{"id":6974,"date":"2021-03-30T12:41:59","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T17:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/?page_id=6974"},"modified":"2026-08-04T15:39:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:39:58","slug":"color-purple","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/bannedbooks\/color-purple\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books 2026 &#8211; The Color Purple"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"marsha-row mt-4 mb-4 flex flex-wrap -mx-2 lg:-mx-6  justify-start border-0 border-gray-100 first:mt-0\">\n\t\n<p><!-- *  START LEFT COLUMN  *--><div class=\"columns w-full lg:w-3\/12  lg:px-6    mt-6\">\n<div class=\"\">\n\n<h2>Links<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a id=\"current\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/bannedbooks\/bannedbooks-2026\/author\/\">2026 Author<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/bannedbooks\/bannedbooks-2026\/title\/\">2026 Title<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/bannedbooks\/\">Banned Books Home<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><hr \/><\/p>\n<h2>Cover<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/files\/2021\/03\/colorpurple.jpg\" alt=\"the color purple cover\" width=\"1400\" height=\"2003\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2679\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mulibiiidb.marshall.edu\/record=b1042743~S12\">Held at Marshall University ( Drinko General Collection &#8211; PS3573.A425 C6 1982)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- *** ** END LEFT COLUMN ** ***-->\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/p><p><!-- *** ** START RIGHT COLUMN ** **--><div class=\"columns w-full lg:w-9\/12  lg:px-6    mt-6\">\n<div class=\"\">\n\n<p><strong>Marshall University does not ban books!  The information is provided to let people know what has been banned\/challenged elsewhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>2026<\/h2>\n<p>In December, Bellbrook-Sugarcreek School District (OH) removed 36 titles from school library collections. An additional 94 titles were relocated from intermediate and middle school collections to the high school library. Content warning labels indicating either \u201cgender ideology\u201d or \u201csexual content\u201d were applied to the relocated titles. Parental permission is required for students to access titles labeled with content warnings. Restricted titles include <strong>Sold<\/strong> by Patricia McCormick, <strong>The Bluest Eye<\/strong> by Toni Morrison, <strong>Their Eyes Were Watching God<\/strong> by Zora Neale Hurston, <strong>The Color Purple<\/strong> by Alice Walker, and <strong>The Underground Railroad<\/strong> by Colson Whitehead. The district indicated that this censorship was undertaken to comply with Ohio House Bill 8, the \u201cParents\u2019 Bill of Rights.\u201d  HB8 makes no mention of school libraries. It pertains solely to materials used in classroom instruction.<\/p>\n<h2>2022<\/h2>\n<p>The Protect Nebraska Children Coalition brought an extensive list of books to the Wauneta-Pallisade (NE) Public Schools board meeting and wanted the books removed from both the elementary and high school libraries. The list of more than 30 titles included <strong>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/strong> by Sherman Alexie, <strong>Ghost Boys<\/strong> by Jewell Parker Rhodes, <strong>Thirteen Reasons Why<\/strong> by Jay Asher, <strong>Go Tell It on the Mountain<\/strong> by James Baldwin, <strong>Speak<\/strong> by Laurie Halse Anderson, <strong>Dear Martin<\/strong> by Nic Stone, <strong>The Color Purple<\/strong> by Alice Walker, <strong>The Kite Runner<\/strong> by Khaled Hosseini, <strong>Beloved<\/strong> by Toni Morrison, <strong>The Undefeated<\/strong> by Kwame Alexander, <strong>Pink Is for Boys<\/strong> by Robb Pearlman, and <strong>Harbor Me<\/strong> by Jacqueline Woodson. The books were removed for evaluation.<\/p>\n<h2>2014<\/h2>\n<p>Challenged, but retained as a Brunswick County (NC) Advanced Placement English eleventh-grade assignment. Language and sexuality or &#8220;obscenity&#8221; were most often cited as the reason for the majority of the unofficial complaints and criticisms, as was whether or not the book, a Pulitzer Prize winner that deals with issues of racism, violence against women, and rape, has literary value that was age appropriate for the students.<\/p>\n<h2>2010<\/h2>\n<p>Challenged and or banned for offensive language, being sexually explicit and unsuited to age group<\/p>\n<h2>2009<\/h2>\n<p>Challenged in Burke County schools in Morgantown (NC) by parents concerned about the homosexuality, rape, and incest portrayed in the book<\/p>\n<h2>2008<\/h2>\n<p>Banned for sexually explicit and offensive language and homosexuality.<\/p>\n<h2>2003<\/h2>\n<p>Challenged in Fairfax (VA) school libraries by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools for &#8220;profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct and torture&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2>On These Pages<\/h2>\n<p>A<strong> Banned<\/strong> book has been removed from a library, classroom, etc.<br \/>\nA <strong>Challenged<\/strong> book has been requested to be removed from a library, classroom, etc.<\/p>\n<h2>For additional information contact<\/h2>\n<p>Ron Titus, <a href=\"mailto:titus@marshall.edu\">titus@marshall.edu<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"tel:304-696-6575\">304-696-6575<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Last updated<\/h2>\n<p>August 4, 2026<\/p>\n<p><!-- ** ** END RIGHT COLUMN *** *-->\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n<p><!-- *** * END FULL PAGE DIV * blocked in the processing de*** --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":784,"featured_media":0,"parent":2039,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-full-width.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6974","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/784"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6974"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16178,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6974\/revisions\/16178"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}