UA Press Book Wins Lillian Smith Award For Non-Fiction

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ­ A book published by The University of Alabama Press highlighting the life of civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth has received the Southern Regional Council’s 2000 Lillian Smith Book Award for non-fiction.

Author Andrew M. Manis received the award in Atlanta on Nov. 17 for his book “A Fire You Can’t Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham’s Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth.” The book reveals the life and experiences of Shuttlesworth, who was one of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.

One of the many victims of house and church bombings in Birmingham that earned the city the nickname of “Bombingham,” Shuttlesworth fought tirelessly to integrate the city’s lunch counters, buses, police force, and parks. Manis offers Shuttlesworth the credit of displaying his fiery, combative spirituality and emphasizing his dual role as pastor and civil rights leader.

“Manis offers a vivid picture of the greatness of Reverend Shuttlesworth without portraying him as one-dimensional,” said Smith Awards jury member Winifred Green. “Books such as this that show so clearly the tremendous courage of our civil rights leaders are incredibly necessary and important.”

Manis is a professor in the division of social studies at Macon State College in Macon, Ga. He is also the author of “Southern Civil Religions in Conflict: Black and White Baptists and Civil Rights, 1947-1957.”

Lillian Smith Book Awards are named for Lillian Smith, the controversial Georgia author who was the first white woman in the South to write and speak openly and steadfastly against racism and segregation. She is best known for her 1944 novel, “Strange Fruit,” which told the story of a love affair between a white boy and a black girl. The novel, once banned in Boston for indecency, led to a lifetime of writing in an effort to confront deep-rooted social problems and their high human costs.

Since 1968, the Lillian Smith Book Awards have been presented by the Southern Regional Council each year to encourage outstanding writing about the South.

The awards recognize authors who, through their writing, carry on Smith’s legacy of illuminating the condition of racial and social inequity and proposing a vision of justice and human understanding. The awards are the oldest and best-known book awards in the region.