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What do James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright all have in common?
They are all African-American writers who have published texts that are considered American classics.
And they are also authors whose novels have been banned by school boards and libraries across the United States.
Selected Texts by James Baldwin
Go Tell it On the Mountain was James Baldwin's debut novel. The semi-autobiographical work is a coming-of-age story and has been used in schools since its publication in 1953.
However, in 1994, its use in a Hudson Falls, NY school was challenged because of its explicit depictions of rape, masturbation, violence and abuse of women.
Other novels such as If Beale Street Could Talk, Another Country and A Blues for Mister Charlie have also been banned.
'Native Son' by Richard Wright
When Richard Wright's Native Son was published in 1940, it was the first bestselling novel by an African-American author. It was also the first Book-of-the-Month Club selection by an African-American author. The following year, Wright received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.
The book was removed from high school bookshelves in Berrain Springs, MI because it was “vulgar, profane and sexually explicit.” Other school boards believed the novel was sexually graphic and violent.
Nevertheless, Native Son was turned into a theatrical production and was directed by Orson Welles on Broadway.
Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man'
Ralph Ellison’sInvisible Man chronicles the life of an African-American man who migrates to New York City from the South. In the novel, the protagonist feels alienated as a result of racism in society.
Like Richard Wright’s Native Son, Ellison’s novel received great acclaim including a National Book Award. The novel has been banned by school boards—as recently as last year—as board members in Randolph County, NC argued the book held no “literary value.”
'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' and 'Still I Rise' by Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969.
Since 1983, the memoir has had 39 public challenges and/or bans for its portrayal of rape, molestation, racism and sexuality.
Angelou's collection of poetry And Still I Rise has also been challenged and in some cases prohibited by school districts after parent groups complained of 'suggestive sexuality' present in the text.
Selected Texts by Toni Morrison
ThroughoutToni Morrison's career as a writer, she’s explored events such as the great migration. She’s developed characters such as Pecola Breedlove and Sula, who have allowed her to explore issues such as racism, images of beauty and womanhood.
Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye is a classic novel, lauded since its 1973 publication. Because of the novel’s graphic details, it has also been banned. An Alabama state senator attempted to have the novel banned from schools throughout the state because “The book is just completely objectionable, from language to the content…because the book deals with subjects such as incest and child molestation.” As recent as 2013, parents in a Colorado school district petitioned for The Bluest Eye to be excluded from the 11th-grade reading list because of its “explicit sexual scenes, describing incest, rape, and pedophilia.”
Like The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s third novel Song of Solomon has received both acclaim and criticism. In 1993, the novel’s use was challenged by a complainant in the Columbus, Ohio school system who believed it was degrading to African-Americans. The following year, the novel was removed from the library and required reading lists in Richmond County, Ga. after a parent characterized the text as “filthy and inappropriate.”
And in 2009, a superintendent in Shelby, MI. took the novel off of the curriculum. It was later reinstated to the Advanced Placement English curriculum. However, parents must be informed about the novel’s content.
Alice Walker's 'The Color Purple'
As soon as Alice Walker published The Color Purple in 1983, the novel became the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The book was also criticized for its “troubling ideas about race relations, man’s relationship to God, African history and human sexuality.”
Since then, an estimated 13 times by school boards and libraries throughout the United States. In 1986, for instance, The Color Purple was taken off of open shelves in the Newport News, Va. school library for its “profanity and sexual references.” The novel was only available for students over 18 with permission from a parent.
'Their Eyes Were Watching God' by Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered the last novel to be published during the Harlem Renaissance. But sixty years later, Zora Neale Hurston's novel was challenged by a parent in Brentsville, Va. who argued that it was sexually explicit. However, the novel was still kept on the high school’s advanced reading list.
Urban Books By Black Authors
It’s often tough to fathom that Amazon’s Kindle, the most ebook reader in existence, has been around since 2007. Even though Amazon has made a slew of proper tablets in the year since — most recently, the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Edition and Amazon Fire HD 8 — the Kindle remains the company’s flagship (and for good reason).
Further reading
Thankfully for Kindle owners, there are thousands of titles currently available via Amazon, Google Play, and from an array of other online sources. To help you sort through the masses, we’ve rounded up some of the better free offerings to be had, including public domain works and self-published titles. Never before has it been so easy to become a master of literature without trekking to your local library.
A note before you begin …
Google Play does not offer books using Kindle’s proprietary format in the way Amazon and Project Gutenberg do. Instead of AZW and KF8 files, users are going to want to directly download Google Play books as PDF files, thus rendering the books compatible with Kindle. To do so, navigate to your Google Play Book library, click the three squares in the upper-right corner of any title and select “Download PDF” from the resulting drop-down list. Afterward, select your desired save location and drag and drop the resulting file from your computer to your device once finished downloading.
Children’s books
‘Peter Pan and Wendy’ by J.M. Barrie
Inspired by Barrie’s friendship with Llewelyn Davies family, Peter Pan Wendy is essentially the classic tale of Peter Pan, a boy who can fly and whisks a group of young children away to Neverland. All the usual suspects make their debut (Tiger Lily, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, Captain Hook, etc.), but it might not seem as blatantly offensive to Native Americans as the 1953 Disney film.
‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ by L. Frank Baum
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There are very few people who are oblivious to Dorothy’s cyclone-fueled romps in Oz with Wicked Witch of the West, yet revisiting the Kansas native’s harrowing quest for the Emerald City is always somehow reassuring. The Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow all add to Baum’s descriptive and vivid world. Victor Fleming’s music doesn’t quite do the novel the justice it deserves.
‘The Secret Garden’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A touchstone in the realm of children’s literature, Burnett’s classic has been adapted time and time again for both the stage and the big screen. It revolves around heroine Mary Lenno, an orphan who’s shipped off from her colonial India to live on a dingy county estate in Yorkshire. There she learns the healing power of friendship through plant cultivation in her, ahem, secret garden. So heartwarming, yet insightful.
‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales’ by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
The Brothers Grimm wrote fairy tales that were aptly, rather grim, but many of the beloved tales have undergone edits and numerous alterations to the point where they’ve become suitable for children rather than the grotesque, violence-laden stories they once were. You know the tales — Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel, and Gretel — but there are also plenty of great standouts that weren’t made into animated films.
‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Taking place in grubby Victorian New York, Little Lord Fauntleroy is a rags-to-riches story about a young boy named Cedric who unexpectedly becomes royalty. While Cedric is whisked away to England by his grandfather to learn the ins and outs of aristocracy, he ultimately manages to teach his grandfather to become a more compassionate leader.
‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’ by Rudyard Kipling
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It should go without saying, kids love animals. Kipling’s tale, culled as a standalone story from The Jungle Book, follows a valiant mongoose who works to defend his adopted family of British colonials from a menacing pair of cobras upon their arrival in India. Sure, you may need to explain some of the subtle Victorianisms to younger audiences, but the harrowing story exhibits some of the most vibrant and sharp personifications of any novel in existence.
‘The Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame
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As one of my favorite childhood books, it makes me all warm-and-fuzzy inside knowing Grahame’s classic is readily available free of charge. It’s about four anthropomorphized animals — Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger — and their various escapades in the English countryside. It’s chalk-full of adventure, companionship, and moral reasoning, written by the former secretary of the Bank of England as bedtime stories for his son Alistair.
‘The Ghost Files’ by Apryl Baker
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Mattie Hathaway is a 16-year-old girl with a terrible secret. Ever since her mother tried to kill her when she was five, she’s been able to see dead people of the spectral variety. When the ghost of her foster sister turns up, Mattie enlists the help of a young policeman to investigate her disappearance, but they better tread carefully because there’s a serial killer at work. This is smart teen fiction with plenty of twists and turns.