A Contemporary Issue in the United States

1. Banned Books A Contemporary Issue in the United States By: Kayla Richard

2. What Are Banned Books? Banned books are books to which free access is not permitted It is a form of censorship Oppressive governments censor what their citizens cannot read The U.S. has banned books considered obscene or a threat to national security in history Today in the U.S., challenges to books occur at the local community or school district level Thesis: Banning books should not be allowed at the national, state, or local levels.

3. Challenged Books and Banned Books • Challenged books are books that have been attempted to remove or restrict based upon objections of a person or group. • From 1991 to 1994 the number of challenges in public and school libraries has increased by more than 50% • Banned books are books that were successfully removed after a challenge. • Of the over 4,500 books challenged last year, 42% of the complaints were successful in banning the books

4. Causes • Banning books often have political, religious, or moral motivations • Challenges are mostly motivated by the desire to protect children • Top three reasons for challenging materials are • The material was “sexually explicit” • The material contained “offensive language” • The material was “unsuited to any age group”

5. Debate PRO CON • School administrators and librarians have the responsibility to protect students from inappropriate and controversial materials • "Parents can no longer trust libraries to protect their children's innocence or uphold appropriate standards. Voters should demand that books with harmful content be removed from school and city libraries."-Randy Thomasson, President, Campaign for Children and Families • The individual students and their parents determine what is appropriate reading material & administrators take away the right to choose when they ban books • "It all stems from a fearfulness of well-meaning people. We believe in parental responsibility, and that you should take care of what your children are reading. But it's not your responsibility to tell a whole class of kids what they should read."-Michael Gorman, President, American Library Association

6. Banned Books Week —Annual awareness campaign that celebrates the freedom to read and draws attention to banned or challenged books by placing challenged books on display —Encourages people to read challenged works and promotes intellectual freedom within schools and libraries —Founded in 1982 by Judith Krug and since then has been held during the last week of September

7. List of Books Banned in U.S. Past Candide (1759) by Voltaire Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748), by John Cleland The Federal Mafia (1992) by Irwin Schiff The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck Howl (1955) by Allen Ginsberg [poem] Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) by D.H. Lawrence Naked Lunch (1959) by William S. Burroughs Operation Dark Heart (2010) by Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer Tropic of Cancer (1934) by Henry Miller Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe Unites States-Vietnam Relations: 1945-1967 (1971) by Robert McNamara and the Unites State Department of Defense *There are numerous other books that have been challenged and successfully banned at the state and local level

8. Pre 21st Century America • Sedition Act (1798) • Authorized the persecution of any public assembly or publication critical of the government • Espionage Act of 1917 • Prohibited false statements that might impede military success—the postmaster barred from the mail numerous magazines and newspapers • Sedition Act (1918) • Made it a crime to make printed or spoken words that advocated for the interference in the war effort • Government charged over 2,000 and over half were convicted

9. Specific Instances in U.S. History • Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe • Portrayed slaves as sympathetic Christians, at the mercy of slaveholders that split up families and set bloodhounds on innocent mothers and children • Banned in the South during the Civil War because of anti-slavery content • Margaret Sanger (during the Progressive Era, 1900-1916) • In 1911 she began a column on sex education, “What Every Girl Should Know” • Post officials barred one issue from the mail containing a column on venereal disease • The next issue included a blank page with the headline, “What Every Girl Should Know—Nothing; by order of the U.S. Post Office”

10. Questions (Factual) • Question 1 • What is the difference between banned books and challenged books? • Question 2 • When was Banned Books Week started and when does Banned Books Week occur?

11. Answers (Factual) Question 1 Question 2 • Challenged books are books that have been attempted to remove or restrict based upon objections of a person or group. • Banned books are books that were successfully removed after a challenge. • Banned Books Week was founded in 1982 by Judith Krug and since then has been held during the last week of September

12. Questions (Critical Questions) • Question 3 • Can a school board remove a book from a school library simply because they disagree with ideas in a book? Why or why not? • Question 4 • Should a school library be allowed to limit access to certain books by requiring students to get the approval of their parents or guardians? Why or why not?

13. Answers (Critical Questions) Question 3 Question 4 • I think that a school board does not have the right to remove a book from a school library simply because they do not agree with the ideas in the book because it is a violation of the First Amendment rights guarantee of free speech. It is not up to the school to decide whether or not a book is inappropriate for a child, but rather the parents. And if a parent complains about a certain book, it is not their job to restrict that book for all students. • I think that a school library should be allowed to limit access to certain books by requiring students to get the approval of their guardians because this is a compromise between those pro banning books and those against banning books. This still allows access to questionable books, but only if the guardian chooses to let their child read the book. And as we know from the past, compromises are efficient ways to solve problems by making everyone happy.

14. Works Cited • ProQuest Staff. "At Issue: Banned Books." ProQuest LLC. 2011: n.pag. SIRS Researcher. Web. 18 May 2011. • “Banned and Challenged Books.” ALA American Library Association. ALA, 2011. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.ala.org/‌ala/‌issuesadvocacy/‌banned/‌index.cfm>. • “Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read!” bannedbooksweek. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/‌info.html>. • Staples, Suzanne Fisher. “WHAT JOHNNY CAN’T READ Censorship in American Libraries.” The Alan Review 23.2 (1996): n. pag. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/‌ejournals/‌ALAN/‌winter96/‌pubCONN.html>.