Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman

in
Little Black Sambo
By Helen Bannerman

A crazy, racist little fairy tale, Sambo learns to steal from bullies and eat hella pancakes.

Banned

1956 - Canada - Removed by the Toronto, Ontario board of education after complaints from several groups that "the popular book was a cause of mental suffering to Negroes in particular and children in general."

1959 - New York - A black resident of New York City challenged the book at a school library, calling it racially derogatory. The book was eventually restored to library shelves.

1964 - Nebraska - School superintendent of Lincoln school system ordered it removed from open shelves due to the inherent racism of the book. The book was placed on reserved shelves with a note explaining it would be available as optional material.

1971 - Alabama - Montgomery schools banned the book for being "inappropriate" and "not in keeping with good human relations."

1972

United Kingdom - General attack in schools and libraries for symbolizing "the kind of dangerous and obsolete books that must go."

Canada - Hamilton, Ontario teachers ordered students to tear the story from their books; the Montreal-based Canadian National Black Coalition began a war to remove the book from school and library shelves; New Brunswick banned it entirely.

Texas - Dallas school libraries removed the book because it "distorts a child's view of black people."

Sources

Associated Press. "COMPANY NEWS; Sambo's to Alter Northeast Names." New York Times, 1981. Retrieved January 5, 2018 from http://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/11/business/company-news-sambo-s-to-alter-northeast-names.html

Bannerman, Helen. "Little Black Sambo." Applewood Books, 1921. Bedford, Massachusetts.

Doyle, Robert P. "Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read." American Library Association, 2014.

Golus, Carrie. "Sambo’s subtext." Chicago Magazine. 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2018 from http://magazine.uchicago.edu/1010/chicago_journal/sambos-subtext.shtml

Pancake Parlour. "Helen Bannerman on the Train to Kodaikanal." Retrieved January 5, 2018 from http://web.archive.org/web/20060820084143/http://pancakeparlour.com/Wonderland/Highlights/Thefuture/Short_Stories/Bannerman/bannerman.html

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

in ,
To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee

A novel told from the point of a young girl that deals with racism, sexism, classicism, and violence in the deep south. Join our narrator as he gets into the issues of his homeland and also shares stories about rolling in tires and old pianos in gymnasiums.

Banned

deals with racial injustice, class systems, gender roles, loss of innocence, language, violence, rape, incest and authority

1966 - Virginia - Hanover for immoral use of rape as a plot device

1968 - #2 National Education Association list receiving the most complaints from private organizations

1977 - Minnesota - Eden Valley School Committee for being too laden with profanity, temporary ban

1980 - New York - Vernon-Verona-Sherill School District where "Reverend Carl Hadley threatened to establish a private Christian school because public school libraries contained such "filthy, trashy sex novels" as A Separate Peace and To Kill a Mockingbird"

1981 - Indiana - Warren where "three black parents resigned from the township Human Relations Advisory Council when the Warren County school administration refused to remove the book from Warren junior high school classes. They contended that the book "does psychological damage to the positive integration process and represents institutionalized racism""

1984 - Illinois - Waukegan School District over racial slurs.

1985

Missouri - Kansas City and Park Hill Junior High School for profanity and racial slurs

Arizona - Casa Grande School District "by black parents and the NAACP who charged the book was unfit for junior high use."

1990s - New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada for racial language, “The terminology in this novel subjects students to humiliating experiences that rob them of their self-respect and the respect of their peers. The word ‘nigger’ is used 48 times [in] the novel… We believe that the English Language Arts curriculum in Nova Scotia must enable all students to feel comfortable with ideas, feelings and experiences presented without fear of humiliation… To Kill a Mockingbird is clearly a book that no longer meets these goals and therefore must no longer be used for classroom instruction.”

1995

California - Santa Cruz Schools for racial themes

Louisiana - Caddo Parish's Southwood High School Library for language and objectionable content

1996

Mississippi - Moss Point School District over racial epithet.

Texas - Lindale advanced placement English reading list for “conflicted with the values of the community.”

2000-2009 - #21 on ALA's most frequently challenged books

2001

Georgia - Glynn County School Board for profanity

Oklahoma - removed from Muskogee High School for racial slurs after years of complaints from black students and parents, but returned

2004

Illinois - Normal Community High School as "being degrading to African Americans."

North Carolina - Durham for racial slurs.

2006 - Tennessee - Brentwood Middle School for profanity, sex, rape and incest as well as racial slurs promoting "racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy"

2007 - New Jersey - Cherry Hill Board of Education for objections "to the novel’s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression and feared the book would upset black children reading it."

2009 - Canada, Ontario - St. Edmund Campion Secondary School in Brampton due to language and racial slurs

2016 - Virginia - The superintendent of Accomack County Public Schools confirmed the district had removed Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” after a parent voiced her concerns during a Nov. 15 school board meeting, reported WAVY-TV.

2017 - Mississippi - Removed from the 8th grade course work in Biloxi schools due to "some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable

2018 - Minnesota - Duluth Public Schools removed the book from the curriculum for use of the "n" word.

Sources

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014.

Caron, Christina. "‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Removed From School in Mississippi." New York Times. Retrieved Oct 16, 2017 from

Philips, Kristine. "A school district drops ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Huckleberry Finn’ over use of the n-word." Washington Post. Retrieved on 2018 February 9 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/02/07/a-school-district-drops-to-kill-a-mockingbird-and-huckleberry-finn-over-use-of-the-n-word/?utm_term=.f2df4a0b9d2d

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"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/