by American Civil Liberties Union

About the author: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a national organization dedicated to protecting Americans’ constitutional liberties.

“I’m completely appalled at the excerpts. I feel that this is a degradation of the human race.”

—September 1998 statement by Prince William School Board member John Harper Jr., discussing parents’ complaints about the books Nightjohn, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and Slaughterhouse Five on school summer reading lists.

Banned Books Week [September 26–October 3, 1998] is a time to celebrate literature and examine the roots of intolerance and ignorance that fuel efforts to censor the arts and free expression. Book censorship is neither infrequent nor an issue of the past. Books with clear artistic and cultural merit are still challenged frequently by those who want to control what...