By Sharon Bernstein

(Reuters] – Over a thousand titles that deal with racism and LGBTQ issues were removed from U.S. schools and libraries over the last nine month, many due to pressure from conservative parents.

PEN has compiled a list of banned books. It includes Toni Morrison’s first novel, which was nominated for the Nobel Prize. George Takei wrote a personal account about his time in California during World War Two as a Japanese American child.

“Challenges to books, specifically books by non white male authors are happening at the highest rates we’ve ever seen,” Jonathan Friedman, director of PEN America’s Free Expression Program and lead author of the report, said in a news release.

He said, “What’s happening in the country regarding banning books from schools is unrivalled in its frequency and intensity.”

Recent months have seen conservative parents address school boards in many states in an attempt to attack books that they consider sexually explicit, or to address racism. This was in order to make children of color feel worse about their own skin.

The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform hosted a hearing on Thursday about book bans and academic censure. The American Library Association had earlier in the week released its list of books banned or challenged that closely followed the PEN results.

Jamie Raskin (Democrat) said that it was important to learn how to accept the hateful speech as well the ones you like. He also urged liberals and conservatives alike.

He said, “If we cancel/censor everything people find offensive,”

Raskin pointed to criticisms by the left to get rid of the Mark Twain masterpiece “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as it used a racial term, despite the fact that its theme was against racism and slavery.

PEN discovered that 86 schools had taken 1,145 titles off their shelves in the past nine months. Some permanently, others temporarily.

Morrison’s book “The Bluest Eye” has been removed by 11 districts while Ashley Hope Perez’s novel “Out of Darkness”, was taken down in 16 districts. Both novels deal with racism and have sexual content.

According to the organization, Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer: A Memoir” was removed in thirty districts.

The banned titles included fiction more than twice as many, and non-fiction books such as biographies about Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Duke Ellington, and Martin Luther King Jr. were removed from school libraries and curricula. Five poetry books were also prohibited.

The report stated that four out of ten school district removals are linked to political pressure in Texas, South Carolina, and Georgia.