A member of the Indiana Textbook Commission calls Robin Hood a communist - November 15th, 1953

On this day in 1953, Ada White of the Indiana Textbook Commission alleged that textbook writers were presenting the story of Robin Hood in a pro-communist light.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that uncovers a little bit more about history
every day. I'm Gabelusier, and in this episode, we're looking

(00:24):
at a bizarre tale from McCarthyite America, the time when
Robin Hood was accused of being a Communist sympathizer. The
day was November three. Ada White of the Indiana Textbook

(00:45):
Commission alleged that textbook writers were presenting the story of
Robin Hood in a pro Communist light. As a member
of the body that reviewed teaching materials used by Indiana schools,
she called for a story called Robin Hood and the
Night to be omitted from the curriculum. Mrs White explained

(01:08):
in her objection saying, quote, there is a communist directive
in education now to stress the story of Robin Hood.
They want to stress it because he robbed the rich
and gave it to the poor. That's the communist line.
It's just a smearing of law and order, and anything

(01:28):
that disrupts law and order is their meat. As you
may have deduced from the date, this event occurred at
the height of the McCarthy era, a period following World
War Two when fear of the Soviet Union sparked a
red scare in the United States. Anxious citizens were imagining

(01:50):
Communist threats everywhere they looked, and one politician in particular
capitalized on the fearful climate. In nineteen fifty, Wisconsin Senator
Joseph McCarthy shocked the country by claiming that hundreds of
Communist agents had infiltrated the highest levels of American government

(02:11):
in an effort to destroy the country. These allegations sent
an already tense nation over the edge. Suddenly people were
accusing their own neighbors of being secret Communists, and movies, music,
comic books, and novels were carefully scrutinized for signs of
Communist sympathies. In this way, Mrs White was just doing

(02:35):
her part in Indianapolis to protect the children of Indiana
from anti American themes and stories, which apparently included Robin Hood.
White pointed to the Robin Hood story in a popular
seventh grade anthology of children's literature called Excursions on Fact
and Fancy. One line of the text she found fault

(02:57):
with read as follows quote Unhappily, the luckless boy slew
a Knight of Lancashire, and to pay the heavy penalty
exacted from him to save his rights, I was forced
to sell all my goods. Mrs White said this was
quote a slam at lawyers. Another line in the text

(03:20):
read Robin my lands are pledged until a certain day
to an abbot living close by her at St Mary's Abbey.
According to Mrs White, this line was a double slam
at both mortgage holders and the church. Her argument also
included an attack on Quakers because they quote don't believe

(03:43):
in fighting wars, which she saw as a philosophy that
would ultimately give communists an advantage. When the local press
started criticizing Mrs White's assessments, she claimed her goal was
just to raise awareness, not to banned textbooks that mentioned
Robin Hood. She maintained her stance that the steal from

(04:06):
the rich and give to the poor mentality was the
quote communists favorite policy. She also bristled at the pushback
she received, saying, quote, because I'm trying to get Communist
writers out of textbooks, my name is mud. Evidently I'm
drawing blood, or they wouldn't make such an issue out

(04:28):
of it. Her concerns were duly noted and disregarded. The
school superintendent in Indianapolis declared that Robin Hood would not
be banned from his city schools because, as he put it,
Robin Hood isn't any worse to read than some of
the things children see on television. The state superintendent, Wilbur Young,

(04:51):
was a bit more sympathetic to White's concerns, but in
the end he also agreed that the book should not
be banned still, and asked if he thought some teachers
might misuse the story of Robin Hood to promote communism,
Young replied, quote, I have no doubt that the Communists

(05:11):
have gone to work twisting the meaning of the Robin
Hood legend the same as they're trying to destroy everything
that is good and decent in the world. They undoubtedly
have a red slant on Mother Goose for that matter.
You would think the story ends there with Robin Hood's
good name being cleared by the Indiana powers that be,

(05:33):
But things actually didn't stop there. Newswire services took the
story worldwide, exposing Mrs White to a brand of public
shaming that was still rare in the pre Internet days
of nineteen fifty three. Communists around the world poked funit Or,
a division of the French Communist Party released a tongue

(05:56):
in cheek statement claiming that White also wanted to ban
Little Red riding Hood because her hood was the color
of communism. Over in the Soviet Union, one commentator joked
that quote the enrollment of Robin Hood and the Communist
Party can only make sensible people laugh. Even the actual

(06:17):
Sheriff of Nottingham stood up for Robin Hood. William J. Vox,
the High Sheriff of Nottingham in ninety three, said quote,
the Communists may claim a lot of things, but they
can't claim Robin Hood. We're really proud of him. Meanwhile,
back in the United States, five students from Indiana University

(06:40):
at Bloomington started an activist group called the Green Feather Movement.
They collected six large sacks of chicken feathers from a
local poultry farm and died them green to look like
the one worn by Robin Hood. Then, on March one,
nineteen fifty four, this students spread the feathers all over

(07:02):
campus to protest Mrs White's attempt at censorship and McCarthy
is um at large. From there, the Green feather movement
spread to other campuses across the country. For example, at
U c l A, students also distributed green feathers during
a march that included a crier dressed as Robin Hood

(07:23):
and about two hundred students dressed as his merry men.
As it became clear that Robin Hood would continue to
be read in schools, the green feather movement disbanded after
less than a year. The same month when Senator McCarthy
was censured by the Senate. As for Aida White, she
did not appreciate her newfound notoriety and continued to clarify

(07:47):
that she wasn't opposed to Robin Hood, just to those
who would use the story to make communism seem more appealing. Still,
she didn't let all the negative press get in the
way of her mission. In nineteen fifty five, she went
on the offensive against self reflection by targeting Your Growing Up,
a seventh grade health book that she claimed quote would

(08:10):
make neurotics of our boys and girls, with many pages
devoted to insisting that they find their faults. After that,
she set her sights on a spelling book that mentioned quote.
An executive with a big income and a snooty Wife,
which she took as a slight against the American way
of life. It's easy to roll our eyes at alarmist

(08:32):
episodes like the Fight to Cancel robin Hood, but the
truth is that the Red Scare resulted in all kinds
of books being pulled from the shelves of schools and
local public libraries due to their allegedly subversive ideas. Nineteen
eighty four by George Orwell, Johnny Got His Gun by
Dalton Trumbo, and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

(08:56):
were just a few of the more notable casualties Bandwagon
attacks on freedom of expression didn't end with the McCarthy era,
So while it's entertaining to look back on the times
when censorship failed, it's important to remember the times it
didn't as well. I'm Gaye Lousier and hopefully you now

(09:18):
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
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i h C Show. And if you have any speculation
about the political leanings of other fictional characters, you can
send it my way at this day at i heart

(09:40):
media dot com. Thanks as always to Chandler Mays for
producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see
you back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.
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(10:02):
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