Sponsored jointly by the Harvard Liberal Union and the Boston Metropolitan Council, Lillian Smith, author of the best selling novel "Strange Fruit," will address an open forum today in the Lowell House Junior Common Room. The subject of the forum, which will take place at 3 o'clock, will be "The White Man and His Culture."

This will be the first time that Miss Smith has spoken on a socially significant topic in the city in which her book was banned. Her first appearance here was her address to the Boston Book Fair last night. Life Magazine is covering her trip, but College officials have refused to permit pictures to be taken on University property.

HLU Arranged Test Case

Last term the Liberal Union devoted its energies to helping to arrange the test case o the banning of the book by canvassing. Various Cambridge booksellers. The trial sale of the book to Bernard DeVoto, the writer by the University Law Book Store was arranged by the Liberal Union with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union. The case is now pending in the Cambridge courts, awaiting hearing on an appeal.