R.I.S. – Judith Krug – First Amendment Warrior

Judith Krug, First Amendment Heroine, Dead at 69

Judith Krug headed the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom since 1967 and founded the Freedom to Read Foundation. She fought the banning of such titles as “Huckleberry Finn,” “Mein Kampf,” “Little Black Sambo,” “Catcher in the Rye” and sex manuals. In 1982, she founded Banned Books Week — an annual festival that promotes titles that some have attempted to ban.

“My personal proclivities have nothing to do with how I react as a librarian,” Ms. Krug said in an interview with The New York Times in 1972. “Library service in this country should be based on the concept of intellectual freedom, of providing all pertinent information so a reader can make decisions for himself.” (source)

Krug was instrumental in the fight against Section 2257 and the “minors display” ordinances that were fashionable in the 1980’s. Most impressively, she convinced 13 federal judges to unanimously strike down the MacKinnon-Dworkin anti-pornography ordinance.

She invented Banned Books Week. Although the ALA lost some—the Virginia library/computer case and the seven-year battle against 2257, every time you cite a case beginning “ALA” you’re benefitting from her work. ALA v. Virginia basically neutered the rash of “minors’ display” ordinances that the censors came up with in the ’80s and the ALA got 13 federal judges to unanimously strike a “MacKinnon-Dworkin” anti-pornography ordinance, which would have repealed the First Amendment in the area of sexual expression.

We don’t lower the flag to half mast lightly at the Legal Satyricon. But, for Judith Krug, we are honored to do so.