NCTE Centennial: A Blast from the Past
Did you know that NCTE has been active in the courts to defend students' right to read? NCTE filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Pico vs. Island Trees, a landmark case that eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court and ensured that, as the Court ruled in 1982, "Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in these books."
Click here for more information on this landmark case.
Did you know that the earliest NCTE publication for elementary school teachers was entitled Reading for Fun? It was edited by Eloise Ramsey of Detroit.
The Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University holds a collection of Eloise Ramsey's papers in their archives. Click here for information on this collection.
Did you know that NCTE books were best sellers as early as the 1930s? One, Home Reading, sold over 14,000 copies in 1937.
Other interesting facts from 1937:
*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the top grossing film.
* Franklin D. Roosevelt gives is inaugural address for his second term in office.
*The Great Flood of 1937 swamps areas along the Ohio River.
*July 19 Ettersberg, a new concentration camp, originally designed for professional criminals, is opened in central Germany. Its name is changed to Buchenwald on July 28.
*The Recession of 1937-38 begins. Unemployment rises to 20 percent.