History of Censorship in Alabama
The history of censorship in Alabama reflects a complex interplay between state authority, cultural values, and evolving standards of free expression. Despite producing influential figures like Hugo L. Black, a strong proponent of the First Amendment, the state has a long history of using various forms of censorship to suppress dissent and manage public discourse. For instance, Alabama officials historically utilized state libel laws to silence critics, particularly during the Civil Rights movement, until landmark Supreme Court rulings such as New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964 provided greater protections for speech on public issues.
Additionally, the state's educational policies have often been contentious, particularly regarding textbook selection and the teaching of evolution, which have been influenced by political and religious beliefs. In the 1980s, attempts to integrate Christian teachings into public schools led to significant legal challenges, with mixed outcomes in state and federal courts. Efforts to regulate content in Alabama schools continue, exemplified by a 2015 law mandating that evolution be presented as a controversial theory. Overall, Alabama's censorship history illustrates the ongoing tension between governmental authority, cultural perspectives, and individual rights.
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History of Censorship in Alabama
Description: Politically and religiously conservative and comparatively poor state in the Deep South of the United States.
Significance: At various times in the past Alabama’s white government leaders have tried to preserve the racial status quo by silencing opposing voices.
Although generally acknowledged as a state in which various forms of censorship have long flourished, Alabama produced Hugo L. Black, one of the US Supreme Court’s most ardent champions of the First Amendment. In 1940 Black voted with the Court’s majority, in Thornhill v. Alabama, to strike down Alabama’s own antipicketing law because it permitted arbitrary government interference in peaceful labor union demonstrations. This decision later served the Court well when it faced Civil Rights movement cases during the 1950s and 1960s, and was arguably the beginning of Black’s reputation as a traitor to the South.
Alabama’s public officials long used state libel law to silence opposition until 1964, when the US Supreme Court’s landmark New York Times v. Sullivan decision ruled that speech on public issues was protected by the US Constitution. Before that decision, government officials could chill speech merely by forcing their critics to assume the heavy costs of libel defenses. For example, the New York Times, which was often under attack in the South for its extensive coverage of racial integration, not only faced a half-million-dollar judgment in the Sullivan case but had eleven other suits pending against it in Alabama courts as well. Harrison Salisbury, a Times correspondent in the South, could not safely return to Alabama for several years, and general media coverage throughout the South was inhibited.
In 1975 the Federal Communications Commission, citing the failure of the Alabama Educational Television Commission (AETC) to meet the programming needs of the state’s black minority, denied the latter’s request for a license renewal, forcing the AETC to address that issue before it could reapply. In contrast, in a case brought by Alabama residents seven years later, a federal court held that AETC’s programming decision to cancel its scheduled broadcast of a film dramatizing the execution of a Saudi Arabian princess and her lover for adultery was an editorial decision, not censorship.
Communism also came under state scrutiny in the 1950s, when state law mandated that the political loyalty of the authors and publishers of all books in the state’s libraries be certified; in the case of fictional works, the loyalty of major characters had to be certified. Since this law would have required verification of millions of loyalty oaths, it remained largely unenforced. Other laws passed during that period, which have remained in force, spelled out detailed rules for the selection of textbooks statewide. Local textbook committees have been allowed to select books only from lists recommended by the state textbook committee and adopted by the state’s board of education at public meetings. Books by communist authors were specifically excluded, and school teachers using unapproved texts were subject to criminal proceedings.
The most prominent challenges to Alabama’s textbook laws have arisen not from political issues, but from religious issues. During the 1980s conservative Christians attempted to force state schools to present Christian teachings by asking the courts to declare secular humanism a religion that would require a balancing textual viewpoint. An Alabama court ruling for the plaintiffs was reversed in federal courts. Other conservative Christian challenges during the 1980s included an incident in Mobile County in which school officials declared— and a state court agreed—that the US Supreme Court had erred in applying the First Amendment to the state of Alabama and declaring public school prayer unconstitutional; a federal court reversed the decision.
Religious and political beliefs also led to Alabama schools being discouraged from teaching students about evolution and the human contribution to climate change, and the state made several attempts to get around the federal ruling that creationism cannot be taught in public schools. In 2015 a state law was passed requiring these subjects to be addressed, although the state school board voted unanimously to affix a disclaimer to all textbooks that states that evolution is "a controversial theory" and "not fact." Though there are controversies over teaching evolution in other Southern states, Alabama is the only state to require such a disclaimer.
Bibliography
Jackson, Harvey H. Inside Alabama: A Personal History of My State. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2004. Print.
Jones, Derek. Censorship: A World Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2015. Print.
Mellen, Ruby. "Alabama Students Will Finally Learn about Evolution—But Might Still Get This Giant Disclaimer." Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Sept. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.