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Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book.

― Dwight D. Eisenhower

What is a banned book?

A banned book is a book that may be:

  • Removed from a library or libraries
  • Not allowed to be published
  • Not allowed to enter a country
  • Not allowed to exist, or be physically destroyed such as the case of book burning during Nazi Germany

The most extreme form of banning is the death or demand for the death of the author, as has happened in the case of Salman Rushdie.

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials based upon the objections of a person or a group thereby restricting the access of others.

A banning is the removal of those materials that have been challenged and that challenge has succeeded.

Source: Gutman Library, Harvard University. Credit: Macy Weaver.

Banned books by Mississippi authors

  • As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
  • Native Son by Richard Wright
  • Black Boy by Richard Wright
  • A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
  • Jubilee by Margaret Walker
  • A Time to Kill by John Grisham
  • Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon

Notable Books Banned, Challenged, or Restricted in Mississippi

  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  • The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  • Beloved by Toni Morrison
  • Cujo by Stephen King
  • Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  • All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
  • I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sánchez
  • Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson