Week 13 Reading Response

There is so much I could discuss about Louise Robbin's book, The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown. Overall, I really liked how Robbins integrated so many different elements and occurrences into a comprehensive narrative. She considers the state of the community of Bartlesville, what was happening in the community and the nation in terms of anticommunism/McCarthyism, racial segregation and racism, and the place of women in the community, and describes how all of these different factors fit into Ruth Brown’s life experience, such as her ability to make more waves after her foster children were on their own. She provides a comprehensive view of the circumstances surrounding Ruth Brown's dismissal so the reader can understand all the various factors that contributed to it.

This reading dovetailed nicely with my group project for this class: book banning and censorship. I really enjoyed the way Robbins illustrated the development of the principle of intellectual freedom in libraries in a specific case such as this. It astonished me to read on page 59 that a library commission recommended that "questionable material" be removed or severely restricted, at least until the opposition died down. It was also around this time, though, that the ALA began to more strenuously support intellectual freedom and condemn censorship. Without the historical circumstances in the mid-twentieth century, the profession of librarianship wouldn't be recognizable today.

Another element of the book that caught my attention was the strong association in many people's minds between communism and racial equality. Both of these movements had the potential to severely disrupt people's every day lives, which many people feared and fought. What worries me, however, is similar associations I see being made by some highly conservative groups today. While in the 1950s, some people believed that racial equality was a threat to American democracy, today it seems some people believe that Islam is a threat to America's (supposed) Christian heritage, or equality of sexual orientation is a threat to American family values. Perhaps these ideas will never reach the magnitude of segregation, or the McCarthy witch trials. But any threat to freedom of speech and choice in this country is worth fighting, no matter how small. Every day, librarians face challenges to the materials they offer, and we must remember to remain strong in our opposition to censorship. Intellectual freedom is now a central value of the library profession, and like Ruth Brown did, I hope to uphold that value no matter the consequences.