Invisible Man Book Ban From School Libraries In North Carolina

School libraries in Randolph County, N.C. announced an Invisible Man book ban. The 1952 novel by Ralph Ellison was described as “filthier and too much for teenagers..”

According to the Tribune, a parent of an eleventh grader wrote the school district expressing her disapproval of the book’s availability to students stating:

The narrator writes in the first person, emphasizing his individual experiences and his feelings about the events portrayed in his life. This novel is not so innocent; instead, this book is filthier, too much for teenagers. You must respect all religions and point of views when it comes to the parents and what they feel is age appropriate for their young children to read, without their knowledge. This book is freely in your library for them to read.

In a 5-2 vote, the school board voted to ban the book from the library. One board member, Gary Mason, stated, “I didn’t find any literary value.”

The Invisible Man book by Ralph Ellison won the 1953 National Book Award for fiction, beating out Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ and John Steinbeck’s ‘East of Eden’.

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