Free Speech Groups, Booksellers Defend Novels by Morrison, Wright, Vonnegut

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) have joined with other free speech advocates to oppose the removal of novels by Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, and Kurt Vonnegut from the public high school in Howell, Michigan. The groups, including the Great Lakes Booksellers Association and Aria Booksellers of Howell, have sent a letter to the Howell Board of Education urging its members to reject calls to ban Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Wright's Black Boy, and Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.

"It is wrong to restrict what students can read based on the complaints of a few individuals," said ABFFE President Chris Finan in a statement. "Curriculum choices should be made by teachers and educational professionals. In this case, they have selected three books that are highly acclaimed and widely used in high school classrooms around the country."

Efforts to remove the books are being led by the Livingston Organization for Values in Education, a group of parents and community members who oppose the books because they contain sexual themes and profanity. Last year, the group failed in an effort to prevent students from reading Erin Gruwell's The Freedom Writers Diary (Main Street).

At the January meeting, the Howell Board of Education decided to delay a vote on removal of the Morrison, Wright, and Vonnegut novels from the 11th grade English curriculum because two board members were absent. The board will meet again on February 12.

Other signatories of the letter are the Association of American Publishers, People for the American Way, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, Peacefire.org, PEN American Center, Feminists for Free Expression, and the Youth Advisory Board of the Youth Free Expression Network.

In other news, this week, ABFFE joined other First Amendment groups, including NCAC, to issue a statement condemning government censorship of information about global warming. The groups were responding to a hearing conducted by the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), that, among other issues, addressed the suppression of federal scientists' speech and writing, the distortion and suppression of the results of scientists' research, and retaliation against those who protested the distortion and suppression of that research.

The First Amendment groups applauded the work of the Oversight Committee and warned "of the consequences of suppression or distortion of information that is essential to sound public policy and government accountability."

The statement was also endorsed by the American Association of University Professors, American Civil Liberties Union, American Library Association, Association of American Publishers, National Center for Science Education, National Coalition Against Censorship, PEN American Center, and People for the American Way.