These incidences, he says, “typically include vandalism. LaRue disagrees with the recent decision, arguing that the book, though imperfect, can spark important discussions among students about racial tolerance-especially in light of the increased targeting of libraries. Over the last year, he says, there have been 36 reports of hate crimes in libraries. LaRue says that over time, attempts to ban the book shifted from removing it from school libraries, as was the case in Hanover, to removing the book from school curriculums, as is the case with Biloxi (the city will keep the book in school libraries). Into the 1970s and 1980s, school boards and parents continued to challenge the book for its “filthy” or “trashy” content and racial slurs. It began: “Recently I have received echoes down this way of the Hanover County School Board’s activities, and what I’ve heard makes me wonder if any of its members can read.” One of the most prominent critics of the decision was Lee herself, who wrote a letter to the editor of the Richmond News Leader. The board walked back its decision, however, after residents complained about it in letters to local papers. In that instance, the school board said it would remove the book from county schools, citing the book’s theme of rape and the charge that the novel was “immoral.” One of the earliest and most prominent challenges was in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1966. ![]() The Biloxi School Board “just says it ‘makes people uncomfortable.’” LaRue finds this argument unconvincing, contending “the whole point to classics is they challenge the way we think about things.” ![]() “The most current challenge to it is among the vaguest ones that I’ve ever heard,” he says. Since its publication in 1960, the novel about a white lawyer’s defense of a black man against a false rape charge by a white woman has become one of the most frequently challenged books in the U.S.Īccording to James LaRue, director of American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, challenges to the book over the decades have usually cited the book’s strong language, discussion of sexuality and rape, and use of the n-word. A school board’s decision to remove To Kill a Mockingbird from eighth grade curriculums in Biloxi, Mississippi, is the latest in a long line of attempts to ban the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee.
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