censorship

Our Amicus Brief Against Florida's Stop WOKE Act

by Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder

"The Supreme Court’s rejection of affirmative action in college admissions will provoke widespread debate. But not in the classrooms of Florida’s public colleges and universities, because the Stop WOKE Act prohibits it."

PEN Condemns Censorship in Removal of Coates's Memoir from AP Course

Several students reported their teacher using terms that mirrored the language of the state law—claiming the lesson "made them ashamed to be Caucasian"—resulting in the school board's decision to remove the book from an Advanced Placement Language course. 

Arkansas Libraries and Booksellers Sue over State Book Restrictions

The vagueness of provisions in the new law about "making available" material "harmful" to minors makes librarians and sellers afraid that even with separate children's sections they would face criminal liability for selling books to adults. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.”

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. 

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. 

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."

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.