1 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:15,720 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to This Day in History Class, a 2 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:18,960 Speaker 1: show that flips through the pages of history to deliver 3 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,960 Speaker 1: old news in a new way. I'm Gabe Bluesier, and 4 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:26,400 Speaker 1: in this episode, we're looking at a Georgia campaign that 5 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:30,440 Speaker 1: allowed the personal distastes of a few loud objectors to 6 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:38,960 Speaker 1: control the reading habits of everyone else. The day was 7 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:44,400 Speaker 1: February nineteenth, nineteen fifty three. The state of Georgia created 8 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: the first literature censorship board in the United States. It 9 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:53,000 Speaker 1: was known as the Georgia Literature Commission, but its purpose 10 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 1: was much narrower than its name would suggest. Made up 11 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: of just three appointees, the commission's own only job was 12 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:05,080 Speaker 1: to review potentially offensive publications to determine if they were 13 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:09,119 Speaker 1: in line with the state's obscenity laws. The board didn't 14 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: have any direct power of censorship, but it still had 15 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:15,400 Speaker 1: a strong say in whether or not certain titles could 16 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:19,679 Speaker 1: be circulated in Georgia. The Commission could advise publishers and 17 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:23,800 Speaker 1: distributors not to sell certain titles in Georgia, and it 18 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:27,840 Speaker 1: could recommend to state's attorneys that those parties be prosecuted 19 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: if they did. The Georgia State Assembly had felt compelled 20 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: to create the Commission due to two primary factors. The 21 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: first was the growing popularity of mass market adult magazines 22 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:43,399 Speaker 1: and X rated comics, and the second was the so 23 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:47,880 Speaker 1: called paperback revolution of the nineteen fifties, a period after 24 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 1: World War II, when publishers began releasing well printed, low 25 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: cost books on a wide range of subjects, including the 26 00:01:56,080 --> 00:02:00,720 Speaker 1: salacious ones. The trend unleashed a torrent of bound, pushing 27 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: dime store novels, complete with provocative titles and raunchy cover illustrations. 28 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: With these issues front of mind, the General Assembly voted 29 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:15,560 Speaker 1: unanimously to establish what was essentially the nation's first censorship board. 30 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: Governor Hermann Talmadge personally selected the committee members, appointing Baptist 31 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:26,959 Speaker 1: preacher James Westbury, newspaper publisher Hubert Dyer, and theater owner 32 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:31,840 Speaker 1: William Boswell to serve four year terms. The three members 33 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: met once a month to review material that they thought 34 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:39,000 Speaker 1: might be quote detrimental to the morals of the citizens 35 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:43,880 Speaker 1: of Georgia. Initially, the Commission didn't have a set criteria 36 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: for what constituted obscenity in literature. The committee chairman, Reverend Westbury, 37 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:53,680 Speaker 1: took an especially hard line stance, telling the press quote, 38 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: I don't discriminate between nude women, whether they are art 39 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:02,080 Speaker 1: or not. It's all lustful to me. But eventually the 40 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:05,799 Speaker 1: committee decided to take a more measured approach and developed 41 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:08,840 Speaker 1: an eight question checklist to determine if a book was 42 00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: too smutty for the George public. The most pertinent question 43 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:17,760 Speaker 1: was number seven, is there evidence of pornographic intent? If 44 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: a title ticked that box, its publisher was pretty much 45 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: guaranteed to get a letter from the Commission, and with 46 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 1: Reverend Westbury at the Helm, you better believe they sent 47 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 1: a lot of letters. The first four books to be 48 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 1: unofficially banned by the Committee were never publicly disclosed because 49 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: the distributors agreed to voluntarily withdraw them. But if you're curious, 50 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: the titles were believed to be spring Fire, Women's Barracks, 51 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: Element of Shame, and place called Esterville. That last title 52 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: was written by an author named Erskine Caldwell, and in 53 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:58,040 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven another of his novels, God's Little Acre, 54 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: became the first book for which which the Commission recommended prosecution. Apparently, 55 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:07,840 Speaker 1: Caldwell's distributor had ignored the board's requests to withdraw the 56 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 1: book from sale within thirty days, and in this case 57 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,440 Speaker 1: that strategy proved successful, as the state judicial system never 58 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 1: acted on the recommendation to prosecute. To keep the Commission 59 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:23,400 Speaker 1: from looking completely and effective, the state legislature gave it 60 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:27,120 Speaker 1: a bit more independence. The following year, the committee was 61 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,800 Speaker 1: granted the power to subpoena publishers and distributors and to 62 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:34,560 Speaker 1: issue court injunctions to stop the sale of lewd material. 63 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: It put those new powers to work later that year, 64 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:41,800 Speaker 1: halting the distribution of two books published by the Plaza 65 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:47,040 Speaker 1: News Company, Turbulent Daughters by Rhys Hayes and Rambling Maids 66 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:51,920 Speaker 1: by Betty Short. The lost revenue and associated court costs 67 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,880 Speaker 1: of these injunctions had a chilling effect on the book 68 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:59,240 Speaker 1: industry in Georgia. By nineteen sixty, distributors had agreed to 69 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:01,880 Speaker 1: withdraw more than in one hundred and twenty titles from 70 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:05,919 Speaker 1: sale just to avoid being hauled into court. The Georgia 71 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,839 Speaker 1: Literature Commission survived many legal and legislative challenges over the years, 72 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,479 Speaker 1: but by the mid nineteen sixties some lawmakers began to 73 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:18,040 Speaker 1: worry that it was encroaching on people's first Amendment rights. 74 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:23,240 Speaker 1: These concerns about the Commission's constitutionality were thrown into sharp 75 00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:27,160 Speaker 1: relief in the fall of nineteen sixty six. After flagging 76 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:31,880 Speaker 1: Alan Marshall's book Sin Whisper as obscene literature. The Commission 77 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 1: sought and received a declaratory judgment on the book from 78 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:40,360 Speaker 1: the Muscogee County Superior Court. The judge agreed that the novel, 79 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 1: which was part of Greenleaf Classics Evening Reader imprint, violated 80 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:48,520 Speaker 1: state law, and when the distributor appealed the ruling to 81 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: the Georgia Supreme Court, its justices sided with the Commission 82 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:57,160 Speaker 1: as well, calling the book quote filthy and disgusting. However, 83 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:02,279 Speaker 1: the US Supreme Court disagreed. It struck down the state 84 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:06,400 Speaker 1: court ruling and overturned the ban on Sin Whisper, And 85 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:09,599 Speaker 1: while the decision was issued without any explanation of the 86 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 1: court's reasoning, it seemed to suggest that either the book 87 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: wasn't obscene or that banning it wasn't constitutional. Either scenario 88 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 1: cast serious doubts on the Commission's judgment, and from then 89 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:26,560 Speaker 1: on it became increasingly ineffective. The beginning of the end 90 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 1: came in nineteen seventy one, when then Governor Jimmy Carter 91 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:36,000 Speaker 1: slashed the Commission's annual appropriation by about twenty percent. Not 92 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:41,000 Speaker 1: long after, his administration implemented a zero based budgeting system, 93 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:45,479 Speaker 1: which required each state agency to justify its existence every 94 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:49,440 Speaker 1: fiscal year. That was no easy task for the Georgia 95 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 1: Literature Commission, an unproductive government body which Governor Carter dismissed 96 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:58,240 Speaker 1: as a quote mere complaint department. So when two of 97 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 1: its members died in early nonsnineteen seventy three, Carter didn't 98 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: bother to appoint replacements. The Commission couldn't conduct business with 99 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:10,520 Speaker 1: just one member, and when Reverend Westbury's term expired in 100 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:15,720 Speaker 1: spring of that year, the agency was effectively finished. Highly 101 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:21,000 Speaker 1: controversial and deeply unpopular from its inception, America's first censorship 102 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: board managed to survive, nonetheless, for a full twenty years. 103 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:29,559 Speaker 1: That kind of longevity is discouraging for fans of free 104 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 1: speech and free press, especially now when book banning is 105 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:37,600 Speaker 1: once again making headlines. But maybe the takeaway shouldn't be 106 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,480 Speaker 1: that the Commission took a long time to die, but 107 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: that its death now seems inevitable. So while the book 108 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:47,840 Speaker 1: banning campaigns of today may seem a little different and 109 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:51,240 Speaker 1: a lot more prevalent. Remember that, on a long enough 110 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:56,160 Speaker 1: timeline and with enough sustained backlash, their stories will end 111 00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:03,120 Speaker 1: the same way. I'm Gabe Luesier and hopefully you now 112 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:07,040 Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 113 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us 114 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:16,400 Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and 115 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:18,920 Speaker 1: if you have any feedback you'd like to share, feel 116 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: free to pass it along by writing to this Day 117 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:26,239 Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing 118 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:29,240 Speaker 1: the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see you 119 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:43,240 Speaker 1: back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.