Huntsville, Alabama, school board member James Dawson told his colleagues January 6 that he wants district policy changed so that literature containing racial slurs is banned from elementary-school libraries. His announcement came during a meeting at which the board refused Dawson’s request to withdraw Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry from elementary collections.
Board member Susan Anderson disagreed, stating that the lower grades are “precisely when children need to learn about these things so they don’t carry misperceptions or myths.” When board members declined his request, Dawson, who is black, accused them of “trying to hold on to the 1800s,” according to the January 7 Huntsville Times, and placed the matter on the board’s February agenda.
Dawson’s stand against Roll of Thunder was prompted by a parent’s complaint. He also initially backed a separate complaint filed at Chapman Elementary School against Marvin Redpost: Is He a Girl? by Louis Sachar, but subsequently withdrew his support of that objection.
Posted January 17, 2000.