DALLAS — School boards across North Texas and beyond are waging the battle over banned books as students and parents debate whether topics of race and gender belong in school libraries.
Though the era and specifics have changed, books have long been a familiar battleground through history.
A 1975 WFAA story archived in the SMU Jones Film Collection focused on seven books that received objections at the state level. The report stated the general objections felt the books “teach disrespect for recognized authority and stress violence.”
One of the books in question was a textbook for Speech class called Patterns and Communications. The book showed pictures of various protest symbols such as the “peace sign” hand gesture and the 1968 raised-fist protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Olympic Games
Another Speech class textbook raised objections for articles posing questions about a student’s identity while another book told of marijuana-use.
But a year earlier, some of the greatest American authors in history were also pulled off the shelves, albeit, for a very short amount of time.
Books by Ernest Hemingway, JD Salinger and William Faulkner were just some of those temporarily removed from Dallas school libraries. Back then, a district policy removed books if a formal complaint named it “subversive or “unamerican,” at least until the district cold review the book and complaint.
Then-Superintendent of DISD Nolan Estes said the books were modern classics and most were referenced on the list of state-approved textbooks, so the books were quickly returned to shelves shortly thereafter.
He also said school staff may have overreacted out of caution due to concerns nationwide about school reading material.