True Stories of Censorship Battles in America's Libraries by 
Race, Gender, and Film Censorship in Virginia, 1922-1965 by Dr. Patrick Lawrence kicks off this year's celebration of Banned Books Week with his keynote entitled "Obscene Gestures: Counternarratives of Sex and Race in the Twentieth Century". As we celebrate our freedom to read, Dr. Lawrence draws attention to potential impacts of obscenity controversies and attempted censorship of literary works - especially upon marginalized authors. His book of the same title, published by Fordham University Press, will be coming out in 2022.
Please note that this presentation deals with potentially sensitive content, including adult language.
First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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What is Banned Books Week?
An annual celebration of the freedom to read, begun in 1982. Celebrated by libraries, schools, and booksellers alike, Banned Books Week draws attention to the dangers of censorship. Each year, the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom compiles a Field Report with information on the most frequently challenged books in the United States. A challenge is a formal attempt to remove or restrict access to materials in a school or library. However, these statistics are only a glimpse of the reports - surveys indicate that the vast majority of challenges go unreported.
We invite you to celebrate by checking out some of this year's most frequently-banned books. What you find may surprise you!
This year's theme is "Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us".
For more information, please see the American Library Association's Banned Books website.
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