Marshall University does not ban books! The information is provided to let people know what has been banned/challenged elsewhere.
2022
After parent complaints about the use of racist epithets in To Kill a Mockingbird; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Cay; Of Mice and Men; and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the Burbank (CA) Unified School District superintendent removed these titles from required classroom reading lists. Following a review committee’s recommendation, the superintendent also banned the use of the N-word in all school classes. The titles are available for individual reading and teachers can use then with small groups after the teacher has undergone training on facilitating conversations on racism, implicit bias, and racial identity. The district will also review reading lists every eight years.
In response to concerns raised by students and parents, Of Mice and Men, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and To Kill a Mockingbird were temporarily removed from the mandatory reading list of the William S. Hart Union High School District in Santa Clarita (CA). While the books remain in school libraries, teachers can no longer use them as part of their curricula. The district is accepting input students, teachers, and parents as they set criteria for what should be on mandatory reading lists. No timeline has been provided for when the criteria will be revealed or utilized.
2021
Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a “white savior” character, and its perception of the Black experience.
After parent complaints about the use of racist epithets in To Kill a Mockingbird; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Cay; Of Mice and Men; and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the Burbank (CA) Unified School District superintendent issued a statement removing the books from the district’s required reading lists for its English curriculum and banned the use of the N-word in all school classes. The books will be allowed in classroom libraries, but no student can be required to read them. At a board meeting, the superintendent stated, “This is not about censorship, this is about righting the wrongs of the past.”
2020
A white substitute teacher at the Mustang (OK) High School read the N-Word aloud from To Kill A Mockingbird. The only black student in the class recorded the reading, notified the teacher that she was offended, and brought the matter to the attention of the principal. The district adopted a new policy stating that “racially charged language will no longer be spoken” in classrooms. The status of the substitute teacher is not known.
2019
A parent requested that the novel be removed from the 9th-grad curriculum at Monona Grove (WI) High School. The parent, who had two children in the district, complained about the book’s use of the N-word, the portrayal of Atticus Finch as a white savior, the absence of other works representing people of color, and the deep racial divide in a student body that is 83% white. Following a review process, the district decided to retain the title, stating, “The committee recommended MGHS English teachers carefully consider [the book’s] place in the curriculum, the context in which it’s taught, other equivalent options or other ways to use the book that might include using [it] as a choice rather than as a required text.” Citing the use of racial slurs in the books, Duluth (MN) school district administrators decided to remove Lee’s novel and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the curriculum “to protect the dignity of our students” and not require them to read books that marginalize them. The titles remain in the school library, and can still be optional reading for students.
2018
After a mother complained to the superintendent that her son was uncomfortable with the N-word, the novel was removed from the 8th-grade curriculum at Biloxi (MS) Public Schools in the middle of teaching it, without following policy. After national outcry, the book is available to be taught as an optional assignments with the written permission of a parent. At Hamilton (AZ) High School, parents expressed concern over a school assignment addressing the use of the N-word in the classic novel.
2017
Retained in the Accomack County (VA) Public Schools. A parent objected to racial slurs in the book. After being temporarily removed on Nov. 29, 2016, the book was reinstated on Dec. 6 by the school board.
2012
Banned or challenged for offensive language and racism.
2010
Removed from the St. Edmund Campion Secondary School classrooms in Brampton (Ontario, Canada) because a parent objected to language used in the novel, including [the N-word]*.
2009
Retained in the English curriculum by the Cherry Hill (NJ) Board of Education. A resident had objected to the novel’s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression. The resident feared the book would upset black children reading it.
2008
Retained in the English curriculum by the Cherry Hill (NJ) Board of Education. A resident had objected to the novel’s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression. The resident feared the book would upset black children reading it.
2006
Challenged at the Brentwood (TN) Middle School because the book contains “profanity” and “contains adult themes such as sexual intercourse, rape, and incest.” The complainants also contend that the book’s use of racial slurs promotes “racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy.”
2005
Challenged at the Stanford Middle School in Durham (NC) because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses [the N-word]*. Challenged, but retained in the Normal (IL) Community High Schools sophomore literature class despite concerns the novel is degrading
to African Americans.
2004
Challenged in the Normal (IL) Community High Schools sophomore literature class as being degrading to African Americans. Challenged at the Stanford Middle School in Durham (NC) because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses the N-word.
2002
Challenged for profanity and racial slurs.
* Words in brackets different in original sources.
On These Pages
A Banned book has been removed from a library, classroom, etc.
A Challenged book has been requested to be removed from a library, classroom, etc.
For additional information contact
Ron Titus,
304-696-6575
Last updated
August 16, 2022
- Subject area(s): Literature essays
- Reading time: 4 minutes
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- Published: 7 January 2019*
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To Kill a Mockingbird, A Time to Kill, and The Awakening all have something in common. All of these books have been banned and challenged in various places. According to ala.org, A Time to Kill is ranked number 67 in American Library Association’s most frequently banned book in between 2000-2009. John Grisham’s award-winning novel A Time to Kill is banned and challenged in various places because of the violence, rape, and foul language used.
John Grisham, the author of A Time to Kill, was interviewed by Jon Stewart on the The Daily Show in 2005. Grisham was getting interviewed on how he felt about having his book banned in Texas prisons and challenged in many more states. Grisham said that a banned book gives one ‘more clout’ so he did not mind it(Baldassarro). John Grisham went to law school at the University of Mississippi to become a lawyer. He practiced law for a little while and witnessed many brutal cases. His law career inspired many of the books he has written. Grisham also says that he was inspired by Harper Lee’s best-selling novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. John Grisham approached writing this book as a hobby. The book took him three years to write. His background as a lawyer helped advance his career as a best-selling author.
Grisham wrote this book because he witnessed a trial where a small African American girl was raped by a white male. This case made him obsessed with the idea of a father’s retribution (Grisham xi-x). Grisham wanted to change the end of the story which is what inspired A Time to Kill. In the book, the main lawyer, Jake Brigance, is very similar to John Grisham. The book was rejected by many publishers at first, and Grisham couldn’t decide on a name for it.
Rape is one of the main reasons that this book is banned in places such as Texas prisons and challenged in other places. On page 15 of A Time to Kill, Grisham says “He sat on the tailgate drinking a beer, smoking a joint, watching his friend Willard take his turn with the black girl.” This is only a small portion of what the book has to say about rape. The rape scene takes place within the first three pages of the book. The detail that Grisham used are very appalling and adult rated. Another line of the book reads, “Her legs were spread grotesquely with the right foot tied to an oak sapling and the left to a rotting fence post…” (Grisham 2).
The language used throughout the book is offensive to some. The movie is rated R. One main reason the movie is rated R is because of the colorful language used throughout it(A Time to Kill). The book and movie contain words such as ‘nxxxxx’ and ‘damn’. Grisham uses a wide vocabulary in the novel when Jake Brigance is talking to his mentor:
“You look at the crime and you look at the criminal. If it’s a dope dealer who guns down an undercover narcotics officer, then he gets the gas. If it’s a drifter who rapes a three-year-old girl, drowns her by holding her little head in a mud hole, then throws her body off a bridge, then you take his life and thank god he’s gone. If it’s an escaped convict who breaks into a farmhouse late at night and beats and tortures an elderly couple before burning them with their house, then you strap him in a chair, hook up a few wires, pray for his soul, and pull the switch. And if it’s two dopeheads who gang-rape a ten-year-old girl and kick her with pointed-toe cowboy boots until her jaws break, then you happily, merrily, thankfully, gleefully lock them in a gas chamber and listen to them squeal. It’s very simple. Their crimes were barbaric. Death is too good for them, much too good.”
Bars and alcohol are also mentioned throughout the book. According to Marshall University Libraries, books like this one can disturb the reader because include content about murder and rape which are mature topics. This shows how language plays a role in the banning of a book.
From murder scenes to bar fights, this book contains all of the above. A Time to Kill is very graphic. The novel shows how racial violence can affect how people approach topics(Banned and Challenged Books). The book contains a shooting scene where two people are killed and one is injured. Crosses are burned in the lawyer, Jake Brigance’s, yard. People become very violent in the this book because of one trial that turned awry. Not only are the crosses burned, Brigance has to try and save his client’s life along with his own because the people turned against him. The people who were violent against him wanted Brigance to stop defending the African American girl and her father.
This book is banned in Texas prisons. Texas prisons ban books by letting the mail room staff go through the book, search for anything that a weapon could be made out of, any violence, or anything that could be used to make a plot for escape. For inmates, reading is a way to assimilate back into society. A Time to Kill was deemed inflammatory by the mail room staff in the prisons in 2005(Richard).
This book has also been challenged in many states. Associated Press in Fargo, ND, talks about how a mother from the local high school wanted to ban the book so her daughter did not have to read it. The mother wanted it banned because of the graphic rape and murder scenes within the book. The book was retained and there did not get banned. A Time to Kill has been challenged in six other school districts: two in Michigan, one in Kansas, one in Illinois, Texas, and Maryland. The book was banned and challenged more after the movie came out(Haag).
A Time to Kill is banned in a prisons and has been challenged in many school districts because of its rape scene, foul language and violence throughout the book. Most books are challenged more than they are banned. This is the case for A Time to Kill. because of the mature content within the novel, parental consent should be given for a student to read the book. The difference between a banned and challenged book is that a banned book has been removed from a place, and a challenged book has been requested to be removed from a certain place. Anyone can attempted to ban and book by going to the School Board and following through with the district’s banning process.
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