Books Banned for Racial Content
23 books · 650 total challenges
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about racial injustice in the American South, challenged for its use of racial...
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain's 1884 novel about a boy and an escaped slave on the Mississippi River, one of the most banned books in Ameri...
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck's Depression-era novella about two migrant workers, challenged for profanity, racial slurs, and its portr...
Fallen Angels
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers follows young soldiers in the Vietnam War. One of the most frequently banned books in...
Black Boy
Black Boy by Richard Wright is an autobiography of growing up Black in the Jim Crow South. Banned for decades for 'obsce...
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou's memoir of growing up Black in the Jim Crow South, challenged for its depiction of childhood sexual assaul...
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies by William Golding follows boys stranded on an island who descend into savagery. Banned for violence, ...
All American Boys
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely tackles police brutality and racism through two teens' perspective...
New Kid
Jordan Banks, a Black seventh-grader from Washington Heights, navigates being one of the few kids of color at a prestigi...
Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is a sweeping Civil War-era novel challenged for racial slurs, romanticized slav...
Monster
Monster by Walter Dean Myers follows a 16-year-old Black teenager on trial for felony murder, told through his screenpla...
Native Son
Richard Wright's landmark 1940 novel follows Bigger Thomas, a young Black man in 1930s Chicago whose life spirals after ...
Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison's third novel follows Macon 'Milkman' Dead III on a journey through American history and his own family's ...
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston follows Janie Crawford's search for love and independence in the earl...
Homegoing
Homegoing traces two branches of a family tree across three centuries, from 18th-century Ghana through the slave trade t...
Monday's Not Coming
Monday's Not Coming follows Claudia, a Black teenager whose best friend Monday goes missing and no one seems to care eno...
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
#1 NYT antiracism text that became a major school ban target across America....
The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison's debut novel about a young Black girl in 1940s Ohio became one of the most-banned books in America despit...
The Hate U Give
Angie Thomas' YA novel about witnessing police brutality became a major film and cultural touchstone....
Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream
H.G. Bissinger's nonfiction account of the 1988 season of the Permian High School Panthers football team in Odessa, Texa...
Ace of Spades
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé's debut thriller about two Black students at an elite prep school who become targets of an anonymo...
Small Great Things
Small Great Things...
The Green Mile
The Green Mile...