Celebrating Lillian E. Smith

Join us as we celebrate the 80th anniversary of Strange Fruit, the 75th anniversary of Killers of the Dream, and the 70th anniversary of The Journey. Presenters include Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell, Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt, and Dr. Jennifer Morrison. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is requested, not required.

About the Presenters:

Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell is the creator and founder of Confronting Whiteness; an organization committed to transforming people racialized as white into anti-racist practitioners in their spheres of power and influence. He has served as the Senior Minister of Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC since 2016. A former U.S. Army Officer with degrees from Campbell University (B.A.), Duke Divinity School (M.Div.), and Saint Paul School of Theology (D.Min), Dr. Boswell is known as a preacher, pastor, civil rights leader and public speaker who facilitates anti-racist education for people racialized as white and for white-dominant organizations. In 2021, Dr. Boswell was awarded the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Medallion, which is the city of Charlotte’s highest honor given to a person who promotes racial equality, social justice, and community service. He has published numerous articles and two books: For the Facing of this Hour: Preaching that Resists White Christian Nationalism, and Confronting Whiteness: A Spiritual Journey of Reflection, Conversation, and Transformation.

Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt is a historian, writer, and activist based in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her B.A. from Emory University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Her first book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), won both the Bennett Wall Award from the Southern Historical Association, honoring the best book in Southern economic or business history published in the previous two years, as well as the President’s Book Award from the Social Science History Association. Merritt is also co-editor, with Matthew Hild, of Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power (University Press of Florida, 2018), which won the 2019 Best Book Award from the UALE (United Association for Labor Education). She is currently writing a trade press book, as well as working on a major documentary project. Merritt also writes historical pieces for the public and has had letters and essays published in a variety of outlets, from the New York Times and CNN to The Washington Post and Moyers and Co. Recently she released a self-narrated audiobook version of Masterless Men, starred in several seasons of The Science Channel’s most-watched show, What on Earth?, and launched her history-based podcast and YouTube Channel Merrittocracy. She gives speeches and talks all over North America, on topics ranging from the role of poor whites in the Civil War to the importance of US labor history, and from the possibilities of multi-racial coalition building to the need for reparations and a Third Reconstruction. She is currently writing a new book, Resurrecting the Dream: Lillian Smith’s Message to White America, and working on a new Civil War documentary.

Dr. Jennifer Morrison is Assistant Professor of English at Xavier University. She obtained a B.A. in English from Dillard University, an M.A. from Northwestern State University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her research focuses on the nuances and specifics of African American culture in American literary and cultural studies. Her current project examines how Black southern writers have articulated a cultural and geographic landscape, the Gulf South, in contemporary literature. Her work has appeared in the Louisiana Folklore Miscellany and Wait Five Minutes: Weatherlore in the Twenty-first Century. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Louisiana Folklore Society and the Advisory Board Member of the Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.