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Featured Case EDIT PAGE Artist: Richard Wright Year: 1945 Date of Action: September 1975 Region: North America Location: Island Trees Union Free School District, NY Subject: Explicit Sexuality, Political/Economic/Social Opinion, Religion Medium: Confronting Bodies: Description of Artwork: Black Boy is a a coming-of-age memoir by American author Richard Wright, detailing his tortured youth under the Jim Crow laws of the South, and his eventual move to Chicago, where he establishes his writing career and becomes involved with the Communist Party in the United States. The Incident: Black Boy was immediately demonized as being anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Christian, as well as for its sexual content and unrelenting portrayal of race relations. In September 1975, several board members of the Island Trees Union Free School District attended a conference sponsored by Parents of New York United. At the conference, the school board members obtained materials listing objectionable books found in many school libraries. Taking this material to heart, in early 1976 the board removed several books from Island Trees High School and Island Trees Memorial Junior High School, including Black Boy by Richard Wright. Results of Incident: With assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, the students filed suit in January 1977 in a New York state court. The case was removed to federal court in part because of the constitutional issues involved. In 1979, a federal district court ruled in favor of the school district and dismissed the lawsuit. The district court reasoned that courts generally should not intervene in the operations of the schools and that although removing books may “reflect a misguided educational philosophy, it does not constitute a sharp and direct infringement of any First Amendment rights.” The next year, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling, finding that the students should have been given the opportunity to prove that the school board’s justifications for removing the books were “simply pretexts for the suppression of free speech.” After the school board failed to obtain full-panel review before the 2nd Circuit, it appealed to the Supreme Court. In 1982, the high court took the case and in a divided opinion said school officials are limited on when they can remove books from library shelves. The case was sent back down to the lower courts and within a year the books were returned to the library shelves — after a 4-3 school board vote in January 1983. (See: Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982)) Source: BOARD OF EDUCATION v. PICO, (1982) Island Trees School District v. Pico, Wikipedia PARTICIPANT IN FAMOUS BOOK-BANNING CASE LOOKS BACK, Newseum Institute, September 30, 2010 Banned Books Awareness: The Censored Side of Black History, Banned Books Awareness, February 8, 2016 What is Censorpedia? Censorpedia is a crowdsourced online database of censorship cases within the arts and in culture. It is aimed at those researching censorship, at activists working for freedom of expression and at artists and other cultural producers whose expression has been subject to censorship or attempted censorship. Censorpedia documents censorship incidents by providing the who, what, when, where and why. By providing a repository of information about what is vulnerable to censorship and about the strategies and tactics that have defeated previous’ censorship attempts, Censorpedia aids the fight for free expression. Researchers can search for a specific case, year or keyword using the search box, as well as browse by medium, by grounds for censorship, or explore a random case. Activists can search for ongoing cases or contribute a case that is ongoing or recently resolved. Artists and cultural producers are similarly invited to add cases they are directly involved with or are familiar with first hand. Censorpedia builds on the landmark 1994 art project The File Room, initiated by Muntadas. For more information about censorship visit our Annotated Bibliography Feel free to: add a case Browse censorship cases by: medium grounds for censorship region all cases ongoing cases random case Censorpedia Terms of Use