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Hazel Brannon Smith, the Female Crusading Scalawag

When:
April 05, 2022
Time:
11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Category:
Cultural Enrichment
Location:
Lewis Library Multimedia Classroom
Details:
In celebration of National Library Week, Dr. Jeffrey Howell will talk about HB Smith, a Mississippi journalist who published 2 papers for 50 years in central Mississippi. An avowed segregationist, she still believed in a free press. When she protested Jim Crow offenses committed by the Holmes County sheriff in 1954, the white community turned against her and tried to put her out of business. Once on the wrong side of Jim Crow, she began to see how oppressive segregation was, and she eventually became an advocate for African Americans and the civil rights movement. The story gets more complex as she wrote editorials into the 1970s when African Americans gained political power. Smith stood as an example of courage and why we need the freedom of the press and the willingness to speak out against racism and legal oppression.