Maya Angelou's original autobiography, “I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings,” and a book on the Holocaust, was included in the Navy list of 381 books that were removed from the Nimitz Library in Annapolis, Maryland.
President Trump issued an executive order in January banning kindergarten DEI materials through 12th grade education, but on March 28, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses directed that he intended the order to apply to schools, even at universities.
The list also includes “Holocaust Memorial,” Janet Jacobs's investigation into portrayal of women in the Holocaust, and Ibram X. Kendy's “How to Be an Anti-Racist.” It is also listed as “Production of Black Life Materials” by Christopher J. LeBron. “How racism occurs,” George Lipschitz. “This Fire” edited by Jesmyn Ward. “The Myth of Equality,” by Ken Wytsma. Ku Klux Klan's research, and the history of American lynching.
The list also includes books on gender and sexuality, such as The Suspicious Body: The History of American Intersex by Elizabeth Reiss and The Between XX and XY: The Myth of Two Genders by Gerald N. Callahan. President Trump issued another executive order in January, declaring that there were only two genders.
The inclusion of Maya Angelou's bestselling memoirs of 1970 was notable as it has long been seen as being transformed by black women and men. The book has spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list, has been nominated for a national book award, documenting the struggle against racism and trauma, including an account of the rape of a seven-year-old by his mother's boyfriend. Oprah Winfrey famously said she was moved to learn from the book about another black girl enduring sexual abuse. “I read those words and thought, 'Someone knows who I am,'” she said.
The Naval Academy began pulling books from the shelves at the Nimitz Library on Monday evening, and completed the task well before Mr. Hegses visited the campus midshipman on Tuesday afternoon.
Helen Cooper Reports of contributions.
