Protesters rally for 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Huck Finn
Dozens of protestors gathered on the courthouse green in Accomac, Virginia, Friday evening to rally against the Accomack County School Board's decision to pull two classics of American literature from school library shelves.
Charles Knitter of Keller, who took a lead role in organizing the rally, told the 50 or so in attendance, including dozens of high school students, that the school district has "a leadership problem."
"Have a look at how you're running our schools and taking care of the students in your charge," he said, addressing school leaders in absentia.
News that the school district had removed from county schools' bookshelves Mark Twain's novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" spread around the nation after a parent filed a formal complaint against the use of the two books in school because of their use of racial slurs.
A racial slur appears 219 times in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and 48 times in "To Kill a Mockingbird."
HOW IT STARTED: 'To Kill a Mockingbird' suspended in Accomack schools
Marie Rothstein-Williams, a white parent of a biracial child who attends Nandua High School, spoke at a Nov. 15 school board meeting against the use of the two books in Accomack County classrooms and libraries.
Accomack County School Superintendent Chris Holland said a committee is looking into the complaint, in accordance with school board policy. The policy says materials that are the subject of a complaint will be temporarily suspended pending the committee's determination.
Nandua High School junior Sadye Saunders, 16, this week started a petition seeking to have the books reinstated at school, but her principal took the petition away, she said.
"This is important, because censorship blinds us," she said, adding, "These books are important, because they are not condoning this word, this racial slur ... They're showing the ignorance of using that word and having this bigotry."
Connie Burford, a member of a group gathering signatures on a petition for a referendum about an elected school board in Accomack County, urged people at the rally to sign their petition as well as Saunders'.
Accomack County is one of only a few Virginia localities where the school board is appointed rather than elected.
READ MORE: Parent says 'To Kill a Mockingbird' validates racist language
Historian Kentoya Downing-Garcia, who is black, also spoke at the rally, saying the books in question are important to help educate people about history, including the history of racial discrimination.
The realities of that history hit close to home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, she said.
"I had a relative who was the first African-American who integrated Onancock High School," she said, noting that event happened within living memory.
"These stories are not only on a national level, but they also show how close they touch to home," she said.
Downing-Garcia said of students to whom she has taught history at the college level, "There were things that students should know that they don't know, and somewhere along the way, we have dropped that ball — and we need to get that ball back up and rolling."
Knitter capped off the rally by reading an excerpt from Chapter 23 of "To Kill a Mockingbird," including a section where white attorney Atticus Finch is threatened and spat on because of his decision to defend a black man against a fabricated rape charge.
"We're not going to be censored, because banning literature is, well, stupid — I don't have another way to say that," Knitter said.
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