Artist: Roger Williams
Confronting Bodies: Massachusetts Bay Colony
Date of Action: 1635
Specific Location: Massachusetts Bay Colony
Description of Artwork: Roger Williams was an outspoken advocate of religious freedom, and was one of the first challengers of Puritan Theocracy.
Description of Incident: Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his toleration and support for religious diversity, which included, "Jews, Pagans, and Turks." His defiance over state control over religious freedom led to his expulsion from the state. Williams moved to Rhode Island and founded the city of Providence. In 1644, Williams wrote a book on religious freedom, democracy and intellectual freedom, "The Bloody Tenent of Persecution."
Results of Incident: In 1936, 300 years after Williams expulsion from the former colony, the state legislature retracted its expulsion order.
Source: New York Public Library
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Name: Comstock Law Book Banning in U.S.
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Date: 1851 - 1899
Location: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
,Other
,Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Literature
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Artist: Writers
Confronting Bodies: New York Society for the Suppression of Vice
Date of Action: 1873
Specific Location: United States
Description of Artwork: Many greatest classics such as Aristophanes Lysistrata, Rabelais's Gargantua, Chaucer's Canterbury tales, Boccaccio's Decameron, and the Arabian Nights.
Description of Incident: "...Books banned from the U. S. mails under the Comstock Law included many of the greatest classics: Aristophanes Lysistrata, Rabelais's Gargantua, Chaucer's Canterbury tales, Boccaccio's Decameron and even The Arabian Nights. Furthermore, Heins includes modern authors censored under the Comstock Law. "..Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Ernst Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Eugene O' Neil, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Clifford Odets Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald...to name just a few." Sex, Sin and Blasphemy, Marjorie Heins pg. 19 "Founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (1872), whose slogans were: "Morals not Art and Literature!" and "Books are feeders for brothels!" Comstock campaigned tirelessly for censorship laws not only to stamp out erotic subject matter in art or literature, but to suppress information about sexuality, reproduction, and birth control. In 1873 he persuaded Congress (after less than an hour of debate) to pass the law (Federal Anti-Obscenity Act)that banned the mailing of materials found to be "lewd", "indecent", "filthy", or "obscene." Sex, Sin and Blasphemy, Marjorie Heins pg. 19 Furthermore Comstock was appointed a special agent of the U.S. Post Office, as such allowed to carry a gun and attack pornographers." (The Encyclopedia of Censorship, Jonathon Green, Facts on File , N.Y.C. Pg. 62-63) Over the next forty years Comstock prosecuted 3,500 individuals (although no more than 10% were found guilty) and had destroyed 120 tons of literature.
Results of Incident: "..The Comstock Law remains on the books today, although the ban on information about birth control has been eliminated. In 1896 the court ruled that the federal Comstock Law didn¹t cover vulgar insults." Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy, Marjorie Heins, pg.19
Source: New York Public Library, New York City
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Name: Red Raids, Communist Fears
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Date: 1900 - 1925
Location: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Personal Opinion
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Artist: 4,000 Russian, Finnish, Polish,German, Italian workers in U.S.
Confronting Bodies: Woodrow Wilson's Administration
Date of Action: 1920
Specific Location: United States
Description of Artwork: The "Red Raids" or "Palmer Raids", named after their director Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, were made on innocent alien workers in the United States including; Russians, Finnish, Polish, Germans and Italians.
Description of Incident: American uneasiness about the threat of Communism initiated a series of raids on those people suspected to be a threat to American democracy. "On January 2, 1920, one minute after midnight, about 500 FBI agents and police swooped down on (alien workmen), looking for Communists to deport. The victims were hustled off to jail and arrested without warrants, homes were ransacked without legal authorization, and all literature and letters were seized." The First Freedom Today, Robert Downs, ALA, Chicago, 1984, pg. 6-7
Results of Incident: Two-hundred and forty people were deported.
Source: New York Public Library, New York City
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Name: Roberto Rossellini's film The Miracle
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Date: 1951 - 1975
Location: North America
Subject: Religious
Medium: Film Video
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Artist: Roberto Rossellini, Italian film Director
Confronting Bodies: New York Board of Regents
Date of Action: 1951
Specific Location: New York City
Description of Artwork: The 40 minute film, "The Miracle," featured Anna Magnani as a peasant woman who believed that she was the Virgin Mary. The film was imported into the United states in 1949 by a Polish-Jewish immigrant Joseph Burstyn.
Description of Incident: "The Miracle" was released in Italy in 1948 despite of the views of the Catholic Church. Although the film made it through U.S. customs without trouble from the official censors, the Board of Regents came under heavy pressure from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese to revoke the films license on the ground that the work was "sacrilegious." "The Miracle" lost its license and the films distributor, Joseph Burstyn, appealed the decision. The New York Appeals Court backed the Board of Regents decision.
Results of Incident: The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision in 1952, pointing out that it was unconstitutional for government bodies to impose religious orthodoxies on film or any other art and that "a state may not ban a film on the basis of a censor's conclusion that it is sacrilegious" furthermore, "It is not the business of government... to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a religious doctrine, whether they appear in publications, speeches or motion pictures."
Source: New York Public Library, New York City
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Date Edited: Thursday, March 7, 2002
Name: Chaplinsky vs. New Hampshire, "Fighting Words"
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Date: 1926 - 1950
Location: North America
Subject: Language
Medium: Public Speech
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Artist: Chaplinsky
Confronting Bodies: State of New Hampshire
Date of Action: 1942
Specific Location: New Hampshire
Description of Artwork: Exchange of insults on the street. Chaplinsky called members of the government in Rochester, NH. "goddamned racketeers" and stated that the "whole government of Rochester are fascists or agents of fascists."
Description of Incident: "Under NH.'s Offensive Conduct law (chap. 378, para. 2 of the NH. Public Laws) it is illegal for anyone to address another person with 'any offensive, derisive or annoying word to anyone who is lawfully in any street or public place... or to call him by an offensive or derisive name.'" The court said that some categories of speech are simply "no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order in morality."
Results of Incident: The case went to the Supreme Court which declared that the case did not fall under the category of "fighting words" and was not protected by the laws pertaining to free speech. The court further stated that "resort to epithets or personal abuse is not in any proper sense a communication of information or opinion safeguarded by the Constitution" and defined the word "offensive" in this context not in terms of what a particular addressee thinks... ("but... what men of common intelligence would understand would be words likely to cause an average addressee to fight.")
Source: The Encyclopedia of Censorship, J. Green, Facts on File, '93
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Name: James Joyce, "Ulysses"
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Date: 1900 - 1925
,1926 - 1950
Location: North America
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Literature
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Artist: Artist/Author/Producer James Joyce
Confronting Bodies: Confronting Bodies U.S. Government
Date of Action: Dates of action 1918, 1930
Specific Location: Location United States
Description of Artwork: James Joyce's novel "Ulysses".
Description of Incident: In 1918 chapters published in the Little Review, are burned by the U.S. Post Office. In 1930, while en route to a potential American publisher, the U.S. Post Office once again seizes copies of the novel.
Results of Incident: In 1933, Federal Judge John Woolsey lifts the ban on Ulysses.
Source: National Association of Artists Organizations
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Name: Rolling Stones on Ed Sullivan Show
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Date: 1951 - 1975
Location: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
,Explicit Sexuality
,Other
Medium: Music
,Television
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Artist: Rolling Stones
Confronting Bodies: Ed Sullivan Show
Date of Action: 1967
Specific Location: New York City
Description of Artwork: The Rolling Stones hit song "Let's Spend the Night Together".
Description of Incident: Ed Sullivan finds the chorus of the song, "Let's spend the night together", "objectionable."
Results of Incident: The group acquiesces, appearing on national television with the altered lyrics "Let's spend some time together."
Source: National Association of Artists Organizations
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Name: Henry Miller's, Tropic of Cancer
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Date: 1926 - 1950
Location: North America
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
,Sexual/Gender Orientation
Medium: Literature
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Artist: Henry Miller
Confronting Bodies: U.S. Government
Date of Action: 1938
Specific Location: United States
Description of Artwork: Henry Miller's, "Tropic of Cancer," deals explicitly with his sexual adventures and challenged models of sexual morality.
Description of Incident: The novel, "Tropic of Cancer," and all of Henry Miller's works are banned from entering the United States.
Results of Incident: In 1961 the ban is lifted, although the work is deemed "obscene" by the Citizens for Decent Literature.
Source: New York Public Library, New York City
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Name: Louis Malle, Les Amants
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Date: 1951 - 1975
Location: North America
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
,Nudity
Medium: Film Video
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Artist: Louis Malle, Director
Confronting Bodies: State of Ohio
Date of Action: 1964
Specific Location: Ohio
Description of Artwork: Louis Malle's film, Les Amants (The Lovers) told the story of a bored, neglected, bourgeois house wife who falls for an irreverent young student. Although it celebrated the glories of adulterous love, Les Amants sexual explicitness is limited to a glimpse of the heroine's breast.
Description of Incident: In the case Jacobellis vs. Ohio, the State of Ohio used obscenity law to ban the film. Justice Brennen points out that the film must be utterly without social importance, and Justice Potter Stewart states, " I shall not here today attempt further to define (obscenity)...But I know it when I see it."
Results of Incident: In 1968 the Supreme Court reversed the obscenity conviction of the Ohio theater who exhibited Les Amants.
Source: New York Public Library, New York City
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Name: Diego Rivera murals at Rockefeller Center
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Date: 1926 - 1950
Location: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Public art
,Painting
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Artist: Diego Rivera
Confronting Bodies: U.S. Government
Date of Action: 1933
Specific Location: The Rockefeller Center, New York City
Description of Artwork: A Mural portrait commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller for Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its subject was to be "human intelligence in control of the forces of nature." The 63 feet by 17 feet mural contained in the center a portrait of Lenin.
Description of Incident: "On May 22, 1933, Rivera was called down from his scaffold where he was still working on the unfinished mural. He was handed a check for $14,00, the balance of his fee, and informed that he had been dismissed. Within 30 minutes the mural had been covered by tarpaper and a wooden screen.
Results of Incident: "Seeking a compromise, Rockefeller suggested that Rivera should replace Lenin with some unknown face; the artist offered to add Lincoln but refused to expunge Lenin. Charged with willful propagandizing, he declared only that "All art is propaganda." Since he had accepted his payment, Rivera was unable to force the Rockefellers to exhibit or even keep his work. The mural was subsequently removed from the wall..." The Encyclopedia of Censorship, J. Green, Facts on File, pg. 254
Source: The Encyclopedia of Censorship, J. Green, Facts on File
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Date Edited: Thursday, March 7, 2002
Name: The Well of Loneliness
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Date: 1926 - 1950
Location: North America
Subject: Sexual/Gender Orientation
Medium: Literature
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Artist: Radclyffe Hall
Confronting Bodies: New York Court
Date of Action: 1929
Specific Location: New York City, New York, Great Britain
Description of Artwork: "The Well of Loneliness," a mawkish yet powerfully moving novel about a lesbian's struggle for acceptance and self-respect.
Description of Incident: The book was found obscene in Britain even though it had no explicit descriptions of sex. Expert testimony on its literary worth, offered in the English trial by Virginia Woolf and other major writers of the day, was rejected by the court as irrelevant. A New York Court in 1929, ruled "The Well of Loneliness" obscene even though the judge acknowledged that the book was "a well written, carefully constructed piece of fiction" with "no unclean words." It was penalized because it drew a sympathetic portrait of homosexuality, and "pleads for tolerance on the part of society."
Results of Incident: The prosecutor in the case used the Hicklin Rule to demonstrate that some passages were obscene and therefore under the Hicklin Rule the entire work was obscene. The Hicklin Rule was overturned in 1934 in the case United States vs. One Book Entitled Ulysses.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Censorship,J.Green, Facts on File pg.. 3-4
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Date Edited: Thursday, March 7, 2002
Name: Thomas Paine, Religious Prohibition
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Date: 1500 - 1799
Location: Europe
Subject: Religious
Medium: Literature
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Artist: Thomas Paine
Confronting Bodies: Christian Church
Date of Action: 1759
Specific Location: France
Description of Artwork: "...The Age of Reason was written between 1792-1795 while Paine was in prison for his opposition to the execution of Louis XIV." (The book)...is a wholesale attack on the Bible and on Christianity, written in deliberately flippant, and thus shocking style. It takes the deist point of view, epitomized by Paine's statement 'I believe in one God, and no more'... Paine condemned the Old Testament as being filled with "obscene stories and voluptuous debaucheries"; the New testament was inconsistent and the Virgin Birth "hearsay upon hearsay." Encyclopedia of Censorship, Jonathon Green pg. 3-4
Description of Incident: In was condemned as blasphemous and joined Paine's other work as a target for the censor.
Results of Incident: No copies survive.
Source: Encyclopedia of Censorship, Jonathon Green,Pg. 3-4
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Name: Peter Abelard, Religious Prohibition
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Date: 1000 - 1499
Location: Europe
Subject: Religious
Medium: Literature
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Artist: Peter Abelard
Confronting Bodies: Christian Church
Date of Action: 1059-1142
Specific Location: Europe & USA
Description of Artwork: Peter Abelard was a theologist; whose best known works, Introductio ad Theologiam and Sic et Non explored and attempted to reconcile Aristotle, the Bible and reason with faith.
Description of Incident: The Church claimed that the texts were contrary to orthodoxy. Beginning in 1120, his books were burnt several times. At the Council of Sens in 1142 his entire theological work was declared heretical. Further censoring occurred upon the inclusion of his writings in the Roman Indexes of 1559 and 1564.
Results of Incident: U.S. Customs maintained a ban of his work until 1930.
Source: New York Public Library
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Name: The Captive, The Virgin Man, and Sex in 20's NYC
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Date: 1926 - 1950
Location: North America
Subject: Sexual/Gender Orientation
Medium: Theatre
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Artist: Three plays; "The Captive," "The Virgin Man," and "Sex"
Confronting Bodies: New York Police
Date of Action: 1927
Specific Location: New York City
Description of Artwork: The three plays, running at separate theaters, dealt with either homosexuality or lesbianism.
Description of Incident: "Early in 1927 the New York Police stopped three plays: "The Captive," "The Virgin Man," and "Sixth Captive" had been running without interruption for five months, and "Sex," for eleven months. The former was a sensitive study of sexual deviation in women. It would probably have continued to run unmolested if its success had not precipitated a succession of plays about abnormality. "The Hymn to Venus," and "The Drag," dealing with lesbianism and homosexuality, were about to open in New York. The authorities felt they had to stem the tide. The good had to go the way of the bad. It is said that one of the people responsible for closing "The Captive" was Walter Lippmann, who had for years, ostensibly at least, espoused the cause for free speech."
Results of Incident: "The defendants in Virgin Man were tried, and all but one found guilty. 'The Captive' was voluntarily withdrawn after the issue of the warrants. The defendants of 'Sex' were tried and convicted. There were no appeals."
Source: The Censor Marches On, Pg.64
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Name: George Carlin on Pacifica Radio
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Date: 1951 - 1975
Location: North America
Subject: Language
,Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Radio
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Artist: George Carlin
Confronting Bodies: Federal Communications Commission
Date of Action: 1973
Specific Location: California
Description of Artwork: The comedian George Carlin in a 12 minute long monologue aired on Pacifica radio used in his own words; "the words you couldn¹t say on the public, uh, airwaves, um those ones you wouldn¹t say ever." In his monologue he repeated, analyzed and discussed words banned from the airwaves by the FCC the words were: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits, fart, turd, cock, ass, and twat.
Description of Incident: The FCC applied its own regulations concerning indecency and obscenity to prevent any "obscene, indecent, or profane language by means of radio communications." The FCC imposed sanctions on Pacifica. The radio station in turn protested to the courts that the words, and the monologue, were constitutionally protected. In 1978 the Supreme Court said it was okay for the FCC to punish Pacifica for broadcasting the seven dirty words during a time when children were likely to be in the audience.
Results of Incident: "..In disciplining Pacifica, the FCC relied on a definition of indecency as "language that describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast of the medium, sexual or excretory activities or organs." With only minor changes this is still the government's indecency standard: its definition of material that broadcasters must channel to a "safe harbor" nighttime period when it is likely that children will be listening." Sex, Sin , and Blasphemy, Marjorie Heins, pg. 26
Source: Sex, Sin and Blasphemy, Marjorie Heins, New Press,'93,NYC
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