The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) wrote more than 46 letters responding to book challenges and bans in 17 states in 2022. Below are summaries of letters from October 14 – November 28, 2022, that were not individually highlighted on our website but were instrumental in advocating for students' First Amendment rights and fighting censorship in U.S. schools. NCAC worked to bring [...]
NEW YORK - The National Coalition Against Censorship is saddened by the death of Joyce Meskis, a Colorado bookseller for over 40 years who won many important fights against censorship at the state and national level. Meskis died in Denver on December 22. She was 80. Meskis was a divorced mother of two young daughters when she bought a [...]
Today the NCAC provided a letter of concern to the Frisco Independent School District Board of Trustees regarding removing more than 100 titles deemed “patently offensive” from its libraries. We are concerned because while the district policy only requires the removal of material that includes “patently offensive” illustrations of sexual acts, the guidelines used by the district’s review committee [...]
New York - The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which represents 59 education, publishing, religious and arts organizations, and Don’t Delete Art (DDA), a collaborative project between NCAC and several other organizations and artists, welcome Meta’s recent announcement of Instagram policy updates that promise to improve transparency around downranking for the platform’s professional account users. The announcement follows several [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship joins the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and other free speech champions in a joint letter to express concern regarding the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal and extradition proceedings relating to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, under the Espionage Act and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Click here for a full-screen view of the [...]
SAN FRANCISCO —Indie tech-book publisher No Starch Press is partnering with Humble Bundle to offer customers a pay-what-you-want ebook deal that raises money for charity. This highly anticipated three-week promotion builds upon the Bay Area companies’ past collaborations, which have raised over $2.7 million for various nonprofit organizations to date. "Hacking, by No Starch Press" runs until Dec. 19 [...]
NEW YORK – Today, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which represents 59 education, publishing, religious and arts organizations and Don’t Delete Art (DDA), a project of NCAC and several other organizations and artists, joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation and over 50 other organizations and institutions in supporting Protect the Stack, a statement calling on internet infrastructure providers not [...]
Companies providing core internet infrastructures—including internet service providers, website host companies, payment processors, and more—rarely have substantial contact with their users, user-generated content, or user activities. And, even though they typically lack expertise, authority, resources, and policies to regulate user content with consistency, many online infrastructure companies do just that. The result has severely restricted free speech on the internet, [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written a letter to Broward County Public Schools District regarding the recent removal of A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. The book was removed because of the Broward County Public Schools District Review Committee’s belief that it is inappropriate due to its negativity towards the US government. The NCAC demands the return [...]
UPDATED 9/19/2023 – The Lookout Valley Middle/High School administration has revised the dress code to no longer include the prohibition on "political" shirts. 11/14/2022 – The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has contacted Lookout Valley Middle/High in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to express concern regarding a provision within the school's dress code that forbids shirts with "designs, pictures, symbols, or writing" considered [...]
NEW YORK - The National Coalition Against Censorship defends freedom of expression, including the right to access ideas, even when they offend the majority. Therefore, we support Amazon’s decision to sell From Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America, a book and video by Ronald Dalton Jr. that have been accused of promoting conspiracy theories and antisemitism. The [...]
For this year’s Youth Free Expression Program Film Contest, The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) encouraged U.S. high school students to create a film exploring issues related to free speech. The three winners broadly explored the meaning of their First Amendment rights with films that examined family life and controversial matters, personal expression, and the censoring of opinions. First [...]
In the Fall of 2022, the much-anticipated reopening of the Orange County Museum of Art was marred by the censorship of a painting by renowned artist Ben Sakoguchi in the museum’s California Biennial 2022: Pacific Gold. A few months prior to the opening, the artist was informed of concerns coming from the museum’s education department that some of the [...]
NEW YORK— Each year National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), an alliance of 59 of the nation’s leading education and publishing organizations, recognizes the notable contributions of Free Speech Defenders whose activism has had a profound impact on the protection of First Amendment rights in schools, libraries, and publishing. Tony Award Winner Daniel J. Watts is the host of the star-studded event [...]
NEW YORK – The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Impact and Legacy Fund, its newly formed charitable/social action division, are co-sponsoring a discussion of book banning with bestselling authors whose works have been challenged and members of Student Advocates for Speech (SAS), NCAC’s new initiative to build a national [...]
NEW YORK - The National Coalition Against Censorship defends the freedom to write, publish and read books. Therefore, we strongly support Penguin Random House’s decision to publish a book by Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. At a time when challenges to books in schools and libraries are at record highs, it is deeply ironic that hundreds of people [...]
NEW YORK – Today, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which represents 59 education, publishing, religious and arts organizations, joins the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund and PEN America to call attention to the cancellation of plays at two universities following protests over their content. The groups released the following statement: Colleges and universities should be places to explore and [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to Batesburg-Leesville Middle School in South Carolina regarding the removal of Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You from the school library. As we understand it, the school removed the book from the library in order to be compliant with South Carolina State Proviso 1.93, which prohibits certain school spending on ideas often [...]
Update 02/08/2023: After nearly six years of calls to do so, the Defense Department of the U.S. Government has agreed to end the Trump Administration’s policy preventing the release of artwork made by prisoners of the Guantànamo Bay Detention Camp. Former and departing prisoners are now permitted to retain a “practicable quantity” of their artworks they made while imprisoned, [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which represents 59 trusted education, publishing, and arts organizations, joins the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund and PEN America to encourage Texas Wesleyan University to support artistic free expression and reschedule Down In Mississippi, a play by Carlyle Brown that the university's theatre department recently canceled due to language concerns and complaints. History is [...]
Updated 10/8/2024 — Amid a lawsuit filed by publishers and activists, 24 previously-restricted books have been returned to school library shelves. Updated 3/27/2023 — The school board has reviewed 4 of the books challenged and voted to retain the books in their schools. Those books were Toni Morrison's “The Bluest Eye”, Raina Telgemeier's "Drama," Amy Reed's "The Nowhere Girls." and [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) regarding their decision in March to cancel the exhibition Wall + Response over objections to an idea expressed in one of the pieces. It is our understanding that when Wall + Response was approved by library officials, the poems and murals comprising the project [...]
NEW YORK - The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is deeply concerned by the threatened censorship of a mural that the town of Greenburgh, New York, commissioned from the artist known as Kindo Art. The alteration of the mural without the artist’s permission would be a violation of his First Amendment rights as well as those of the residents of [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to Spotsylvania County Public Schools in Virginia, regarding the removal of district library books without following their established review policy. As we understand the situation, in response to a local parent challenging 13 district library books, four were removed by district personnel without following Board Policy IIA*-R. This policy explicitly states [...]
Photo Credit: Jerald Braddock The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to the Town Supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh, New York, regarding its recent call to remove the depiction of Minister Louis Farrakhan, and potentially other controversial figures, from a new town-commissioned mural overseen by the artist known as Kindo Art. The mural was initially commissioned to [...]
CHICAGO — Sourcebooks, a leading independent publisher based in Chicago, and the American Library Association’s (ALA) book publishing imprint, ALA Editions | ALA Neal-Schuman, announce the publication of “Read These Banned Books: A Journal and 52-Week Reading Challenge.” Available via the ALA Store as well as through bookstores nationwide, this interactive recommended reading list presents readers with a different banned or [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District in Grapevine, Texas, regarding recent policy changes which seem to allow library books to be removed based on the ideas they contain. As we understand the changes to Board Policy EMB (Local), the policy has been amended to restrict the use of instructional materials that advocate [...]
A high school English teacher at Norman School District in Norman, Oklahoma, was recently admonished for sharing a QR Code with students that led to book recommendations from the Brooklyn Public Library. A parent filed a complaint and claimed that recommended materials supported critical race theory, which is against the law in Oklahoma under HB 1775. HB 1775 has put [...]
[Portland, OR, September 12, 2022] - Accessibility to books and diverse author voices is essential in understanding the human experience and the world at large. This concept is core to the work we do at A Kids Co., and it's why we've partnered with the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) to write A Kids Book About Banned Books, released [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has joined the American Library Association (ALA) to Unite Against Book Bans, a national grassroots campaign to engage the public in the fight against censorship. This non-partisan campaign leverages the reach of national organizations representing librarians, educators, parents, authors, publishers, distributors, and champions for civil liberties, civil rights, equality, and more. ALA's recent [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has joined the Student Press Law Center in denouncing the improper suspension of journalism educator and student media adviser Adriana Chavira from the Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in Los Angeles and demanding the withdrawal of the disciplinary case against her. Please read our joint statement here. [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to the Madison County School Board in Ridgeland, Mississippi, regarding recent restrictions on 10 books, requiring students to obtain parental permission in order to read them. The 10 books in question address race-related or LQBTQ+ themes, and we are concerned that the district may have unconstitutionally targeted these books for the [...]
Students' rights to access ideas are threatened when book removal decisions are made in a cursory manner. The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has contacted Pinellas County School Board in Largo, Florida, to ask the district to ensure any decisions to remove materials are based solely on legitimate criteria as mandated by district policy instead of being influenced by [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the School Board of the Collier County Public Schools in Naples, Florida, after District libraries recently added an “Advisory Notice” to hundreds of library books—raising censorship concerns. Placing advisory notices, or “red-flagging” books often misleadingly reduces complex literary works to a few isolated elements—those that some individuals may find objectionable—rather than [...]
Tulsa Public Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have removed Gender Queer and Flamer from the district's school libraries. The books were removed pending a formal review in alignment with the district's review policy. However, recent media quotes from school officials suggest that the books will not be formally reviewed anytime soon and will remain absent from bookshelves. The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) delivered [...]
Updated 11/28/2022— NCAC has written an additional letter to the Conroe ISD Board of Trustees. Originally published 8/22/2022— The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the Conroe Independent School District in Conroe, Texas, regarding recently adopted policies which require parental permission to check out allegedly obscene books from libraries while they are under review. Under the new policies, [...]
Currently, more than 35,000 students in the third-largest land area in Tarrant County no longer have access to all versions of the Holy Bible, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Anne Frank's Diary (The Graphic Adaptation), George by Alex Gino, All Boys Aren't Blue by George Johnson, Weird Girl and What's His Name by Meagen Brothers, and so many other notable titles. The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) delivered [...]
NEW YORK – As a new school year begins and Banned Books Week, Sept. 18 – 24, 2022, is on the horizon, polarizing politics and a surge in book banning attempts continue to create a challenging landscape for our nation’s educators. In response, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has created a virtual Banned Books Week Inquiry Center that [...]
NEW YORK – Student activists from coast to coast are participating in protests in response to efforts to ban materials referencing Critical Race Theory, GLBTQIA+ issues, or books about or by authors of color. But how do students feel about current threats to their First Amendment rights? The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is seeking submissions from young people [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression have cowritten a letter to the Pennridge School District in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, demanding changes to a proposed policy that would unconstitutionally restrict the communications that students can distribute both on and off school grounds. The proposed policy is shockingly broad and impermissibly vague. If implemented it [...]
