Tyrants don’t burn books anymore. They ban them. Today’s book bans are not unprecedented and unparalleled, as many have said. Lest we forget: Enslavers were the original book banners. Anti-slavery texts were the original books being banned. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi explains.

Close window X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

To republish, simply copy the HTML below, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The Emancipator. Please review our republishing guidelines and email us at partnerships@theemancipator.org with any questions.

Ibram X. Kendi: Enslavers Were the O.G. Book Banners

by The Emancipator, The Emancipator
April 28, 2022

<h1>Ibram X. Kendi: Enslavers Were the O.G. Book Banners</h1> <p class="byline">by The Emancipator, The Emancipator <br />April 28, 2022</p> <p>Tyrants don’t burn books anymore. They ban them. Today’s book bans are not unprecedented and unparalleled, as many have said. Lest we forget: Enslavers were the original book banners. Anti-slavery texts were the original books being banned. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi explains.</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GH7eX9cPL0 </div> </figure> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://theemancipator.org/2022/04/28/topics/histories/ibram-x-kendi-enslavers-were-og-book-banners/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://theemancipator.org&quot;&gt;The Emancipator&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/theemancipator.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cropped-Social-Posts-Frame-3.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=80&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://theemancipator.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=5294&amp;amp;ga4=G-P3HF08SX19&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://theemancipator.org/2022/04/28/topics/histories/ibram-x-kendi-enslavers-were-og-book-banners/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/theemancipator.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

1