A Missouri school board has lifted the initial ban to remove a novel written by Toni Morrison from school shelves after two students filed a lawsuit.
According to CNN, board members from the Wentzville school district voted to restore “The Bluest Eye” just one month after a 4-3 vote that banned students from accessing the book on school grounds. However, the reversal was made a week after the lawsuit was filed in federal court.
The novel tells the story of an abused and destitute Black girl so focused on White beauty standards that she wishes to have blue eyes.
In January, a parent suggested the novel be banned after complaining about incest, rape, and pedophilia. As a result, The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri (ACLU) filed the lawsuit on behalf of the students in the U.S. Court of Eastern Missouri, stating that the board has restricted access to several books that capture student’s interest with a “diversity of ideas and minority viewpoints, including with respect to race, gender, and sexual identity,” adding board members ban books because of “ideological disagreement.”
The lawsuit said the school board decided to keep books that white, heterosexual authors wrote to remain in school libraries. In contrast, the authors who identify as “non-white, LGBTQ+, or a minority” their books will be removed.
When the board appointed a review committee, they responded with an 8-1 vote to ban the novel, the lawsuit wrote. Additionally, the ACLU cited that the book “helps the reader step into and understand 1941 (pre-WWII, pre-civil rights movement), small-town Black culture in a way no textbook can do.”
“School boards cannot ban books because the books and their characters illustrate viewpoints different of those of school board; especially when they target books presenting the viewpoints of racial and sexual minorities, as they have done in Wentzville,” said Anthony Rothert, Director of Integrated Advocacy of ACLU of Missouri in a statement.
Though the board reversed the decision, Rothert said the district would continue to adhere to policies created to ban books.
“Wentzville’s policies still make it easy for any community member to force any book from the shelves even when they shamelessly target books by and about communities of color, LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups,” he said in a statement.
Daniel Brice, the school board’s vice president, said parents still have the right to prohibit their children from reading the book. But, despite voting to ban the novel last month, she said, “I think we’ve brought enough attention to this book that the parents are aware that this book is going to be in the library,” Brice told CNN.
The school district’s actions regarding books that highlight race, gender, or sexual orientation have been targeted in schools nationwide.
A Virginia Beach school board member, Victoria Manning called for “The Bluest Eye” to be banned from the school district after claiming it had “pornographic” references in the book, News Onyx reported.
