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FORBIDDEN FRUIT What's Behind Florida's Attempt to Erase Black History?
By Stephen G. Hall, PhD Since book bans and censorship are common components of authoritarian governments, we often associate them with the behavior of such regimes as Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. However, they were also a component of Jim Crow America. During the Jim Crow era (c. 1896-1954), it was common for segregationists to ban books that challenged the status quo and promoted the equal treatment of African Americans. Today, however, book bans have taken on a particularly pernicious and problematic aura as they threaten the very foundation of our democracy. The current round of book bans is an attempt to revisit America’s culture wars. But unlike in the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, today’s issues are more deeply politicized, and Republican leaders are enacting strict laws across the country that have essentially made reading certain books prohibited. They are doing so with the belief that American culture consists of a normative set of books that supposedly support patriotism, traditional Christian BAVUAL
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values, and American family values. More important, added to this seemingly innocuous agenda is the fact that these individuals are hell-bent on promoting a conservative political agenda that favors Republican interests. What accounts for this latest round of book bans? What organizations and group are leading the charge? And why have these efforts gained so much support? The origins of recent book bans can be linked to the recent pandemic, the explosion of nationwide protests in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, the growth of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the nationwide backlash at the local and state levels against these developments. They can also be considered the tail end or cumulative result of the nation’s rightward turn during the Trump presidency (2017-2021). Leading this new censorship and banning wave are parents, school boards, state legislatures and conservative action groups emboldened by SPRING 2023
