Black literature — indeed, Black art — has long been a target for coordinated campaigns of censorship and repression, usually facilitated by local, state, and federal government action or inaction. Since at least the Harlem Renaissance, Black writing in the United States has been widely treated as obscene, seditious, and even dangerous. The greatest Black writers have been feared for precisely their ability to highlight the injustices of American society with clarity, lyricism, and urgency.

The racist campaign of repression against Black authors has never really stopped — only ebbed from time to time. Today, however, this campaign has roared back into life with a relentless effort to remove Black-authored books from libraries, race-conscious subjects from curricula, and any mention of racism from our collective history. This is partly an obvious backlash to the racial justice movement sparked by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others — but it’s also just the latest chapter in a long story of racist censorship.

Read More