Don’t Allow Books to be Banned in America’s Schools!

Recently, a school in Virginia banned the books Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884) and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960) after a parent made a complaint about the use of racial slurs in the pages.

While it is true that these books use offensive racial slurs common for the eras in which they were set, the banning of books sets a dangerous precedent; not because they are considered American Classics, but because of the important lessons to be learned reading such literature. These stories do not advocate the use of racial slurs.

Huckleberry Finn, for example, provides moral lessons about the hypocrisy of a civilization calling itself “civilized” while at the same time treating black citizens in a deplorable, unjust manner.

To Kill a Mockingbird, was quite a brave novel to publish in 1960. After all, the USA was in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. To tell a story about the mistreatment of black citizens in both society and in the court systems is still necessary to this day. The closing argument of character Atticus Finch about the injustice his client Tom Robinson was facing is a life lesson in itself. 

These books and others like them call for the reader to analyze the moral issues presented in an intellectual way that most school children are capable of accomplishing. As the saying goes, "those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it." The real people who lived through situations like those depicted in these novels don’t deserve to be erased from history and our educational process. Freedom of Speech is not a throw away concept in America; it is one of our Constitutional Rights. Please consider creating guidelines and policies that will prevent our school children from being denied the opportunity to learn these valuable lessons.