Index: Censorship

Mar 3,

1873

Comstock Act Passed – Era of Censorship Begins

Mar 29,

1913

Theodore Roosevelt Warns That U.S. Threatened by “European Extremists” — Artists

Apr 2,

1914

Post Office Bans Margaret Sanger’s “Woman Rebel”

May 16,

1914

Judge Learned Hand Rebukes Anti-Obscenity Crusader Anthony Comstock

Feb 8,

1915

“Birth of a Nation” Opens: A Century of Controversy Follows

Jul 7,

1917

Government Repression Hits Socialist Opponents of War

Jul 13,

1917

Activists Protest Post Office Censorship of Anti-War Publications

Sep 11,

1917

Emma Goldman Speech Banned in New York – Appears On Stage Gagged

Sep 26,

1917

Post Office to Ban Emma Goldman’s “Mother Earth”

Nov 1,

1917

National Civil Liberties Bureau Reports Sweeping Government Censorship

Feb 7,

1919

Society Women Oppose “Indecent” Evening Gowns

Jul 4,

1919

Police Threats Cancel Civil Liberties Bureau Meeting at Carnegie Hall

Feb 14,

1921

Obscenity Charges for Publishing “Ulysses”

Mar 5,

1921

Will Hays Becomes Postmaster General; Ends Some, But Not All, Post Office Censorship

Jun 16,

1921

Atlantic City Beach Scene Rejected by New York State Film Censors

Aug 1,

1921

New York Motion Picture Commission Begins Work – Censorship Ahead

Feb 2,

1922

James Joyce’s “Ulysses” Published, Faces Immediate Censorship

Aug 12,

1922

Groups Launch “War on Censorship”

Sep 7,

1922

Post Office Lifts Ban on Alexander Berkman’s “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist”

Dec 8,

1922

“Birth of a Nation” Denied Permit in New York City

Mar 26,

1927

Will Hays Asks for Constitutional Amendment to Protect Movies From Censorship

Oct 14,

1927

Do Pajamas = Nudity? NYC DA Threatens Theater Prosecutions

Oct 14,

1927

Irish-American Groups Seek Ban on Films That Offend Racial or Religious Groups

Feb 1,

1928

Post Office Bans “Protest Against the Marines in Nicaragua” Stickers on Envelopes

Apr 16,

1929

“An American Tragedy:” Obscenity Trial Opens in Boston

Jul 26,

1929

Lesbian Themed “The Well of Loneliness” Held Not Obscene by U.S. Customs Court

Jan 12,

1930

ACLU Demands Inquiry into Missing Files in Dismissed Birth Control and Censorship Cases

Feb 19,

1930

Early Hollywood Censorship Code Adopted

Mar 31,

1930

Hollywood Censorship: Early Production Code Adopted

Nov 28,

1931

NYC Police Raid Anti-Fascist Newspaper’s Office – ACLU Protests

Dec 6,

1933

Classic Novel “Ulysses” Ruled Not Pornographic!

Jun 13,

1934

Notorious Movie Censorship Code Adopted

Jul 27,

1935

“Ecstasy” is Burning!

Jan 11,

1936

Tulsa Bans Play “Tobacco Road”

Jul 16,

1936

Westchester County Continues Ban on Men’s Topless Swim Suits

Dec 19,

1936

ACLU Charges Widespread Radio Censorship

Jun 13,

1937

“Cradle Will Rock” Defies Government Censorship, Opens in Different Theater

Apr 11,

1938

“Birth of a Baby” Public Health Photographs Called Obscene

Feb 25,

1939

Once-Banned Film Opens; “Near-Adolescent Riot” Ensues

Jun 19,

1939

American Library Association Adopts Library Bill of Rights

Sep 15,

1939

Censor Ruling Reversed: OK to Show Film of Unmarried French Peasants

Dec 7,

1942

“Native Son” Play, Temporarily Closed Under Catholic Pressure, Reopens in NYC

Nov 18,

1943

Liberal, Racial Minority, and Labor Groups Urge Post Office Ban on Hate Mail

Apr 4,

1944

“Strange Fruit,” The Novel, Banned in Boston

May 13,

1946

U.S. Occupying Forces Destroy Books in Germany

Feb 23,

1947

ACLU Urges NY Governor to Veto Film Censorship Bill

May 26,

1947

FBI Memo Attacks “It’s A Wonderful Life” As Subversive, Anti-Capitalist Propaganda

Mar 26,

1948

Philadelphia Police Seize 2,000 Books; Authors Protest

Jul 13,

1948

Groups Protest NYC Public Schools Ban on “The Nation” Magazine

Oct 1,

1948

Guilty of Speaking in the Park

Dec 10,

1948

“Respectful Prostitute” Play Banned in Chicago Over Race Issues

Jan 21,

1950

“Fear Obscures Reason,” Justice Hugo Black Warns of Cold War Hysteria

Feb 28,

1950

Gov. Earl Warren Opposes University of California Loyalty Oath

Mar 14,

1950

Actress Ingrid Bergman’s Affair Provokes Scandal and a Civil Liberties Crisis

Jan 26,

1951

No Liberal Magazines for Los Angeles Students

Feb 11,

1952

Oklahoma City Burns Books for “Socialism and Sex”

May 26,

1952

“The Miracle!” Movies Protected by First Amendment

Dec 8,

1952

“I Love Lucy,” But Just Don’t Say She’s ‘Pregnant’

Jan 19,

1953

“Lucy Goes to the Hospital” – Just Doesn’t Say Why

Mar 19,

1953

Howard Hughes Explains How to Make the Hollywood Blacklist Really Work

Jul 8,

1953

Eeek! A Virgin! The Film “The Moon is Blue” Premiers in New York

May 22,

1955

Lock Up Your Teenagers! Fats is Coming

Jun 10,

1955

Censorship Office: Film on Famous Scopes Trial “Unfair” to “Religious-Thinking People”

Dec 15,

1955

“Man With the Golden Arm” Opens Without Hollywood Seal of Approval – Challenges Censorship Code

Jun 3,

1957

You Can’t Read “Howl”! Publisher of Now-Classic Poem Arrested

Sep 18,

1958

Cincinnati Public Library Bans “Lolita,” Acclaimed Novel

Apr 16,

1959

“Just Don’t Mention Gas Chambers;” CBS Censors TV Program on Nuremberg Trials

Oct 15,

1961

Hunter College Denies Permit to Conservative “National Review” – ACLU to Defend Magazine

Mar 14,

1962

Bridgeport, CT, Police Chief Bans Novel, “The Carpetbaggers” – Connecticut ACLU to Sue

Mar 20,

1963

Joan Baez Boycotts “Hootenanny” Over Blacklist

Jun 9,

1964

CIA Pressures Publisher of Second-Ever Book on Agency

Jan 15,

1967

Let’s Spend “Some Time” Together – Rolling Stones Censor Themselves on Ed Sullivan Show

May 8,

1967

“Redrup:” Supreme Court Gives Up Trying to Define Obscenity

Mar 10,

1969

Civil Rights Demonstrations Upheld: “Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham”

Apr 4,

1969

CBS Cancels Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Apr 1,

1970

Grateful Dead Provokes First-Ever FCC Indecency Fine

Apr 13,

1970

Nine Women’s Liberation Activists Arrested for Sit-in at Grove Press, Pioneering Anti-Censorship Publisher

Mar 2,

1973

George Carlin Records Famous “Seven Dirty Words” Monologue

Oct 30,

1973

Cover Your Ears! George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words Broadcast

Feb 9,

1974

Chicago Bans “Impeach Nixon” Signs From Buses, Trains; ACLU Sues

May 21,

1976

Morris L. Ernst, Pioneering Civil Liberties Attorney, Dies

Mar 9,

1979

“The Secret That Exploded” — The Progressive Magazine Enjoined from Publishing Article on Making an H-Bomb

Jun 25,

1982

Public School Library Censorship: “Island Trees v. Pico”

Aug 12,

1982

Long Island, NY, School Board Voluntarily Returns Banned Books to School Library

May 18,

1984

ACLU Issues “Free Trade in Ideas” Report; Condemns Reagan Administration Actions

Feb 25,

1985

Ed Meese Becomes Attorney General; Leads Assault on Civil Liberties

Feb 8,

1996

President Clinton Signs Communications Decency Act; ACLU Immediately Sues

May 12,

1996

Three Federal Judges Visit Internet Porn Sites in Communications Decency Case

Jun 26,

1997

Communications Decency Act Held Unconstitutional

Sep 30,

2009

International Blasphemy Day Founded

Jan 29,

2010

Too Much Anne Frank Sexuality! Virginia Parents Object

Jun 27,

2011

Supreme Court Invalidates California Video Games Censorship Law

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