In teaching the history of race in America, educators who contextualize racist language in the appropriate historical and social context can deliver a valuable lesson to students in understanding social injustice.
The book, which tells Jazz’s story of struggle with having “a girl brain but a boy body,” was brought to school in June by a transitioning kindergartner at Rocklin Academy Gateway School.
NCAC is praising the grassroots efforts of Chicagoans who have set an example for the rest of the country.
In the letter to the Attorney General, the groups condemned the Department’s overbroad reach and expressed alarm over DOJ investigative tactics that offend the rights of all individuals to political dissent and free assembly.
Artist Steven Leyba was ordered to remove his paintings despite the fact he was using the symbol to reclaim its original significance in Native American culture.
The trial will decide whether the cancellation of the Mexican-American studies curriculum in 2010 in Tucson Arizona was done with discriminatory intent.
Book challenge season has begun in Indianapolis!
By choosing to remove the book, a precedent is set for the success of future book challenges that place objectionable content over pedagogical merit.
The bill risks eviscerating online free speech protections for websites that host large amounts of user-generated content.
In the face of discord and subjective morality-based arguments, the board stood up for the rights of all of its students to learn in a safe and respectful environment.
Efforts to blacklist an artist over a controversial painting are not conducive to the goal of overcoming racial inequity.
Howard J. Kopel’s interpretation of the Nassau anti-BDS legislation seeks to punish an individual purely for expressing First Amendment-protected views.
Ventura County Star, Local-CA, 7/17/2017
The groups emphasize that the mere presence of explicit language and violence in a book provides no justification for its removal.
On July 12th, NCAC is taking part in the Battle for the Net, which is shaping up to the largest mobilization of internet users ever.
Yesterday, NCAC sent a letter to North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper urging him to veto a bill dubbed as a measure to “restore” and “preserve” free speech on state college campuses. But why would an organization devoted to free expression like NCAC object to an effort to safeguard free speech at universities?
Were institutions like Lincoln Center to yield to calls for cancellation coming from the BDS movement or elsewhere, any ensuing conversation would be much impoverished and further polarized.
documenta 14, an art festival occurring every 5 years, puts the issue of book censorship front and center this year.
NCAC and AAUP argue that the bill will create more problems than it solves, burdening universities with provisions that existing free speech protections already account for.
The discussion has brought to light the enduring lack of representation of Native artists in the art historical canon, in art museum exhibitions and in collections. However, it has also shown us a way forward.
The organizations express grave concern that the Executive Order will have a broad and far-reaching impact on artists’ freedom of movement and, as a result, will seriously inhibit creative freedom, collaboration, and the free flow of ideas.
Right to publicity laws protect a person’s privacy interests, limiting how their name, image and likeness can be used for commercial purposes. Expanding the laws may impede journalistic and artistic freedom.
The Walker Art Center has responded to our criticism arguing "NCAC has placed undue emphasis on the work’s material structure over its concept." Read our new response.
The award will be presented at the 2017 American Library Association Annual Conference during its Opening General Session on Friday, June 24, in Chicago.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has hired Christopher M. Finan as its next executive director. Joan Bertin, the current executive director, is stepping down after leading the organization for 20 years.
"The fact is that, for hundreds of years, this particular play has been understood to be a critique of political violence, not an endorsement of it."
Given our current political climate we'd be wise not to take the protections afforded by the First Amendment for granted and to protest unconstitutional government action, as The Slants have successfully just done.
When a seven-year-old student from Terre Haute, Indiana opted to sit silently during his school’s daily Pledge of Allegiance, the First Amendment stood up for his decision. But his teacher didn’t.
The state of Florida did not appeal the ruling against the “Firearms Owners' Privacy Act,” which prevented doctors from asking patients about their gun ownership.
NCAC has issued a statement signed by several national and international organizations, opposing the Walker's decision to dismantle and destroy the controversial sculpture.
Student journalists who contribute to their high school and college outlets do not enjoy the same level of protections as their professional counterparts. New Voices bills are looking to change that.
Mintcheva's essay examines and argues for the value of free expression in light of recent controversies over art and racially sensitive content, as well as over cultural appropriation, which have left people to question the usefulness of an absolutist defense of free speech.
While critiquing or protesting artworks is a vital part of a healthy democratic society, cultural institutions who bow to demands to remove or destroy works that engage with contentious political or social issues endanger our ability to maintain a public sphere where ideas and societal problems can be freely identified and discussed.
NCAC speaks with Miranda Taylor, a student at Richmond Early College in North Carolina, whose school canceled this year's yearbook, in part, because of her senior quote: "Build That Wall."
The groups underline that the First Amendment protects a student’s right to receive and possess literature, as long as the books in question do not cause disruption to the educational process.
NCAC is in the process of writing to the elementary school underlining that students have a First Amendment right to receive and possess literature, provided the books in question do not cause disruption to school activities.
The objecting New London parents say that the book features “gratuitous and unnecessary” profanity and sexual references.
A public school, the letter argues, has a responsibility to prepare young adults “to exercise the responsibilities of citizenship by promoting democratic values such as free expression, tolerance, and diversity—including diversity of opinion.”
NCAC's letter will underline that a primary goal of the school system "is to exercise the responsibilities of citizenship by promoting democratic values such as free expression, tolerance, and diversity." This includes diversity of opinion.
