We’ve been here before: book bans are a familiar battle in North Texas.

DALLAS. School boards across North Texas and beyond are fighting over banned books as students and parents argue over whether race and gender are appropriate in school libraries.

Although the era and the specifics have changed, books have long been a familiar battlefield throughout history.

A 1975 WFAA history held by the SMU Jones Film Collection focuses on seven books that received statewide objection. The report states that the general objection is that the books “teache disrespect for recognized authority and emphasize violence”.

One of the books considered was a textbook for the Speech class called Templates and communications. The book featured images of various symbols of protest, such as the “peace sign” hand gesture and the protest of Tommy Smith and John Carlos with a raised fist in the 1968 Olympics.

Another speech textbook raised objections to articles that questioned the identity of the student, while another book dealt with marijuana use.

But a year earlier, some of the greatest American authors in history had also been taken off the shelves, albeit for a very short time.

Books by Ernest Hemingway, J. D. Salinger, and William Faulkner were just some of those temporarily removed from Dallas school libraries. At the time, district rules removed books if an official complaint called them “subversive” or “un-American”, at least until the district reviewed the book and the complaint.

DISD superintendent at the time Nolan Estes said the books were modern classics and most of them were mentioned on the list of state-approved textbooks, so the books were quickly put back on the shelves shortly thereafter.

He also said school staff may have overreacted due to concerns about school reading materials across the country.