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Free Speech

National Free Speech and Art Organizations Warn of a “Golden Age” of Propaganda and a “Starvation Age” for Culture

By |2025-02-26T12:35:34-05:00February 26th, 2025|Letters, News|

Today, the National Coalition Against Censorship, The Authors Guild, The Dramatists Guild of America, The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, Artists at Risk Connection, AICA International and PEN America expressed deep concern over the Trump Administration’s recent moves to impose ideological control over federally funded cultural programs. Though some of these efforts have already been hindered by a court injunction, they [...]

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Orwellian Overreach: NCAC Fights Back Against Administration’s Dangerous Attempt to Censor Classrooms

By |2025-01-30T14:03:15-05:00January 30th, 2025|News, Statement|

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) strongly condemns the recent Executive Order signed by President Trump that aims to censor the teaching of race, gender, and identity in American schools, entitled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” Make no mistake, this Executive Order is not about ending supposed indoctrination in our schools— it is itself designed to indoctrinate and [...]

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Statement from the Kids’ Right to Read Project on the U.S. Department of Education’s Dismissal of Book Bans as a “Hoax”

By |2025-01-27T12:26:21-05:00January 27th, 2025|News|

The Kids’ Right to Read Project (KRRP), a signature initiative of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), has been at the forefront of defending the freedom to read for over 20 years. We condemn the recent actions by the U.S. Department of Education in dismissing complaints about book bans and referring to these challenges to access as a "hoax." [...]

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NCAC Statement on President Trump’s Executive Order “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship”

By |2025-01-22T13:44:47-05:00January 21st, 2025|News, Statement|

Yesterday, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The Executive Order aims to inhibit the government's ability to censor–or pressure private companies to censor–constitutionally protected speech. The National Coalition Against Censorship has long argued that the government should never use its power to pressure companies to censor voices that the government [...]

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As Concerns of Art Censorship Rise in Nation’s Museums, NCAC Encourages Museum Directors, Curators, and other Cultural Leaders to Employ its Best Practices

By |2025-01-17T14:17:22-05:00January 17th, 2025|In The News, Press Releases|

New York, January 16, 2025 – In the wake of a newly-released report warning of censorship pressures faced by museum directors across the US conducted by the Association for Art Museum Directors, PEN America, and Artists at Risk Connection, the National Coalition Against Censorship encourages cultural leaders to incorporate its Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy into museum policies. [...]

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NCAC Recommends Policy Improvements to Volusia County Schools in Florida

By |2025-01-16T17:01:30-05:00January 15th, 2025|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to Volusia County Schools in Florida to recommend changes to their board policy.  NCAC encouraged the School Board to revise their challenge policy to ensure that all challenged books remain on shelves during the reconsideration process. Read NCAC's Full Letter to Volusia County Schools. Click here for a full-screen view: [...]

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Right to Read Network Spotlight: SEAT at the Table

By |2024-12-16T15:29:17-05:00December 16th, 2024|News|

On any given day, Cameron Samuels and Da’Taeveyon Daniels are hard at work. Alongside their academic and extracurricular pursuits, Samuels and Daniels serve as Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT). As one of the NCAC’s 23 Right to Read Network (RRN) affiliates, SEAT stands out as a truly grassroots, young-people-centered organization advocating [...]

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Student Advocate for Speech Guest Feature: Rebels with a Cause

By |2025-01-31T12:51:59-05:00October 31st, 2024|News|

Written by Tasmia Ishma The spirit of my homeland - its aspirations and its turmoil - remains etched in my identity. As a Bengali immigrant who left at the age of six, I have always felt deeply connected to my roots, witnessing the power of youth in advocating for change and the harsh realities of censorship that often stifle those [...]

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Stop Online Censorship: NCAC and 58 Allies Urge Rejection of KOSA

By |2024-10-02T13:33:49-04:00October 2nd, 2024|Letters, NCAC at work, News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is proud to join forces with 58 civil rights organizations, LGBTQ+ advocates, and free speech organizations in opposing harmful legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). For 50 years, NCAC has fought for the right to access uncensored information, and KOSA threatens to undermine that core freedom. KOSA risks silencing crucial online [...]

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NCAC 50th Anniversary: Standing Shoulder to Shoulder with Woodhull

By |2024-09-11T16:27:43-04:00September 11th, 2024|50th Anniversary, Blog, News|

Since its founding in 2003, Woodhull Freedom Foundation has been an unwavering champion of free speech, recognizing it as the cornerstone of our fundamental human right to sexual freedom. As a human rights organization, we have consistently stood at the forefront of the battle against censorship, particularly in defense of sexual expression, which has long been a primary target [...]

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BBW ’24: Filmmaker Ava Duvernay To Lead Banned Books Week as Honorary Chair with former SAS and White House Honoree Julia Garnett to Serve as Youth Honorary Chair

By |2024-09-06T16:25:37-04:00September 6th, 2024|News|

Award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay has been named honorary chair for Banned Books Week 2024, which takes place September 22 – 28. DuVerney will be joined by youth honorary chair Julia Garnett, a student activist who fought book bans in her home state of Tennessee. "I believe that censorship is the enemy of freedom,” said DuVernay, honorary chair of Banned [...]

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School Board in Brevard County, Florida removes LGBTQ+ book against the recommendation of review committee

By |2024-09-05T13:02:48-04:00September 5th, 2024|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the school board of Brevard Public Schools in Florida after they voted to remove Shō Harusono's Sasaki and Miyano Vol. 1 from school libraries contrary to the Book Review Committee's recommendation to retain it.  NCAC is concerned that the board may have acted due to hostility towards the views expressed in the [...]

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NCAC Decries Lubbock’s Art Funding Cut Targeting LGBTQ+ Programming

By |2024-11-01T15:58:23-04:00August 8th, 2024|News|

UPDATE - August 15, 2024: Following advocacy efforts and community concern, the Lubbock city council considered whether to fully reinstate the funding without any restrictions. In the final vote, the City Council approved a greatly reduced grant of $5,000 for security at FFAT. The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA) expressed disappointment, but assured its commitment to [...]

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Artistic Freedom Under Fire: NCAC Denounces Vail’s Cancellation of Danielle SeeWalker’s Residency

By |2024-08-05T12:51:58-04:00August 5th, 2024|News|

Image caption: Danielle SeeWalker, G is for Genocide, 2024 In May, NCAC was alarmed to learn about the Town of Vail, Colorado’s decision to cancel Danielle SeeWalker’s artist residency with the town’s Art in Public Places Program. The residency was to include the commission of a new mural, a photo exhibition of existing work depicting contemporary [...]

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School Board in Florida removes Ban This Book despite the recommendation of a review committee

By |2024-08-06T15:23:56-04:00July 24th, 2024|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the Board of the School District of Indian River County after they removed Alan Gratz’s Ban This Book from school libraries despite a review committee's recommendation to retain the book. NCAC expressed concern that the Board may have removed this book due to disagreement with the views expressed within the material. Therefore, [...]

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National Coalition Against Censorship Launches Map Tracking Art Censorship Since October 7th

By |2024-07-18T16:16:22-04:00July 18th, 2024|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) announces the launch of a new resource, Art Censorship Index: Post-October 7th, documenting the recent spike in censorship of art and artists invoking Israel or Palestine.  Artworks and artists referencing the subject of Israel and Palestine have long been subjects of controversy and/or censorship, but following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and [...]

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Greenville County School board removes books against recommendation of review committee

By |2024-06-20T16:30:20-04:00June 20th, 2024|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the board of Greenville County Schools in South Carolina regarding the removal of Ellen Hopkins' Perfect and Tilt and Sarah J. Maas' Empire of Storms from high school libraries. The review committee evaluated these books and concluded that they should remain in the library. The school board, however, overruled the recommendations [...]

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NCAC and Eleven Other Groups Rebuke Congressional Committees’ Request for Suspicious Activity Reports of Non-Profit Organizations

By |2024-05-17T10:18:33-04:00May 17th, 2024|News, Statement|

Today, along with eleven other free expression groups, NCAC issued a letter to two congressional committees regarding their request to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) of twenty groups that the committees alleged had supported or funded recent college protests.  NCAC's deep concern stems from both the breadth of the committees' requests for records (20 organizations, without [...]

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NCAC recommends policy changes to Roane County School District in Tennessee

By |2024-03-28T11:59:00-04:00March 26th, 2024|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the Roane County School District Board of Education in Kingston, Tennessee to recommend changes to their board policy.  After almost 200 challenged books were temporarily removed, NCAC encouraged the district to revise their policy to allow challenge books to remain on shelves during the reconsideration process. Read NCAC's full letter to [...]

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NCAC Condemns Biden Administration’s Attempts to Coerce Amazon Into Censorship

By |2024-02-09T14:17:49-05:00February 9th, 2024|Press Releases|

Recent news reports have surfaced, revealing attempts by the Biden administration to pressure Amazon to censor controversial anti-vaccine books and search results. According to the reports, representatives of the Biden administration have urged Amazon executives to take action against books that the administration has deemed to contain misinformation surrounding COVID-19 and vaccines. The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) condemns [...]

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Echoes of McCarthy: Criticizing Israel and Charges of Antisemitism

By |2024-07-17T16:00:40-04:00January 25th, 2024|News|

Just two months before the long-planned February opening of Samia Halaby’s art retrospective, Indiana University (IU) abruptly canceled the show, citing vague concerns “about guaranteeing the integrity of the exhibit.” But the concerns had nothing to do with Halaby’s colorful abstractions. The last time abstract works were controversial in the United States was during the McCarthy era, when Congressman [...]

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NCAC urges Indiana University to Reschedule Exhibition of Abstract Artist Samia Halaby

By |2024-10-18T17:32:06-04:00January 11th, 2024|Letters, News|

Today, NCAC issued a letter of concern to the leadership of Indiana University, imploring the university to reverse its December 2023 decision to cancel the upcoming retrospective exhibition of renowned Palestinian-American abstract painter, Samia Halaby. “Samia Halaby: Centers of Energy” was to open in February at the university’s Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art and feature more than [...]

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NCAC Condemns Greek Foreign Minister’s Censorship of NYC Artist

By |2023-12-21T14:12:47-05:00December 21st, 2023|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) raised concerns today regarding the censorship of an exhibition at the Greek Consulate in New York. An artwork by New York-based artist Georgia Lale was removed on the order of Greece’s Foreign Minister, George Gerapetritis. Political criticism of one of Lale’s works grew following the exhibition’s opening last week, when the leader of the [...]

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NCAC Joins EFF and Other Free Speech Organizations in Urging Supreme Court to Strike Down States’ Attempt to Regulate Social Media Speech

By |2023-12-14T10:53:21-05:00December 14th, 2023|Press Releases|

NEW YORK – The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), in collaboration with five prominent organizations, including Electronic Frontier Foundation, Woodhull Freedom Foundation, Authors Alliance, Fight for The Future, and First Amendment Coalition, have filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down laws in Florida and Texas that empower states to infringe upon the First Amendment rights of [...]

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NCAC objects to the removal of 75 books from school libraries in Hanover County, Virginia

By |2023-12-12T12:11:36-05:00December 12th, 2023|News|

In November, the district administration of Hanover County Public Schools in Virginia improperly ordered 75 books be removed from school libraries.  The National Coalition Against Censorship has written a letter to the school board to urge them to rescind the order and to evaluate any challenged books using the proper criteria.  Read NCAC's full letter to the Hanover County Public [...]

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NCAC recommends policy changes to North Syracuse Central School District in New York

By |2023-12-01T12:40:22-05:00December 1st, 2023|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the North Syracuse Central School District in New York to encourage them to amend their policies. The suggested revisions will allow access to challenged materials to remain unrestricted during the review process.  Read NCAC's full letter to the North Syracuse Central School District here: Click here for a full-screen view: [...]

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NCAC protests improper removal of over 100 books in Kentucky school district

By |2023-11-08T14:44:47-05:00November 8th, 2023|News|

Boyle County Schools in Kentucky has improperly removed over 100 books because they claim they are required to do so under Kentucky law SB 150. The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to inform them that the law does not apply to library books and to demand that the books be returned. Read NCAC's full letter to the Boyle [...]

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Middle East Conflict Fallout: A culture of fear and anger takes over US cultural institutions

By |2024-04-11T14:40:10-04:00November 8th, 2023|News|

Intimidation, doxing, blacklists, cancellations. In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza, a wave of extreme intolerance towards speech critical of Israel and supportive of Palestine has swept across cultural and educational institutions. In the United States and Europe, students and professors are being penalized, writers canceled, and artists censored for expressing [...]

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A Massachusetts high school student was forced to remove clothing that expressed support for Palestine

By |2024-12-04T13:03:00-05:00November 1st, 2023|News|

Update 11/2/2023 - After review, the student was allowed to wear the shirt without punishment. The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the principal of Framingham High School after receiving reports that the school forced a student to remove a shirt that expressed support for Palestine. We understand that in some schools, the student's shirts may indeed create a [...]

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NCAC Introduces Student Advocates for Speech 2023 Cohorts

By |2023-10-27T11:56:59-04:00October 27th, 2023|News|

NEW YORK – The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has selected 15 exceptional high school students to participate in its 2023 Students Advocates for Speech (SAS) program, representing 11 states. These remarkable students, who come from California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas, are poised to impact their schools, districts, and communities [...]

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Artistic Expression Under Fire: Controversy in the Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library

By |2023-10-24T12:09:30-04:00October 24th, 2023|News|

In Brevard County, Florida, an artist and member of the Central Brevard Art Association (CBAA), John Cielukowski, participated in the Association's "Art in Public Spaces" initiative, which hangs art in publicly-owned buildings. For the Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library, the artist submitted his painting A Mother's Love, which depicts a mother cow with an ear tag, separated from her [...]

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NCAC’s Student Advocates for Speech leader Julia Garnett receives White House honor

By |2023-10-12T13:43:45-04:00October 11th, 2023|News|

NEW YORK - In celebration of International Day of the Girl, First Lady Jill Biden will honor Julia Garnett, a 17-year-old Student Advocates for Speech (SAS) leader from Hendersonville, Tennessee.  Garnett is one of 15 young women selected by the White House Gender Policy Council who lead change and shape a brighter future in their communities across the United [...]

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NCAC offers anti-censorship resources during Banned Books Week

By |2024-08-02T16:30:50-04:00September 29th, 2023|News|

NEW YORK— The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) offers anti-censorship resources as libraries, bookstores, and schools nationwide celebrate Banned Books Week, October 1 – 7, 2003, a weeklong celebration of the freedom to read – at a time when book challenges and bans are at record levels. “With the continued rise of book censorship, there has never  been a more [...]

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Fort Worth ISD has temporarily removed over 100 books in violation of district policy

By |2023-09-12T15:15:49-04:00September 12th, 2023|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship wrote to the board of Fort Worth Independent School District urging them to return any books that were temporarily removed from school libraries. The district identified 118 books with potentially sexual or violent content and has removed them to determine if they are "developmentally appropriate." This removal violates the principles established in the district’s policy. NCAC [...]

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NCAC urges Somerset Public Schools to repeal a new school rule which violates students’ free speech rights | Updated

By |2024-08-14T10:24:45-04:00September 12th, 2023|News|

Updated – The Somerset Public Schools Elementary Handbook has been updated to read: "Any discussion of weapons (guns/knives/etc.) that results in disruption or disorder in the classroom or in the school building shall be prohibited." The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the school committee of Somerset Public Schools concerning a new school rule, which violates students' free speech [...]

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NCAC Board President Emily Knox to testify before U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Book Ban Surge

By |2023-09-12T15:08:09-04:00September 11th, 2023|News|

NEW YORK - On September 12, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Emily Knox, the Board President of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), is set to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The hearing, titled Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature, will address the alarming increase in book censorship. A live video [...]

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Free speech organizations call on Florida’s Department of Education to Issue Clear Guidance to Schools

By |2024-09-30T18:39:00-04:00September 5th, 2023|News|

(St. Petersburg, Florida) — A group of free expression and anti-censorship groups sent a letter to schools across Florida today, alerting them to legal filings by the state’s Attorney General that the “Don’t Say Gay” law doesn’t apply to school libraries. Although many Florida schools shuttered or restricted their libraries as the school year began, three separate  legal filings by Attorney [...]

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NCAC opposes effort to restrict AP African American Studies in Arkansas

By |2024-08-02T16:54:46-04:00August 21st, 2023|News|

NEW YORK - The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is an alliance of national nonprofit groups dedicated to protecting freedom of expression, including the rights of K-12 students, teachers, and staff. NCAC released the following statement to oppose the Arkansas Department of Education's restrictions on Advanced Placement African American Studies. On Saturday, August 12, the Arkansas Department of Education [...]

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NCAC urges Iowa Department of Education to issue Senate File 496 guidance to prevent confusion among school districts

By |2023-08-17T15:04:24-04:00August 17th, 2023|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to urge the Iowa Department of Education to issue guidance regarding Senate File 496, which restricts instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation, and removes school library books with sexual content. We are concerned that the vague law is creating confusion in Iowa school districts and will harm students because it encourages schools [...]

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