“Ideas Don't Die”

"If that book is banned today, what will be banned tomorrow? And what group will want a book banned the day after that? It's such a vicious and dangerous thing to begin, and may in the end, lead to exactly the same thing we see in Europe today. Besides, banning books is so utterly hopeless and futile. Ideas don't die because a book is forbidden reading."

This is an excerpt from a letter written by Gretchen Knief, a local librarian working against the 1939 proposed ban of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath in Kern County, Calif. Kern County is where Steinbeck's fictional Joad family ends up at the end of Grapes, and officials in Kern took issue with how they were portrayed in relation to migrant workers.

To the right, Clell Pruett, a migrant worker in Kern County, burns a copy of The Grapes of Wrath. He'd never actually read the book. (Photo courtesy of the Kern County Museum.)

Though Knief was unsuccessful in overturning the Grapes of Wrath ban in Kern County, the struggle was a catalyst for creating the Library Bill of Rights, which essentially says American citizens have the right to access and use any information they wish, without interference.

Hear this story on Morning Edition, at NPR.org, as part of their feature on the American Library Association’s annual "Banned Books Week."

How does your school library handle controversial texts? How do you teach students about censorship in a historical and ethical context?