Clayton, GA: South Today, 1943. Very Good. Item #8706

Clayton, GA: South Today, 1943. First Edition, reprinted from Winter Edition of South Today 1942-1943. Octavo. 12 pages. Side-stapled wraps.

Covers show light toning and wear along edges. Secure in binding. Pages clean and unmarked.

Smith was a critic of the Southern United States on racial and gender issues throughout her adult life. She worked tirelessly educating her fellow Southerners through her quarterly magazine Pseudopodia, later renamed North Georgia Review, and, finally, South Today. Smith, with her lifelong partner Paula Snelling, also ran Laurel Falls Camp which they used as a forum for discussing social issues.

"There are things to do," is a pamphlet written by and for white Southerners on how to improve race relations in the South. Smith urges her readers to act on several varied fronts... ceasing the use of racial slurs and epithets, writing to their Governors to urge them to stop spouting Fascistic statements, and taking "an open stand for democratic labor unions, realizing that racial justice and strong labor unions are inseparable." The wartime atmosphere here is clear as well, as Smith sees the catastrophe as an opportunity to "train our children now to be, not little Nazis, but democratic world citizens."

Smith, remarkable for her public stance against segregation, was also remarkable for her private, lifelong lesbian relationship with Paula Snelling. But in the South of Smith's generation, one battle at a time.

Price: $200.00