(CNN)When a school official in New York removed 11 disliked books from the library shelves, he was 17 years old. Stephen Pico joined in a court battle that would eventually take him and his school to the US Supreme Court.
However, at the age of 62, Pico, now a painter, editor and advocate of the First Amendment's rights, is facing a new wave of book challenges, so the case Continues to resonate.
"I think the school is responsible for teaching all the ideas, not just the ones you agree with," Pico said.
Pico has changed over the decades with CNN, how the 1982 groundbreaking Supreme Court proceedings affected his life, and the efforts to ban books in the United States. I talked about whether. The interview was edited for length and clarity.
Why did you decide to challenge the school district in court because the high school ban was an important issue for you?
I think the freedom to read books is the foundation of our democracy. I'm under attack today. Basic freedom is being attacked around the world and within the United States. It was the same in 1977, and it is still the same. When people ban books, the victims here are books, ideas, students, teachers, librarians, and forms of our democracy. What happened in my school district was political. School and school board members are obliged to teach all American ideas, not just their political ideas.
Six years have passed before the Supreme Court ruled the case. You graduated from high school and even college, but you didn't forget the incident. How was your life as the chief plaintiff at that time?
I was busy. I held a press conference with writer Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (the book "Slaughterhouse 5" was removed from the library shelves) at the age of 17 in 1977 and announced a proceeding against the school. I graduated a few months later and went to Haverford College in Pennsylvania to get a bachelor's degree. I spent time interviewing, raising money for the case, giving speeches, and raising awareness of the case throughout the university. After I graduated from college, my first job was the National Coalition Against Censorship, where I worked for another three years, trying to change the law and introduce policies to prevent future (book) deletions. did.
Prior to this interview, many of my classmates have other priorities, such as indifference or admission to college, and in most cases feel supported. Said not.
When the proceedings went public, I couldn't see much support, and even my parents had a lot of suspicion. They did not specifically support the proceedings. Because the proceedings are considered to be causing problems, I may not be able to go on to college, and I may not be able to receive certain eligible scholarships because I was in a position that was not very popular in my community. Because I thought I couldn't.
I think today's students are much more sophisticated. They have more knowledge about their rights as citizens. In fact, I'm much more hoping today that these battles will be fought and won. I know there are young people out there now who are forming a reading club, a group that actually reads and decides on banned books. I know young people are standing up and fighting these forbidden attempts, and it's really encouraging because it didn't happen when I was in school.
Most students were simply unaware of their rights, but today young people are keenly aware of their rights. I'm really proud of them. I know they aren't just going to sit down and take this.
Students are organized and oppose book bans in various ways. For example, Missouri has two students who sued the school district earlier this year for the deletion of books by the color community and LGBTQ people. What is your message to them?
One of the things I said in the 1970s was, "This will be the most important thing you do in your life." Whether that is true or not, I ask the young people there to hear what I have heard and that their advocacy is not only about their rights, but about the rights of all students across the United States. I want you to know.
A conservative view plays a role in the current effort to remove certain books from the school library. Some books have been selected by politicians who are alleged to have "blasphemous, vulgar, or vulgar" content. Did the discussion of books in the United States change 40 years after your case reached the Supreme Court?
There is a political agenda behind the forbidden book. At least one party in the United States is trying to scare parents and influence how they vote in the next election. I think Republican local and state politicians are now trying to invigorate voters by scaring parents who may have lost their votes in the last election. I think this is a terrifying tactic. It was a situation I faced in 1976 to let local politicians decide which books could not be used at school. No one in my community in New York in 1976 objected to any of the 11 books that were deleted and banned. There are no students, teachers, librarians, parents, or members of my entire community. This included four high schools that complained about one of the books that were finally banned. My school board went out of the community and found a list of so-called offensive books. They haven't read all the books. They used a handful of excerpts, a handful of words, and a handful of vulgarity to make these books look bad. You have to judge the whole book, and that's not what these politicians and school boards were and are doing now.
You say that for decades, the United States still has the same or very similar discussions about books and censorship. How can I move forward? Is there a solution to this long-standing controversy?
I think the solution in America is to always have more ideas, more discussion, and more freedom of speech. It does not control what people read or think about. We have to do this in the American way. Young and old people need to go out and buy banned books. They have to judge for themselves. They need to read the whole book. They need to adopt banned books.
It is foolish to think that today's children are naive. They go home, turn on the news, or read it over the phone. They know what's happening all over the world. They know that the ideas they hear are serious, complex and need to be understood. I think these controversial personal stories, such as substance abuse, racism, anti-Semitism, and violence against young people and adults due to sexual orientation, need to be discussed. Young people need to be prepared to deal with these issues when they turn 18 or graduate from high school. I think the best place to discuss these issues is where you can discuss with your colleagues in the classroom. There are trained professionals there to help them understand what they are reading and why.