Right-wing book bans are all the rage in 2023, but such authoritarian tactics are nothing new. Back in the 1950s—during the height of the McCarthy Era—conservatives actually tried to get the legendary hero Robin Hood removed from schools as they were convinced his steal-from-the-rich-give-to-the-poor philosophy was nothing less than straight up communism.
Just a few years earlier, Republicans had prodded the F.B.I. to investigate Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, outraged that George Bailey was—gasp!—some kind of socialist (well, duh!)
As a native Hoosier, I wasn't surprised to discover this Robin Hood ban originated in Indiana—a state long known for its embarrassingly backward politics—but I was pleased to learn how a group of Indiana University students organized a campaign of resistance against it.
Known as The Green Feather Movement—because supporters wore a single chicken feather dyed green to show their antipathy toward censorship—the movement eventually spread to other U.S. college campuses: Purdue, Harvard, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and U.C.L.A.
While the Green Feather Movement may have been short-lived, the idea behind it is as important today—when right-wing groups such as Moms for Liberty are attempting to cleanse school libraries of books they don't agree with—as it was during the McCarthy Era.
You can read more about the Green Feather Movement here and here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to order my Green Feather button from Etsy, which I plan to wear during the next school board meeting.
There's more to come in the next dispatch.
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