Banned Books Week 2022: Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.
“Banned Books Week is both a reminder of the unifying power of stories and the divisiveness of censorship, and a call to action for readers across the country to push back against censorship attempts in their communities.” — American Library Association
Earlier this year on the blog we reported on the rise of book challenges in the United States. Since that post in February, the number of book challenges has only grown. In fact, Publisher’s Weekly recently reported that in 2022, the American Library Association (ALA) recorded its highest number of attempted book bans since it began compiling data on challenges in 2002. The article states, “In a report, the American Library Association disclosed that it tracked 729 challenges in libraries, schools, and universities in 2021, resulting in 1,597 individual book challenges or removals — many of them by Black or LGBTQ authors and/or featuring BIPOC or LGBTQ characters.”
The first known incident of book banning in the US happened in 1650, when colonist William Pynchon published The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption. This religious pamphlet upset his fellow colonists so much that it was quickly banned and then burned in the Boston Common. In 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in defiance of book banning laws of the time, which prohibited any materials expressing anti-slavery sentiment. The 1873 Comstock Act was passed to prohibit material deemed obscene from being passed through the mail. Items banned by the legislation included anatomy textbooks and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Throughout American history US courts have been asked on numerous occasions to weigh in on censorship attempts and other first amendment cases. One of the most famous censorship cases to land in the courts is United States v. One Book Called Ulysses (1933). It “was a freedom of expression case brought about by [New York Law School] NYLS alumnus Morris Ernst on behalf of Random House publishers. At issue was whether James Joyce’s novel Ulysses was obscene, resulting in Judge John Woosley’s [sic] widely known trial court opinion affirming the principles of freedom of expression in literature.” The decision was appealed in 1934, with the appellate court affirming the lower court’s decision.
To bring awareness to book censorship efforts, the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) started Banned Books Week, held this year from September 18th — 24th. The event, which brings together authors, librarians, educators, publishers, and readers, is celebrating its 40th year. Held generally during the last week of September, Banned Books Week “highlights the value of free and open access to information.” The theme for 2022 is Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.
Along with providing free resources to help promote Banned Books Week, the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom releases an annual list of the most challenged books from the previous year. The top five banned books identified by ALA in 2021 are:
1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
2. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
3. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
4. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
To see the last twenty one years of Top 10 Most Challenged Book Lists and the reasons given for challenging the titles, click here. The ALA will publish its list for 2022 in the spring of 2023.
The law library collection contains books about censorship and the First Amendment, including Free Speech on Campus by Erwin Chemerinsky and First Amendment Law in a Nutshell by Jerome A. Barron and C. Thomas Dienes. For information on checking out these titles or other books in our collection, please review our blog post on Curbside Service. (LE)
