Ep. 276: Book banning's trial of the century w/ Anthony Aycock

Over the past five years, book bans and book challenges have become a major flashpoint in American politics.

School boards, parents, librarians, and lawmakers are fighting over what students should—and shouldn't—have access to on library shelves. Supporters of library restrictions say they are protecting children. Opponents say they are censoring ideas.

But this debate isn't new.

In the 1970s, America saw a similar surge in book challenges. One local dispute in Long Island, New York, made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and became the only school-library book-removal case the Court has ever decided.

That case was Island Trees School District v. Pico, better known simply as Pico.

In this episode, we're joined by Anthony Aycock, legislative library director at the North Carolina General Assembly and the author of Just Plain Filthy: The Story Behind Book Banning's Trial of the Century.

His book tells the story behind Pico, including the school board that removed the books from its libraries, the students who fought back, and the Supreme Court justices who delivered a fractured ruling that left some of the case's most important constitutional questions unresolved.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

03:02 How Anthony became a librarian

05:08 What inspired Anthony's book?