Lillian Smith (author)
In 1944. Smith published her controversial and best-selling book Strange Fruit. The book dealt with a then-forbidden and very controversial theme: mixed race romances. The book was originally titled Jordan is So Chilly. Smith, however, changed the title for the novel to Strange Fruit. Not long after the novel was released, it was banned in Boston, Massachusetts and Detroit, Michigan under reasons of "lewdness" and profane language. The novel was also banned from being mailed in the United States Postal Service. The ban against the novel, though, was lifted by the then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt when his wife Eleanor made a request toward him.