'The novel has long ignited disapproval, and it was the most frequently banned book in schools between 1966 and 1975. Even before that time,however, the work was a favorite target of sensors. In 1957, Australian Customs seized a shipment of the novels that had been presented as agift to the government by the U.S. ambassador. The books were later released, but Customs had made its point that the book containedobscene language and actions that were not appropriate behavior for an adolescent. In 1960, a teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was fired forassigning the book to an eleventh-grade English class. The teacher was appealed and was reinstated by the school board, but the book wasremoved from use in the school.' 'The following year in Oklahoma City, the novel became the focus of a legislative hearing in which a locally organized censorship group soughtto stop the Mid-Continent News Company, a book wholesaler, from carrying the novel. Members of the group parked a "Smutmobile" outsidethe capital building during the hearing and displayed the novel with others. As a result of public pressure, the wholesaler dropped the critcizedbooks from its inventory. In 1963 a delegation of parents of high school students in Columbus, Ohio, asked the school board to ban Catcher inthe Rye, BRAVE NEW WORLD and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD for being "anti-white" and "obscene."' 'After a decade of quiet, objections arose again in 1975 in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, and the novel was removed from the suggested readinglist for an elective course entitled " Searching for Values and Identity Through Literature." Based on parents' objections to the language andcontent of the book, the school board voted 5-4 to ban the book. The book was later reinstated in the curriculum when the board learned thatthe vote was illegal because they needed a two-thirds vote for removal of the text.' 'In 1977 parents in Pittsgrove Township, New Jersey, challenged the assignment of the novel in...
