A wave of book banning has taken over the U.S.

Controversy has run wild on all sides of

the political spectrum, and the banning movement has turned into a heated debate. With so much
misinformation and hatred spreading, it is hard to know what to trust or how this movement
came about. I intend to clear the muddled understanding of the current book banning wave,
presenting an easy-to-follow narrative of the issue, its implications, and legal concerns.
Censorship is not new to the 21st century; book banning has been around for centuries. In
the Roman Catholic Reformation era (1545-1648), churches banned individual access to written
materials. They claimed that the common person did not need to access these texts since the
bible was recited in the church. In actuality, the lack of censorship was deemed threatening to the
Church’s power since it encouraged individual autonomy (Graff 2022). This censorship
continues to serve as a basis for the many waves of censorship across the world. Within the
United States, book banning and censorship has been intertwined with social issues and change.
Staring in the colonial era, religious leaders paved the way for book censorship in America. In
1650 William Pynchon published the pamphlet The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption, which
was quickly burned and banned by Puritan Calvinists who believed Pynchon to be a heretic.
During the Civil War, Harriet Beecher’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was banned in slaveholding states
because it spoke out against enslavement. This type of banning persisted well into the Jim Crow
era, with many abolitionist books being banned (Blakemore 2022).
In the Victorian era (1837-1901) and the first three decades of the 20th century another
wave of book banning took place under the guise of ridding “immorality.” Books about birth
control, sexuality, and maternity were the main target as the birth control and women's suffrage
movements began gaining support in the early 20th century. The next major waves in the U.S.
was during the McCarthy era (1940s-50s) and 1980s. These waves attacked libraries, rather than
only particular books, out of fear of communism and socialism. Books such as To Kill a
Mockingbird (Harper Lee), The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger), The Color Purple (Alice
Walker), and The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) were banned for supposed sexual
promiscuity, profanity, ties to communism, or violence.
The current book banning movement follows the precedent of the movements before it
but stands out in its aggressive attack toward educators and libraries. This movement has targeted
books about LBGTQIA+ issues and experiences, race, and racism. From July 2021 to March
2022 1,568 book bans in 86 districts and 26 states, according to PEN America (Blakemore
2022). The most controversial books in this censorship debate have been The Hate U Give by
Angie Thomas, Maia Kobae’s Gender Queer, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, and
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
Within the last five years alone, there has been increased reporting on racial and
LGBTQIA+ discrimination. Nearly half of Americans believe the nation has not made enough
racial equality progress (Pew Research Center 2019). Additionally, members of the LGBTQIA+
community are nine times more likely to be victims of violent hate crimes than non-LGBTQIA+
individuals (Dowd 2022). Politicians have made these marginalized groups even more vulnerable
targets of hate crimes, seen through the current wave of anti-trans legislation nationwide. The
LGBTQIA+ community, in particular, has become the target of fearmongering and
discrimination, similar to the red scare in the 1950s and race-based book banning in the 1980s.
The action of book banning denies students their right to education. The United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that every human being has the essential right
to an education that “promote[s] understanding, tolerance and friendship” and the freedom of
thought, opinion, and expression (“Universal Declaration of Human Rights”). By banning books
about diversity, this right is being violated. Books about race and LGBTQIA+ experiences that
teach tolerance and friendship are being banned and will directly lead to the disappearance of
tolerance and friendship being taught in schools nationwide. The banning also denies students
the right to express their thoughts and opinions by denying them access to books with these
themes.
In the 1982 Board of Education v. Pico Supreme Court case, representative Jamie Raskin
stated that the selective banning of books because of disapproval over contents “directly and
sharply impedes students’ free speech and thought,” or in other words a denial of their basic
unalienable rights (Kirich 2022). This case also laid out that “Local school boards may not
remove books from school libraries simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those
books” (Blakemore 2022). The current book banning movement is a violation of human rights
and U.S. law.
The current censorship movement is more organized than ever before. Before,
community members or parents would send complaints about a specific book to libraries. Now
requests include multiple books that are intentionally selected by national organizations, such as
Moms for Liberty, says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual
Freedom (Italie 2023). These national organizations are creating lists of supposedly inappropriate
books to push their agenda and apply pressure on school districts and libraries. The main claim
of support for this movement is the issue of parental rights and choice.
Those who support this movement believe that all parents should ultimately hold total
control of the upbringing of their children, disregarding the hypocrisy of controlling what other
parents’ children can access. Politically, the main perpetrators of this wave are “supercharged by
right-wing politicians, radical evangelicals, and supporting activists,” according to Professor of
English and History Harvey Graff (2022). Librarians have noted a similar trend of the vast
majority of complaints from conservatives directing their energy toward books about race and
LGBTQIA+ issues, with some being targeted by liberals for racist language (Italie 2023).
The main issue with this movement is the restriction of freedom of speech and
discrimination of marginalized groups. While debates about whether these books are truly
inappropriate are valid and needed, that is not the most pertinent issue this movement has
created. By restricting access to books about diversity, or a diverse range of books in general,
you are “laying the groundwork for increasing bullying, disrespect, violence and attacks,” as
author Laurie Halse Anderson mentions (Alter and Harris 2022). Removing books about
LGBTQIA+ themes and race harms those within those groups, especially young children.
Banning these books are attacks on any student who identifies as BIPOC or LGBTQIA+, further
marginalizing them. Ruby Bridges, a civil rights activist and the first black child to desegregate
an all-white school, states that “we cannot hide the truth from our kids. It is history and history is
sacred. We shouldn’t change it or alter it in any way” (Kirich 2022). Erasing their history will not
erase their existence.
 Works Cited

Alter, Alexandra and Harris, Elizabeth. “Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S.” New York

Times. January 30, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/30/books/book-ban-us-

schools.html.

Blakemore, Erin. “The history of book bans—and their changing targets—in the U.S.” National

Geographic. September 6, 2022. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/

history-of-book-bans-in-the-united-states.

Dowd, Rachel. “LGBT people nine times more likely than non-LGBT people to be victims of

violent hate crimes.” Williams Institute press release, December 21, 2022.

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/lgbt-hate-crimes-press-release/.

Italie, Hillel. “Book ban attempts reach record high in 2022, American Library Association

report says.” PBS. March 23, 2023. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/book-ban-

attempts-reach-record-high-in-2022-american-library-association-report-says.

Graff, Harvey J. “Harvey J. Graff Examines the History of Book Banning.” Publishers Weekly

269. No. 1. Jan 3, 2022. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2615683443.

Kirch, Claire. “Congress Investigates Book Banning in Schools.” Publishers Weekly, April 18,

2022.

Pew Research Center. “Race in America 2019.” April 9, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/

social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/.

United Nations. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” https://www.un.org/en/about-us/

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20shall%20be%20compulsory.