Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Introducing the Lillian Smith Book Collection!



 Lillian Smith Book Collection
Click here to browse the collection.

As part of its efforts to support the Lillian E. Smith Center and celebrate the writer's legacy as a vital social justice and civil rights activist, Piedmont College Libraries is proud to announce the Lillian Smith Book Collection.

This ongoing collection development project will feature books from all across the literary spectrum -- contemporary novels; essays; works of history and historical fiction; memoirs; anthologies; psychological and sociological perspectives on race, class, activism, and privilege -- anything and everything that contributes to our understanding of civil rights in the United States and beyond. While an emphasis will be placed on new work addressing the ongoing struggle against racism in America, the Lillian Smith Book Collection will also confront issues of class, LGBTQ rights, and gender inequality. In short, this collection seeks to represent (and expand upon) the many facets of Lillian Smith's own progressive, inclusive ideology.

This inaugural group of titles features important work both past and present, ranging from established members of the civil rights canon such as Chancellor Williams' The Destruction of Black Civilization, Carter G. Woodson's The Mis-Education of the Negro, and Lillian Smith's own Killers of the Dream, to significant contemporary publications which are even now shaping the way we think, speak, and feel about equality and diversity in the 21st century. The collection celebrates the work of highly esteemed modern writers like National Book Critics Circle Award winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and National Book Award winners Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jesmyn Ward, but it also includes lesser-known perspectives, like those of Margo Jefferson (Negroland), Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy), and Michelle Alexander, whose book The New Jim Crow challenges the dangerous myth that having elected and re-elected our first black president, Americans are now living in a "post-racial" society.

While there are currently no plans to physically shelve these titles together on a permanent basis, we will offer a rotating selection on display in the 3rd floor lobby of the Arrendale Library, and the entire collection will be available for browsing through the MAYFLOWER catalog and at our Goodreads page.