FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

CJ Frogozo, CJ@FitzGibbonMedia.com 310-570-2622
Kayla Keller, kayla@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 281-682-6212

New York, NY — After reconvening for an emergency meeting today, the Randolph County Board of Education voted to reverse their ban on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. We applaud the board members for making this important work available to their students. A Color of Change petition — signed by over 29,000 members in under 48 hours — and the swift actions taken by the Randolph County NAACP sends a clear message that the marginalization of Black stories from America’s classrooms will not be tolerated.

Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange, said in response, “The banning of one of the most important works of Black literature not only alienates black students, it denies all students the opportunity to engage with and discuss important themes like racial discrimination and development of personal identity.

There is more work to be done to ensure that young people across the country are exposed to literature that addresses the racism and discrimination faced by Black folks. The Randolph County Board of Education — and school boards across the country — has a duty to cultivate an educational environment that engages honestly with the experiences of Black people.”

In addition, in a letter on behalf of the Randolph County branch of the NAACP, chapter President Donald Matthews wrote, “We…disagree with the banning of the book The Invisible Man….We find it very offensive that you would even consider such a move as to ban a book of this stature.”

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With more than 900,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest Black online civil rights organization.