Book Bans 
-
SOURCE: Truthout
5/25/2023
Book Bans and Attacks on Libraries are Energizing Youth Activism
by Emily Drabinski
Right-wing politicians in Texas are teaching students about the realities of democracy, but not in the way they might have hoped.
-
SOURCE: WBUR
5/23/2023
Massachusetts-Based Historians: Book Bans in Florida Affect Us, Too
Kellie Carter Jackson and Kerri Greenidge explain how the push to restrict books and teaching on racism in Florida will affect teaching even in blue states.
-
SOURCE: Truthout
5/18/2023
George Yancy and Joe Feagin on How to Fight Back Against Book Bans
The sociologist, whose books on racism have been banned, argues "U.S. book banning has been widespread and routinely targeted books with diverse ideas and perspectives for centuries now, especially those challenging white conservative sociopolitical ideas, norms and values."
-
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: 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: 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: Washington Post
5/17/2023
Florida's Book Banners Face New Opposition—and Their Lawyers
While there is a groundswell of opposition to book removal policies and other restrictions on educational content, it remains to be seen whether Democratic politicians will commit to defending the importance of public education in a multicultural democracy.
-
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: Miami New Times
5/4/2023
Florida History Professor's Nonprofit will Distribute Banned Books
"We will not allow DeSantis to kill our history," says Marvin Dunn. "We just won't allow it. We will take our history directly to the parents if that's what's required, and apparently, it is what is required."
-
SOURCE: New York Times
4/26/2023
Why a Book About Two Bunnies Marrying Was Banned in 1959
Illustrator and author Garth Williams feigned incredulity that his tale of a white and black rabbit's romance ran afoul of Jim Crow sensibilities, but it's hard to see how else it was likely to be perceived, says Sharon Patricia Holland of the University of North Carolina.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
4/22/2023
Book Bans Surge as Officials Fear Ambiguities in Florida Law
“It is a whole new level of fear,” said Kathleen Daniels, the president of the Florida Association for Media in Education, a professional organization for school librarians and media educators. “There are books that are not being selected because they have been challenged.”
-
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.
-
SOURCE: BookRiot
3/22/2023
US House "Parental Rights" Bill Threatens to Take Book Banning Nationwide
Each of the five “common sense principles” the bill's sponsor articulates are already granted to parents. What the bill really seeks is to empowe political groups to dictate the content of education and advance the privatization of public schools.
-
SOURCE: Education Week
3/16/2023
Confusion Over Book Bans in Florida is a Feature, Not a Bug, of New Policies
The state education commissioner of Florida, Manny Diaz, has insisted that the state is not banning books. Civil liberties and library groups say that vague laws and public threats of prosecution are pushing educators to remove books without technically being forced to do so, which is the point.
-
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: The New Yorker
3/10/2023
What are the Evils and Dangers Targeted by Book Bans?
A study of the books flagged for restriction in Duval County, Florida in the last two years suggests that a particular political vision is driving the bans, focusing on LGBTQ themes and racial and religious diversity. But a fear of adolescents' developing autonomy also seems to be in play.
-
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.
-
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.
-
SOURCE: The Guardian
2/14/2023
Drop "Culture War" Description: Banning Books and Restricting Ideas is Fascism
by Jason Stanley
Conflicting cultural values are a normal part of democracy. What leaders like Ron DeSantis want is to make sure only one set of values has a place in the public square.
-
SOURCE: African American Policy Forum
2/12/2023
African American Policy Forum Announces #TruthBeTold Campaign
The AAPF is launching an interactive project to monitor efforts to ban books, censor classes, and punish teachers, and to offer reader the opportunity to share their valued experiences with antiracist education.
News
- The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
- Amitai Etzioni, Theorist of Communitarianism, Dies at 94
- Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions
- New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike
- First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs
- The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth
- British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"
- Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking
- Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"
Trending Now
- New transcript of Ayn Rand at West Point in 1974 shows she claimed “savage" Indians had no right to live here just because they were born here
- The Mexican War Suggests Ukraine May End Up Conceding Crimea. World War I Suggests the Price May Be Tragic if it Doesn't
- The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of