, when the awards ceremony first became part of the Decatur Book Festival.  Piedmont College, which operates the Lillian Smith Center, became a partner in 2015.

The award recipients for 2015 were Locking Up Our Own by James Foreman, Jr. and Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy McLean.

The 2019 nominated books are:

After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform, by Andrea Gabor, The New Press 

American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, by Terrance Hayes, Penguin Random House

An American Marriage: A Novel, by Tayari Jones, Algonquin Books

Anaphora, by Kevin Goodan, Alice James Books

Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor, by Virginia Eubanks, St. Martin's Prcss

Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found, by Gilbert King, Riverhead Books

Catfish Dream: Ed Scott's Fight for His Family Farm and Racial Justice in the Mississippi Delta, by Julian Rankin, University of Georgia Press

City of a Million Dreams; A History of New Orleans at 300, by Jason Berry, University of North Carolina Press

Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World, by Jennifer Palmieri, Grand Central Publishing

Denmark Vesey's Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy, by Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts, The New Press

Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South, by Wayne A. Wiegand and Shirley A. Wiegand, LSU Press

DaVida, by Monica A. Hand, Alice James Books

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Super Power, by Brittney Cooper, St. Martin's Press

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practice Guide to Liberation on the Land, by Leah Penniman, Chelsea Green Publishing

Fisherman's Blues: A West African Community at Sea, by Anna Badkhen, Riverhead Books

Foreign Policy on the Left, by Michael Walzer, Yale University Press

Free the Beaches: The Story of Ned Coll and the Battle for America's Most Exclusive Shoreline, by Andrew Kahrl, Yale University Press

Ghost, Like a Place, by Ian Haley Pollock, Alice James Books

Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America's Schools, by Rebecca Traister, Simon & Shuster

Hard Rain: America in the 1960s, Our Decade of Hope, Possibility and Innocence Lost, by Frye Gaillard, New South Books

Howard Zinn's Southern Diary: Sit-Ins, Civil Rights, and Black Women's Student Activism, by Robert Cohen, University of Georgia Press

In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southern Confronts His History, by Mitch Landrieu, Penguin Random House/Viking Press

Isako Isako, by Mia Ayumi Malhotra, Alice James Books

Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border, by Francisco Cantu, Riverhead Books

Lost Black Scholar: Resurrecting Allison Davis in American Social Thought, by David A. Varel, The University of Georgia Press

Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in Schools, by Vanessa Siddle Walker, The New Press

Money Rock: A Family's Story of Cocaine, Race and Ambition in the New South, by Pam Kelley, the New Press

Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America, by Sharmila Sen, Penguin Random House

On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Promise: A Novel, by Delray McKesson, Penquin Random House/Viking Press

Promise: A Novel, by Monrose Gwin, HarperCollins Publishers 

Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind, by Justin Driver, Pantheon Books

Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, by Andrew Lawler, Doubleday/Penquin Random House

Sons of Achilles, by Nabila Lovelace, YesYes Books

Southernmost: A Novel, by Silas House, Algonquin Books

Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table: Contemporary Christianities in the American South, by James Hudnut-Buemler, University of North Carolina Press

Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, by Anthony Ray Hinton, St. Martin's Press

Swimming Between Worlds, by Elaine Neil Orr, Berkley/Penguin Random House

Take You Wherever You Go, By Kenny Leon, Grand Central Publishing

There Will be No Miracles Here: A Memoir, by Case Gerald, Riverhead Books

Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice, by Rebecca Todd Peters, Beacon Press

Vain Conversation: A Novel, by Anthony Grooms, University of South Carolina Press

Visible Empire, Hannah Pittard, Houghton Miflin Harcourt

We Face the Dawn: Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson, and the Legal Team that Dismantled Jim Crow, by Margaret Edds, University of Virginia Press

What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation about Race in America, by Michael Eric Dyson, St. Martins Press

White Dancing Elephants, Chaya Bhuvaeswar, Dzanc Books

Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, by Elaine Weiss, Penguin Random House/Viking Press

Minion K.C. Morrison Joins Jury for 2019 Lillian Smith Book Awards

The Southern Regional Council recently announced the newest juror for the 2019 Lillian Smith Book Awards.

Minion Kenneth Chauncey "KC" Morrison is currently Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. He was previously Head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, and Senior Associate in African American Studies at Mississippi State University. From 1989-2009 he was Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he also held the Frederick Middlebush Professorship. He served there as a Vice Provost from 1989 to 1997. Prior to Missouri, Morrison was at Syracuse University, where he served as the Chair of Afro-American Studies for five years. He has a BA. (cum laude) from Tougaloo College (1968), and MA (1969) and PhD (1977) in Political Science and African Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Morrison's research and publications have appeared in the fields of comparative and American politics and administration.  His publications include several books: Aaron Henry of Mississippi: Inside Agitator, (2015,); African Americans and Political Participation (2003); Black Political Mobilization, Leadership and Power (1987); Housing and Urban Poor in Africa (1982), edited with Peter Gutkind; and Ethnicity and Political Integration (1982).  Also many articles and reviews have appeared in such journals as Polity, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Publius, Comparative Politics, Political Science Quarterly, International Political Science Review, National Political Science Review, Politics and Religion, American Political Science Review, International Studies Perspectives, and Journal of Modern African Studies.​

This year's awards will be presented during the Decatur Book Festival on Sunday, September 1st.

Introducing the Jurors for the 2019 Lillian Smith Book Awards

The Southern Regional Council (SRC), founded in 1919 to combat racial injustice, established the Lillian Smith Book Awards in 1966 to recognize writing which extends the legacy of the outspoken writer who challenged all Americans on issues of social and racial justice.

Since 2004 the awards have been presented by SRC in a partnership with the University of Georgia Libraries, whose Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library houses a historic collection of Lillian Smith's letters and manuscripts. Since 2007 this partnership has also included Georgia Center for the Book, and the awards ceremony is now presented on the Sunday of the Labor Day Weekend as part of the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, Georgia. Since 2016, this partnership has included Piedmont College, which operates the Lillian Smith Center in Clayton, Georgia. Excerpts from the 2008 - 2016 awards ceremonies may be viewed through by clicking on the images on the right side of this page. The 2019 awards ceremony will be held at the DeKalb County Public Library in Decatur, Georgia on Sunday, September 1st.

This year’s Lillian Smith jury is again chaired by Mary A. Twining, Emeritus Professor of English and Folklore at Clark Atlanta University.  Noted for her study of the Sea Island Communities of Georgia and South Carolina and their cultural ties to West African, her published work has included Sea Island Roots: African Presence in the Carolinas and Georgia, edited with Keith E. Baird (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press 1991); Names and Naming in the Sea Islands, a contribution to the Crucible of Carolina: Essays in the Development of Gullah Language and Culture, edited by Michael Montgomery and Louise Ferrell, University of Georgia Press, 1994; The New Nomads, Art, Life, and Lure of Migrant workers in New York State, published in The Journal of the New York Folklore Society 1987; and numerous contributions to the Journal of Black Studies.

 

James Taylor has managed the Atlanta Fulton Public Library’s Buckhead Branch and hosted the System’s Writers in Focus, “a meet-the-author” television show produced by Fulton County Television (FGTV) .  He previously managed the Library Express Department, the Circulation Department, and the Ivan Allen Reference Department.

 
Also rejoining the jury this year is Merryl Penson, Executive Director of Library Services for the Georgia Board of Regents.

 

Joining the jury this year is Minion K. C. Morrison, Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. Having previously served as Head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Mississippi State University, Morrison's research and publications have appeared in the fields of comparative and American politics and administration.  His publications include several books: African Americans and Political Participation (2003); Black Political Mobilization, Leadership and Power (1987); Housing and Urban Poor in Africa (1982), edited with Peter Gutkind; and Ethnicity and Political Integration (1982). He received a Lillian Smith Book Award in 2016 for his book Aaron Henry of Mississippi: Inside Agitator.

 

E. Delores Stephens is a Professor of English at Morehouse College, where she teaches World Literature, Shakespeare, and British literature survey courses.  Her areas of scholarship and research include women's fiction, Caribbean literature, and biography.