Mississippi Banned Book Festival
Mississippi will host its first ever Banned Books Festival on March 25 in response to school districts removing scores of library books that have yet to be “approved.” Angie Thomas, whose novel, The Hate U Give is among the most banned, will speak, along with others, about this dangerous trend.
Across the nation, the list of banned books continues to grow, including such treasured books as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Beloved by Toni Morrison, A Time to Kill by John Grisham, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Bible.
The festival is sponsored by the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute, Millsaps College, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, Millsaps College, the Mississippi Humanities Council, the ACLU and Lemuria Books. Reena Evers-Everette, executive director of the institute, will host the event.
“Some of the world’s greatest writers have come from Mississippi, so it only seems appropriate that we hold the state’s first-ever Banned Books Festival here,” said Reena Evers-Everette, director of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute in Jackson. “These books are being banned, because some people want to erase history and erase the truth. That is why we need to take a stand for truth in holding this festival.”