{"id":29286,"date":"2016-09-30T12:01:43","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T17:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=29286"},"modified":"2016-09-29T10:44:22","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T15:44:22","slug":"banned-books-week-banned-challenged-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/banned-books-week-banned-challenged-classics\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books Week: Banned & Challenged Classics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each year, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms. According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 46 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century <\/a>have been the target of ban attempts. Despite being widely accepted as classic literature, these titles are often banned or challenged for the same reasons as contemporary books.<\/p>\n

The titles below represent banned or challenged books on that list, and some of the latest reasons why.<\/p>\n

\"rye_catcher\"<\/em><\/strong>T<\/em><\/strong>he Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

* Challenged, but retained\u00a0 on the shelves of Limestone County, AL school district (2000) despite objections about the\u00a0 book’s foul language.<\/p>\n

* Banned, but later reinstated after community protests at the Windsor\u00a0 Forest High School in Savannah, GA (2000). The controversy began in early 1999 when a\u00a0 parent complained about sex, violence, and profanity in the book that was part of an\u00a0 Advanced Placement English class.<\/p>\n

* Removed by a Dorchester District 2 school board member in\u00a0 Summerville, SC (2001) because it “is a filthy, filthy book.”<\/p>\n

* Challenged by a Glynn County,\u00a0 GA (2001) school board member because of profanity. The novel was retained.<\/p>\n

* Challenged in\u00a0 the Big Sky High School in Missoula, MT (2009).<\/p>\n

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\"johnsteinbeck_thegrapesofwrath\"The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

*Challenged at the Cummings High School in Burlington, NC (1986) as an optional reading assignment\u00a0 because the “book is full of filth. My son is being raised in a Christian home and this book takes the Lord’s name in vain and has all kinds of profanity in it.” Although the\u00a0 parent spoke to the press, a formal complaint with the school demanding the book’s removal\u00a0 was not filed.<\/p>\n

*Challenged at the Moore County school system in Carthage, NC (1986) because\u00a0 the book contains the phase “God damn.”<\/p>\n

*Challenged in the Greenville, SC schools (1991)\u00a0 because the book uses the name of God and Jesus in a “vain and profane manner along with\u00a0 inappropriate sexual references.”<\/p>\n

*Challenged in the Union City, TN High School\u00a0 classes (1993).<\/p>\n

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\"to_kill_a_mockingbird\"To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

*Challenged by a Glynn County, GA (2001) School Board member because of\u00a0profanity. The novel was retained. Returned to the freshman reading list at Muskogee, OK\u00a0High School (2001) despite complaints over the years from black students and parents about\u00a0racial slurs in the text.<\/p>\n

*Challenged in the Normal, IL Community High School’s sophomore\u00a0literature class (2003) as being degrading to African Americans.<\/p>\n

*Challenged at the Stanford\u00a0Middle School in Durham, NC (2004) because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses the\u00a0word “n*****.”<\/p>\n

*Challenged at the Brentwood, TN Middle School (2006) because the book\u00a0contains \u201cprofanity\u201d and \u201ccontains adult themes such as sexual intercourse, rape, and\u00a0incest.\u201d \u00a0The complainants also contend that the book\u2019s use of racial slurs promotes\u00a0\u201cracial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Retained in the English curriculum by the Cherry Hill, NJ Board of Education (2007). \u00a0A\u00a0resident had objected to the novel\u2019s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a\u00a0racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression. \u00a0The resident feared the\u00a0book would upset black children reading it.
\n*Removed (2009) from the St. Edmund Campion\u00a0Secondary School classrooms in Brampton Ontario, Canada because a parent objected to\u00a0language used in the novel, including the word \u201cn*****.”<\/p>\n

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\"colorpurple\"The Color Purple, by Alice Walker<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

*Removed from the Jackson County, WV school libraries (1997) along\u00a0with sixteen other titles. Challenged, but retained as part of a supplemental reading list\u00a0at the Shawnee School in Lima, OH (1999). Several parents described its content as vulgar\u00a0and “X-rated.”<\/p>\n

*Removed from the Ferguson High School library in Newport News, VA (1999).\u00a0Students may request and borrow the book with parental approval.<\/p>\n

*Challenged, along with\u00a0seventeen other titles in the Fairfax County, VA elementary and secondary libraries (2002),\u00a0by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools. The group contends the books\u00a0“contain profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct, and torture.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Challenged in Burke County (2008) schools in Morganton, NC by parents concerned about the\u00a0homosexuality, rape, and incest portrayed in the book.<\/p>\n

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\"ulysses_james_joyce_\"\u00a0Ulysses, by James Joyce<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

*Burned in the U.S. (1918), Ireland (1922), Canada (1922), England (1923) and banned in\u00a0England (1929).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\"beloved\"Beloved, by Toni Morrison<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

*Challenged in the Sarasota\u00a0County, FL schools (1998) because of sexual material. \u00a0Retained on the Northwest Suburban\u00a0High School District 214 reading listing in Arlington Heights, IL (2006), along with eight\u00a0other challenged titles. \u00a0A board member, elected amid promises to bring her Christian\u00a0beliefs into all board decision-making, raised the controversy based on excerpts from the\u00a0books she\u2019d found on the Internet.<\/p>\n

*Challenged in the Coeur d\u2019Alene School District, ID\u00a0(2007). \u00a0Some parents say the book, along with five others, should require parental\u00a0permission for students to read them.<\/p>\n

*Pulled from the senior Advanced Placement (AP)\u00a0English class at Eastern High School in Louisville, KY (2007) because two parents\u00a0complained that the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about antebellum slavery depicted the\u00a0inappropriate topics of bestiality, racism, and sex. \u00a0The principal ordered teachers to\u00a0start over with The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in preparation for upcoming AP\u00a0exams.<\/p>\n

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\"lordofthefliesbookcover\"The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

*Challenged in the\u00a0Waterloo, IA schools (1992) because of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements\u00a0defamatory to minorities, God, women and the disabled.<\/p>\n

*Challenged, but retained on the\u00a0ninth-grade accelerated English reading list in Bloomfield, NY (2000).
\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\"1984-book-cover\"1984, by George Orwell<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

*Challenged in the Jackson County, FL (1981) because Orwell’s novel is “pro-communist and\u00a0contained explicit sexual matter.”<\/p>\n

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\"e5ee0bb0efc66de49e34fdd8c1bef35f\"Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

*Challenged at the\u00a0Marion-Levy Public Library System in Ocala, FL (2006). \u00a0The Marion County commissioners\u00a0voted to have the county attorney review the novel that addresses the themes of pedophilia\u00a0and incest, to determine if it meets the state law\u2019s definition of \u201cunsuitable for minors.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\"ofmiceandmen\"Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

*Banned from the George County, MS schools (2002)\u00a0because of profanity. Challenged in the Normal, IL Community High Schools (2003) because\u00a0the books contains “racial slurs, profanity, violence, and does not represent traditional\u00a0values.” An alternative book, Steinbeck’s The Pearl, was offered but rejected by the family\u00a0challenging the novel. \u00a0The committee then recommended The House on Mango Street and The\u00a0Way to Rainy Mountain as alternatives.<\/p>\n

*Retained in the Greencastle-Antrim, PA (2006)\u00a0tenth-grade English classes. \u00a0A complaint was filed because of \u201cracial slurs\u201d and profanity\u00a0used throughout the novel. \u00a0The book has been used in the high school for more than thirty\u00a0years, and those who object to its content have the option of reading an alternative\u00a0reading.<\/p>\n

*Challenged at the Newton, IA High School (2007) because of concerns about\u00a0profanity and the portrayal of Jesus Christ. \u00a0Newton High School has required students to\u00a0read the book since at least the early 1980s. \u00a0In neighboring Des Moines, it is on the\u00a0recommended reading list for ninth-grade English, and it is used for some special education\u00a0students in the eleventh and twelfth grades.<\/p>\n

*Retained in the Olathe, KS ninth grade\u00a0curriculum (2007) despite a parent calling the novel a \u201cworthless, profanity-riddled book\u201d\u00a0which is \u201cderogatory towards African Americans, women, and the developmentally disabled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: American Library Association, Office of Intellectual Freedom<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms. According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 46 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[831],"class_list":["post-29286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reference","tag-banned-books-week"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-7Cm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29286"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29477,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29286\/revisions\/29477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}