Banned Book Profile: To Kill a Mockingbird

During Banned Books Week, I am going to try to profile books (perhaps one a day–we’ll see how that goes) that, you may be surprised to learn, have been banned or challenged at some point since publication.

I am starting with what I think is one of the best books ever written. In my opinion, it is a master class on how to write a novel. Whether you’re talking about narration, dialog, voice–this book, for me, is priceless. But it seems not everyone has thought so over the years.

THE FACTS:

Title: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Author: Harper Lee
Publisher: J. B. Lippincott & Co
First Published: July 11, 1960

Where/When/Why Banned or Challenged (from the ALA website):

• Challenged in Eden Valley, MN (1977) and temporarily banned due to words “damn” and “whore lady” used in the novel.
• Challenged in the Vernon Verona Sherill, NY School District (1980) as a “filthy, trashy novel.”
• Challenged at the Warren, IN Township schools (1981) because the book does “psychological damage to the positive integration process” and “represents institutionalized racism under the guise of good literature.” After unsuccessfully trying to ban Lee’s novel, three black parents resigned from the township human relations advisory council.
• Challenged in the Waukegan, IL School District (1984) because the novel uses the word “nigger.”
• Challenged in the Kansas City, MO junior high schools (1985). Challenged at the Park Hill, MO Junior High School (1985) because the novel “contains profanity and  racial slurs.”
• Retained on a supplemental eighth grade reading list in the Casa Grande, AZ Elementary School District (1985), despite the protests by black parents and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who charged the book was unfit for junior high use.
• Challenged at the Santa Cruz, CA Schools (1995) because of its racial themes.
• Removed from the Southwood High School Library in Caddo Parish, LA (1995) because the book’s language and content were objectionable.
• Challenged at the Moss Point, MS School District (1996) because the novel contains a racial epithet.
• Banned from the Lindale, TX advanced placement English reading list (1996) because the book “conflicted with the values of the community.”
• Challenged by a Glynn County, GA (2001) School Board member because of profanity.
• The novel was retained. Returned to the freshman reading list at Muskogee, OK High School (2001) despite complaints over the years from black students and parents about racial slurs in the text.
• Challenged in the Normal, IL Community High School’s sophomore literature class (2003) as being degrading to African Americans.
• Challenged at the Stanford Middle School in Durham, NC (2004) because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses the word “nigger.”
• Challenged at the Brentwood, TN Middle School (2006) because the book contains “profanity” and “contains adult themes such as sexual intercourse, rape, and incest.”  The complainants also contend that the book’s use of racial slurs promotes “racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy.”
• Retained in the English curriculum by the Cherry Hill, NJ Board of Education (2007).  A resident had objected to the novel’s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression.  The resident feared the book would upset black children reading it.
• Removed (2009) from the St. Edmund Campion Secondary School classrooms in Brampton Ontario, Canada because a parent objected to language used in the novel, including the word “nigger.”