Book Banning and Censorship

Book banning has been a part of American history in the public school system and in the general public for hundreds of years. It is not only a part of the distant past, but as current reality. In April of 2020, in my hometown Palmer Alaska, the school district banned The Great Gatsby, The Things They Carried, Catch 22, The Invisible Man, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

They were removed for:

“sexual references, graphic language and other concerns”

‘“sexually explicit material” and “‘anti-white’ messaging” in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”’

“language and sexual references in “The Great Gatsby,”’

“mentions of rape, incest, racial slurs, profanity and misogyny”

Members of the community pushed back on this ruling and it was overturned within the year. school board clerk Sarah Welton argued that children in her classes often lacked critical thinking skills and when controversial material was removed from their reading lists, they would be woefully unprepared to enter the real world. Children do not need to be isolated from the truth. There is great value in teaching them to face the complexities and discomfort in literature so that they are better equipped to think critically about real issues and injustice that comes into their experience.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/books/palmer-alaska-school-board-books.html

Atticus echoes this sentiment. When Scout asks Uncle Jack what a whore-lady was in chapter 9 he tells her a long story to avoid her question. Atticus rebukes him saying

“Jack! When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness’ sake. But don’t make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot and evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles ‘em… you had the right answer this afternoon, but the wrong reasons” (Lee 116)

When Scout asks Calpurnia what it meant when people said that Tom Robinson attacked Mayella, she did not give her the answer and instead sent her to Atticus. Atticus explained it honestly but not graphically.

From these examples, we learn that Atticus thinks that his children deserve to know the truth while still protecting them. Every parent has to make these decisions with their children. When there are discussions of banning books in public schools, they are almost always started by a complaint from a parent about some element of a text that they find offensive or even dangerous to their children.

Of the themes challenged in these books “themes of race, ethnicity, and sexual preference have been a large part of why those books got challenged”(LitHub). Diverse stories overall have faced the most challenge in the school system. Diversity here being defined as

“non-white main and/or secondary characters; LGBT main and/or secondary characters; disabled main and/or secondary characters; issues about race or racism; LGBT issues; issues about religion, which encompass in this situation the Holocaust and terrorism; issues about disability and/or mental illness; non-Western settings, in which the West is North America and Europe.”(ALA Office of Intercultural Freedom)

I encourage you to watch this ted talk: The Danger of a Single Story

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

The first book that was banned on a large scale was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin “The Confederacy barred the book from stores not only for its pro-abolitionist agenda, but because it aroused heated debates about slavery (some historians argue that the book catalyzed the Civil War).”(LitHub)

Two significant court cases that made moves towards abolishing the legal process of banning all books deemed “pornographic” (a term that was here used in a murky and fickle way) were the 1933 case The United States v. One Book Called Ulysses and 1957 case Roth vs. The United States. Following the Roth case, the Supreme Court clarified their law so that books with “redeeming social importance” were allowed to depict sexual or violent themes. The 1960-70s was a time where artists felt more freedom to be sexually explicit in their artwork in the sexual freedom movement that was racing across America. Book banning’s were dropping in frequency. The election of Ronald Raegan was the spark that encouraged a boom of bans that went up to “700-800 challenges a year”(LitHub). The American Library Association began the Banned Books Week in 1982 to

“get people to understand that these books weren’t pornographic or excessively violent, but simply depicting the real world…and that many were classics of American literature… Banned Books Week was the first real [American] celebration of the freedom to read.”(LitHub)

When Scout was forbidden to read by her teacher Miss Caroline, she said “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing” (Lee 23).

This is a divisive issue. One which continues to be relevant and important for us to wrestle with.

To Kill a Mockingbird and Book Banning

Our text is one of the most frequently challenged banned books of classic literature. Below is a list of challenges against To Kill a Mockingbird from the American Library Association from their Office for Intellectual Freedom. Other books on this site include The Great Gatsby, The Color Purple, and The Lord of the Flies. It is a worthwhile read.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Challenged in Eden Valley, MN (1977) and temporarily banned due to words "damn" and "whore lady" used in the novel.
Challenged in the Vernon Verona Sherill, NY School District (1980) as a "filthy, trashy novel."
Challenged at the Warren, IN Township schools (1981) because the book does "psychological damage to the positive integration process" and "represents institutionalized racism under the guise of good literature." After unsuccessfully trying to ban Lee's novel, three black parents resigned from the township human relations advisory council.
Challenged in the Waukegan, IL School District (1984) because the novel uses the n word.
Challenged in the Kansas City, MO junior high schools (1985). Challenged at the Park Hill, MO Junior High School (1985) because the novel "contains profanity and racial slurs." Retained on a supplemental eighth grade reading list in the Casa Grande, AZ Elementary School District (1985), despite the protests by black parents and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who charged the book was unfit for junior high use.
Challenged at the Santa Cruz, CA Schools (1995) because of its racial themes. Removed from the Southwood High School Library in Caddo Parish, LA (1995) because the book's language and content were objectionable.
Challenged at the Moss Point, MS School District (1996) because the novel contains a racial epithet. Banned from the Lindale, TX advanced placement English reading list (1996) because the book "conflicted with the values of the community."
Challenged by a Glynn County, GA (2001) School Board member because of profanity. The novel was retained. Returned to the freshman reading list at Muskogee, OK High School (2001) despite complaints over the years from black students and parents about racial slurs in the text.
Challenged in the Normal, IL Community High School's sophomore literature class (2003) as being degrading to African Americans.
Challenged at the Stanford Middle School in Durham, NC (2004) because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses the n word .
Challenged at the Brentwood, TN Middle School (2006) because the book contains “profanity” and “contains adult themes such as sexual intercourse, rape, and incest.” The complainants also contend that the book’s use of racial slurs promotes “racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy.”
Retained in the English curriculum by the Cherry Hill, NJ Board of Education (2007). A resident had objected to the novel’s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression. The resident feared the book would upset black children reading it.
Removed (2009) from the St. Edmund Campion Secondary School classrooms in Brampton Ontario, Canada because a parent objected to language used in the novel, including the n word.

What do we see from reading this list?

Not all challenges were from white parents. Some black parents saw this book as a painful story of hate and racism that they did not want their children to interact with.

What do we say to these challenges?
Is there truth to this desire to protect?
Is the classroom truly the place where this conversation is best had?

Can we trust middle school and high school students to engage with hate speech and racism with sensitivity and respect for BIPOC students in the classroom? If they do so publicly, will this care be held when teachers aren’t present?

There are no easy answers. If we believe that this story is worth telling, than it is important for us to reckon with the controversy that surrounds its history and public response. If we fail to reckon with the “white-savior” narrative or the duality of Mrs. Dubose as a hero to the children but a woman holding tight to racist and hateful speech or other moments in the text that make us uncomfortable, we are not truly engaging with the material. If this book made people comfortable it would not be the classic that it is today. Discomfort itself is not inherently bad for us. In fact, we need it to shift the ways we think and enter the world. Let us engage with this play with an awareness of its strengths and its weaknesses.

Sources

https://lithub.com/the-history-and-present-of-banning-books-in-america/

Amy Brady “The History (and Present) of Banning Books in America.” Literary Hub, Sept 22, 2016. https://lithub.com/the-history-and-present-of-banning-books-in-america/.

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics

Admin. “Banned & Challenged Classics.” Advocacy, Legislation & Issues, April 23, 2021. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics.