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.
The award recipients for 2025 were A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners,Segregation Scholarships, and the Debt owed to Public HBCUs by Crystal Sanders, and Confronting Jim Crow: Race, Memory, and the University of Georgia in theTwentieth Century by Robert Cohen.
The 2026 nominated books are:
Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America by Mark Whitaker
American Grammar by Jarvis R. Givens
American Scare: Florida's Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives by Robert Fieseler
Banished Citizens: A History of the Mexican American Women Who Endured Repatriation by Marla A. Ramirez
Battle for the Black Mind by Karina L. Brown
Behind the Waterline by Kionna Walker LeMalle
Black History is for Everyone by Brian Jones
Black in Blues by Imani Perry
Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State by Caleb Gayle
Black Soldiers, White Laws: The Tragedy of the 24th Infantry in 1917 Houston by John A. Haymond
Broken King: A Memoir by Michael Thomas
Brother Outsider, Brother Insider: A Political Biography of Lawrence Guyot Jr. By Chris Danielson
Conscience of Care: Navigating Health in the Culture Wats by Dov Fox
Containment by Michelle Adams
Counterrevolutionary Shadow: Race, Democracy, and the Making of the American by Michael Gorup
Cross, the Candle, and the Crown: A Narrative History of Morehouse College, 1867-2021by Marcellus Chandler Barksdale
Dangerous Learning by Derek Black
Devil Three Times by Ricky Fayne
Education for Preservation? Examining Native American Education Policy in the New Deal, by Gabriella Treglia
Fight of His Life by Johnny Smith and Randy Roberts
Fighters by Chee Brossy
First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressman Who Shaped aNation by Jim Clyburn
Firstborn Girls by Bernice McFadden
Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America's Civil Rights Revolution by Peniel E. Joseph
Gamble on Liberty by Robert W. Smith
God of the Whirlwind- Horror, Memory, and Story in Black Waco by Tyler B. Davis
Good Trouble: The Selma, Alabama, and Derry, Northern Ireland Connection 1963-1972 by Forest Issac Jones
Harriet Tubman by Jean Marie Wiesen and Rita Daniels
Heroes and Other Mortals: Stories of Our Better Angels by Frye Gaillard
House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Consequential Black Congressman, by Marion Orr
How to Dodge a Cannonball by Dennard Dayle
I am a Georgia Girl: The Life of Lucille Selig Frank, 1888-1957 by Ann Hite
I Didn't Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education by Karen GJ. Lewis and Elizabeth Todd-Breland
Journal of Djuna Malik by Liza Wieland
Just Freedom: Inside Florida's Decades Long Voting Rights Battle by Daniel Rivero
Lonely Crowds: A Novel by Stephanie Wambugu
Making Sense of Slavery: America's Long Reckoning, from the Founding Era to Today by Scott Spillman
Measure of Devotion by Nell Joslin
Miniaturist's Assistant by Katherine Scott Crawford
Misbehaving at the Crossroads by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
No One Left Alone: A Story of How Community Helps Us Heal by Liz Walker
No Place for Pilgrims: Solving the Murder of William Moore, the Last Cold Civil Rights Caseby Mike Marshall
One Hundred Pearls by Barry Cole
People Like Us by Jason Mott
Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Back Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the
Physicians for the People: Black Doctors and the Struggle for Health-Care Equality inAlabama, 1870-1970 by Jack D. Ellis
Planning White Supremacy: Civil Rights and City Planning in Montgomery, Alabama, 1920-1970 by Rebecca Coleen Retzlaff
Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who by Joshua Clark David
Protesting with Rosa Parks: From Stagecoaches to Driving While Black by John K. Bollard
Radical Advocate: Ida B. Wells and the Road to Race and Gender Justice by Mary E. Triece
Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America byJohn Fabian Watt
Radical Red by Nathan Dixon
Return of Black Nationalism: and the Death of White Supremacy by Vincent Adejumo
Return of the King: The Rebirth of Muhammad Ali and the Rise of Atlanta by Thomas Aiello
Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement by Brandon M. Terry
Slavery, Segregation, and the Second Founding of Rice University by W. Caleb McDaniel and Alexander X. Byrd
Songs of No Provenance by Lydi Conklin
Strangers in the Land by Michael Luo
Tougaloo Nine: The Jackson Library Sit-In at the Crossroads of Civil War and Civil Rights by M. J. O’Brien
Town on Trial by Lance McMillian
Town without Pity: AIDS, Race, and Resistance in Florida's Deep South by Jason Vuic
Violent and Verdant Systemic Injustice in Public Parks in the U.S. by KangJae “Jerry” Lee
Waterline by Aram Mrjoian
We Came to Rebuild New Orleans by Christopher E. Manning
With Faith in God and Heart and Mind: A History of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity by Maurice J. Hobson
Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights by Keisha N. Blain
Wounds Are the Witness: Black Faith Weaving Memory into Justice and Healing by Yolanda Pierce
Wrecking Ball: Race, Friendship, God, and Football by Rick Bass
Zeal by Morgan Jerkins
Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery by Siddarth Kara
