Maryland Schools Remove 2 Black-Authored Books

Two Maryland public school superintendents have removed books by prominent African American authors from high school English classes in recent weeks at the urging of some parents who called the works “trash” and “anti-white.”

In Anne Arundel County, Supt. Carol S. Parham ordered Maya Angelou’s autobiographical “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” removed from the ninth-grade English curriculum, although it will still be taught in the 11th grade.

In St. Mary’s County, Supt. Patricia Richardson recently removed Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon” from the schools’ approved text list. In both cases, superintendents overruled faculty committee recommendations to keep the books, yielding to the wishes of small groups of parents.

In each case, the removal of the book has angered many students, teachers and community activists, who believe the objections are racially motivated.

Free speech advocates say the Anne Arundel case is highly unusual because race-based complaints about books used in U.S. classrooms typically have focused on concerns about negative portrayals of African Americans, such as in Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

Both “Song of Solomon” and “Caged Bird” are considered by many scholars to be modern classics of African American literature. Angelou’s book, a searing look at her childhood in segregated Arkansas, is a staple in high school English classes across the country and is on approved text lists in adjacent counties.

The book’s defenders say Angelou uses her poet’s gifts to give students an evocative portrait of life under segregation.

The removal is “frightening,” said Maura Stevenson, whose daughter read the book last year. “The school board is listening to people who are ignorant.”

But Sue Crandall, the white Anne Arundel parent who sparked the protest against the Angelou autobiography, called the removal a victory for common sense.

“Caged Bird,” assigned to her son this fall at South River High School, is not appropriate for ninth-graders because it is sexually explicit and gives a dated and slanted portrayal of whites, Crandall said.