Free speech activist Claudia Johnson discussed the five- year-long battle she waged to restore Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale" and Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" to a rural Florida high school in a speech she gave yesterday afternoon in Carpenter Hall.
The speech was titled "Stifled Laughter: One Woman's Story about Fighting Censorship," after her 1994 account of a court battle. The memoir was subsequently nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Johnson said she was shocked when she learned of the school board's decision to ban the two plays, especially because the school board did not require its members to read the books they censor.
Johnson said when she attended a meeting and suggested the members read "The Miller's Tale" and "Lysistrata," an uproar ensued and the meeting was abruptly adjourned.
Despite her efforts, the school board voted unanimously to censor the works.
Johnson said she tried to muster grassroots support among the town's teachers and librarians to convince the school board to reverse its decision, but her attempts were unsuccessful.
"We were whipped," she said. "There was no support in the town."
Following the advice of a Florida lawyer, Johnson contacted the American Civil Liberties Union and informed them of the case.
The ACLU agreed to take the case, and along with Johnson, wrote a letter to the school board asking them to reconsider their decision.
At a packed meeting, the school board voted four to one to uphold its decision, she said.
Johnson decided to bring her battle for protection of the First Amendment to court, and, after the conclusion of the closing arguments, victory seemed certain, she said.
At the end of the case, Judge Susan Black "shot us a dazzling smile," Johnson said. "We knew we won."
Black was in the process of writing a decision in Johnson's favor when the Supreme Court decided Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier.
In Hazlewood, the Court ruled that a high school is allowed to censor a school newspaper because the primary purpose of high school paper is to teach, and not to be a forum for free expression.
"Black felt her hands were tied" because of the Hazelwood decision, Johnson said.
After losing their appeal of the case, Johnson said she was confronted with the difficult decision of whether or not to bring the case to the Supreme Court.
While waiting to find out if the Supreme Court would hear her case, Johnson learned of the local school board's intentions to ban Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and subsequently engaged herself in a second battle for free speech.
Five years later, Johnson found herself in a "packed" and "electric" boardroom once again, but this time the outcome was quite different; the school board decided unanimously not to ban the novel.
After this victory, Johnson learned that her Supreme Court petition had been lost and consequently never sent to the Supreme Court when her lawyer changed secretaries.
Johnson said she thinks this mix-up might have been a blessing in disguise because the Supreme Court had grown more conservative over the years.
"I am not a quitter-- I didn't want to quit," she said, "but the battle would have ended with a whimper not a bang."
Johnson said she thinks her real victory was in people's minds and not in the courtroom.
"I don't think people remembered we lost in court," she said. "They remembered the trouble we started. That is why I wrote 'Stifled Laughter.'"
Johnson is currently a Screenwriter in Residence at Florida State University.
She was the first recipient of the PEN/ Newman's Own First Amendment Award which is given each year "to an individual who has courageously fought, in the face of adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to Freedom of expression."
PEN is an organization made of poets, essayists and novelists. Newman's Own is a company owned by actor Paul Newman that manufactures food products.
Johnson was born in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and grew up in both Texas and Oklahoma. She currently lives with her husband and son in Tallahassee, Fla. Her daughter, Anne Loomis '99, is a student at the College.
