censorship

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/23/2023
  

  Most Book Bans Driven by Tiny Minority of Activists; LGBTQ Themes Central to Objections

  Individuals who filed 10 or more challenges to books were responsible for two thirds of all complaints about books, suggesting a small group of political activists is driving the phenomenon. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/20/2023
  

  Historian Don Yacovone: Florida's Restrictions Echo the Demands to Teach Pro-Slavery Argument

  Jamelle Bouie's newsletter puts the current Florida controversy in light of a previous era's political demands about the teaching of history to justify one group's domination of another. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/22/2023
  

  Dept. of Ed Charges Georgia Book Removal May Violate Civil Rights

  A review by the department's civil rights unit concludes that Forsyth County, Georgia may have created a hostile learning environment for Black and LGBTQ students through its book removal policies. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Hill
  5/22/2023
  

  CA's Newsom Demands Info on Florida Textbook Revisions

  “You don’t get to rewrite history in a back room. You don’t get to erase basic facts around segregation, the holocaust, or Rosa Parks’ story. The extremists in Florida and textbook companies that are colluding with them are about to be exposed.”

• 
• 5/21/2023
  

  Texas Judge Revives Anthony Comstock's Crusade Against Reproductive Freedom

  by Bill Greer

  The career of Anthony Comstock shows what can happen when a highly committed moral crusader gains traction in the political system. His rehabilitation in the contemporary abortion war is cause for concern. 

• 
• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  5/15/2023
  

  Meet the Other Grassroots Moms Movement—The One Fighting For the Freedom to Read

  Jen Cousins of the Florida Freedom to Read Project won't let the right claim the political mantle of "parents' rights" in increasingly contentious education politics. 

• 
• SOURCE: NAACP LDF
  5/18/2023
  

  NAACP Legal Defense Fund Opposes Texas Legislation

  "Truthful and inclusive discussions about United States and Texas history and their connection to present-day inequalities are essential to accurate and quality academic instruction."

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  5/18/2023
  

  The Fight for the Soul of a Missouri School Board

  by Sue Halpern

  Even in a conservative community in southwestern Missouri, a grassroots group of parents and students has rallied to oppose right-wing efforts to restrict books available in the local public schools. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/10/2023
  

  DeSantis Signs Bill Giving Legislature Oversight of Invited Campus Speakers

  The concept of an oversight office to guarantee "intellectual diversity" has a long lineage on the right. Florida is the first state to require campuses to create those offices and require compliance and oversight. 

• 
• SOURCE: Insider
  5/10/2023
  

  The US Government Hired Dorothea Lange to Document the Japanese Internment, then Censored Her Photos

  The War Relocation Authority hired Lange and Ansel Adams, hoping to polish the public image of internment. Lange's photos, which revealed the harsh conditions of camps and the human tragedy of removal from homes and neighborhoods, were shelved. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/6/2023
  

  Pushed to Soften Discussion of Racism, Author Pulls out of Scholastic Deal

  Maggie Tokuda-Hall wrote the story of her grandparents meeting in a WWII-era internment camp, but it wasn't a commercial success. When Scholastic offered to license the work for classrooms, they asked for the unacceptable: downplaying the severity of anti-Japanese racism. 

• 
• SOURCE: PEN America
  5/1/2023
  

  Academic Freedom Battleground Shifts from Classroom to Institutions

  by Jeffrey Sachs, Jeremy C. Young and Jonathan Friedman

  Conservative leaders like Adam Kissel are advising lawmakers to defeat First Amendment protections for what professors say in the classroom by shifting legislation's focus to defining concepts as outside the bounds of academic disciplines and academic fields as outside the bounds of the university's mission. 

• 
• SOURCE: Business Insider
  4/16/2023
  

  Will Louisiana Ban Study of Racism Outright?

  Republican state officials in a party resolution appear to hold the position that "inglorious aspects" of American history are too divisive to be discussed in state institutions of highe education. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/5/2023
  

  Fighting Book Bans—and Winning

  by Alyssa Rosenberg

  Although book-banners have the attention of the media and are being used by politicians to create wedge issues, it's important to remember that the policy is unpopular, and can be resisted. 

• 
• 3/19/2023
  

  Censoring History Education Goes Hand in Hand with Democratic Backsliding

  by Julia Boechat Machado and Ruben Zeeman

  Regimes in the Philippines, India and Brazil have recently tried to censor the teaching of history in service of their poltical goals and claims to power. The pushback by scholars in these countries should inspire historians in Florida and elsewhere to resist the political censorship of research and teaching. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  3/16/2023
  

  Meet Some Librarians Fighting Back

  Librarian Mary Grahame Hunter says libraries are places where children's rights and intellectual autonomy are respected. Some in her Michigan community are working to change that. 

• 
• SOURCE: FIRE
  3/7/2023
  

  Why NYT v. Sullivan Matters More than Ever

  Conservative politicians want to use libel laws to intimidate critics. One Supreme Court case stands in their way. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Hill
  3/3/2023
  

  At its 150th Anniversary, the Comstock Law is Relevant Again

  by Jonathan Friedman and Amy Werbel

  Anthony Comstock drew on elite connections to give himself near unilateral power to confiscate "obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, or immoral" materials —terms he was free to define on his own—and prosecute people for possessing them. Right-wing politicians seem to be inspired by the example. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  3/8/2023
  

  Scholars and Activists Join Open Letter Condemning Political Intrusions on Scholarship and Teaching

  An open letter by Black Studies scholars and activists asks why a right-wing political faction has been empowered to hijack the curriculum in Florida and at the College Board, concluding that, far from being "drained of meaning," purged concepts are threatening to entrenched power. 

• 
• 2/22/2023
  

  America Fought Its Own Battle Over Books Before it Fought the Nazis

  by Brianna Labuskes

  The Armed Services Editions paperback books were wildly popular among World War II servicemembers. But they became symbols of American freedom to read in the war against fascism only after a bitter domestic battle about the works and topics that would be permitted.