Cobb schools remove Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’

Published September 18, 2026 6:09 AM EDT

The Cobb County School District has removed another book from its school media centers, this time targeting an award-winning novel by Toni Morrison.

What we know:

The district announced that "The Bluest Eye" is being removed because it contains material the superintendent said is inappropriate for students in sixth through 12th grades.

Supt. Chris Ragsdale said the book introduces children, without parental consent, to sexually explicit descriptions involving child murder, rape and incest.

"The Bluest Eye," Morrison’s first novel, has won critical acclaim but has also faced repeated challenges. It was the 10th-most banned or challenged book in the United States from 2010 through 2019, according to the American Library Association.

Other works by Morrison, who won the Nobel Prize in literature, remain available in Cobb County schools.

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