Memory of a Large Christmas

As a young child in the early 1900s, writer and civil rights crusader Lillian Smith lived an idyllic, small—town life. Of the many customs by which her and her eight brothers' and sisters' days were ordered, none are so fondly remembered by Smith as those of the Christmas season.

With a lighthearted touch, she recalls such times as when the family hosted forty—eight chain—gang convicts, along with their guards, to a holiday feast and the time her older brothers almost bought an elegant coffi...