Angelou Heirs Join Utah Book Removal Suit
Caged Bird Legacy, the legal entity that oversees the creative work produced by the late author Maya Angelou, has joined in a lawsuit challenging censorship in Utah. Filed on January 6, Kurt Vonnegut Estate v. Brown addresses the statewide bans of 22 books and the district-by-district censorship of hundreds more in public school classrooms and libraries, under Utah House Bill 29.
Although Angelou’s 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is not on Utah’s statewide ban at this time, it has been removed from shelves in the Davis and the Granite School Districts, as a result of HB 29's “sensitive materials review” provisions.
Caged Bird Legacy is managed by Angelou’s daughter-in-law, Stephanie Floyd-Johnson, and the ACLU’s statement quoted Angelou’s two great-grandchildren, Caylin Johnson and Brandon Johnson, as saying, “When the government tries to limit what young people like us are allowed to read, it limits our ability to think critically and empathize broadly, as well as to understand the world we are set to inherit.”
