Subversive Books, Politics, and the First Amendment

In the last five years, there has been an upsurge in the effort to ban books from public libraries and schools, even such seemingly inoffensive and inspiring children’s books like Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington and Ruby Bridges Goes to School, a memoir by an African American girl who integrated a white New Orleans school.  In response to what they characterize as “woke” indoctrination of students, conservative organizations have offered model legislation for states to adopt to prohibit not only specific books but also the mention of LGBTQ+ people and difficult historical topics like slavery and the Civil War. Many of these censorship laws have been adopted..  Meanwhile, left-leaning groups have pressured school boards and libraries to remove books deemed racist, such as Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird, sexist or homophobic.  This presentation will discuss the free speech issues generated by this controversy.

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