Teach Banned Books!
In 1982, Banned Books Week was founded by library activist Judith Krug, the director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association. Krug, a lifelong advocate for First Amendment rights and the freedom to read, sought to bring national awareness to the increasing number of books in public libraries that were being challenged or banned in the years following President Ronald Reagan’s first election. Since then, Banned Books Week has taken place in the United States every September or October.
Today, the issue of censorship in public libraries is just as contentious as it was four decades ago. The American Library Association tracked 1,247 efforts to censor books and other resources in libraries in 2023 — a 65% increase from 2022. Historical scholarship and curriculum have been uniquely targeted, as political battles across the country have increasingly seen K-12 education as a battlefield.
While political and cultural battles over K-12 history education have been occurring for over a century, the rise in political polarization in recent years has led to increased scrutiny of K-12 educators and challenges to student reading material. A recent report by the American Historical Association, based on surveys of over 3,000 middle and high school U.S. educators, found no evidence of indoctrination, politicization, or classroom malpractice in U.S. secondary school classrooms. Still, threats to inclusive history education remain.
This school year, the CHSSP encourages teachers to continue to teach history with integrity. Teaching banned books is a great way to help students learn about First Amendment rights and the history of censorship, as well as to celebrate underrepresented narratives and highlight diverse voices. Take a look at the resources below to get started!
Banned Historical Scholarship:
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (2016)
From Bold Type Books:
“In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis. As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched racist policies and the nation's racial inequities.”
Censorship:
Banned and challenged in several states for “divisive racial content”. Stamped from the Beginning’s “remixed” version for young audiences, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, written with Jason Reynolds, was the second most commonly banned and challenged book in the United States in 2020.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014)
From Beacon Press:
“In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them….Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.”
Censorship:
Banned in Arizona for “promoting resentment toward a race or class of people” and challenged in Texas for teaching critical race theory. The version for young readers, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People, has also been banned and challenged in many areas. In response, 1,300 Native writers signed a letter to the US Congress urging against its censorship.
Paul Ortiz, An African American and Latinx History of the United States (2018)
From Beacon Press:
“Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history, arguing that the “Global South” was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Scholar and activist Paul Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress as exalted by widely taught formulations like “manifest destiny” and “Jacksonian democracy,” and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms US history into one of the working class organizing against imperialism.”
Censorship:
Challenged in Texas as being “potentially unsuitable for young minds.”
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010)
From the Author:
“Today, it is no longer socially permissible to use race explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. Yet as civil-rights-lawyer-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander demonstrates, it is perfectly legal to discriminate against convicted criminals in nearly all the ways in which it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once labeled a felon, even for a minor drug crime, the old forms of discrimination are suddenly legal again. In her words, ‘we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.’”
Censorship:
Banned in prisons in Florida and North Carolina for being “likely to provoke confrontation between racial groups.”
Banned Picture Books #KatesBookClub:
All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold. A must-read for every classroom. All students, no matter their background, can see themselves in this book. A warm, welcoming picture book that celebrates diversity and gives encouragement and support to all kids. Important read, especially in our current political climate. (In 2022, a Norwin, Pennsylvania school board member criticized the use of this book in the classroom after a concern made by an anonymous parent. Some have criticized the book for its celebration of sexuality, including same-sex couples with children and interracial couples, others have criticized the book for not representing fathers of any ethnicity. Some have criticized the book for failing to differentiate between legal immigrants and foreign invaders.)
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena. A young boy, CJ, rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things. One of my all-time favorite titles with Many teachable moments, including "They sat right up front." Great place to tie in the bus protests and segregation during the Civil Rights movement. Caldecott and Newbery Award winner, 2016. (Banned in 2021 from Central York, Pennsylvania classrooms.)
Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 by Alice Faye Duncan. Story of a nine-year-old girl who marched in the Memphis sanitation strike with her parents. Includes details about the events leading up to the strike, the response of the local government, and the role of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the protest. So many opportunities for connections to today's students - economic instability, power of peaceful protest, government response. Also nice for students to understand the background for MLK's visit to Memphis. (The title has been banned “pending investigation” by the Duval County (Jacksonville, Florida) Board of Education.)
Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena. Milo is on a long subway ride with his older sister. To pass the time, he studies the faces around him and makes pictures of their lives. And then there's the boy in the suit with the bright white sneakers; Milo imagines him arriving home to a castle with a drawbridge and a butler. But when the boy in the suit gets off on the same stop as Milo--walking the same path, going to the exact same place--Milo realizes that you can't really know anyone just by looking at them. (A book-rating website raised concerns about the book because it refers to incarceration and includes an illustration of two women getting married.)
Name Jar, The by Yangsook Choi. Unhei is the new kid in school. Instead of introducing herself with her Korean name, Unhei tells her class that she will choose a name the following week. Unhei’s new classmates decide to help and fill a glass jar with names for her to pick from. When her classmates discover her real name and its special meaning, they convince Unhei to choose her own Korean name and everyone learns how to pronounce it - Yoon-Hey. Fabulous book to use at the beginning of the year, emphasizing finding the courage to be yourself and being proud of one’s background. (This book was banned in classrooms in the Central York School District in Pennsylvania in 2021 and 2022 banned in Duval County Public Schools in Florida.)
Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders. This book traces the life of the Gay Pride Flag, from its beginnings with social activist Harvey Milk and designer Gilbert Baker to its spanning of the globe and its role in today's world. The title has achieved the dubious distinction of being one of the most banned picture books. (In some instances, the book has been removed in response to legislation which seeks to ban certain books. For example, in Utah, school officials removed the book even after the original complaint had been withdrawn. The book is one of 176 books removed from classrooms in Duval County, Florida, in January 2022 for “review.” These books have been kept in storage for months with little indication of when they might return to classrooms.)
Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh. Years before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez, an eight-year-old girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, played an instrumental role in Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case of 1946 in California. This title is highlighted in Chapter 6 of the California History-Social Science Framework where, “Students may read biographies or engage in an inquiry project focused on these national and local citizens by reading primary sources, informational books, and historical fiction such as Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh. The book recounts one family’s involvement in the fight to desegregate schools in California.” (The book was banned three times, once in a district in Pennsylvania and in two Texas districts.)
A more complete list of banned or challenged picture books has been compiled by the Brooklyn Public Library. That list can be found here.
Resources on Banned Books for Educators:
The Banned Books Week Coalition has put together a list of resources for educators that can be used throughout the year to promote the right to read. Resources include programming and discussion guides, a handbook for dealing with censorship controversies, and a graphic novel teaching tool, among others.
We Need Diverse Books is a non-profit organization that advocates for the production and promotion of books featuring diverse characters. The organization provides many free resources for educators, parents, authors, and publishers and has a resource list on book bans specifically.