From an Urbana Free Library press release:
“The Secret History of Comics”
Urbana Free Library Celebrates Banned Books Week
Saturday, September 27 from 2 – 3pm at the Urbana Free Library
In 1954, comic books were put on trial by the United States government. A Senate investigation prompted the birth of the Comics Code, a censorship body that shackled the medium for decades. New research by scholar Carol Tilley reveals a secret history behind the trials, including insights into the methods of Dr. Fredric Wertham, whose findings weren’t merely faulty, but also fabricated. Go behind the scenes of this fateful moment in comics history with Wertham researcher Carol Tilley (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and learn the untold stories of Fredric Wertham, Estes Kefauver, and the kids who tried to fight the tide of the anti-comics momentum.
This program is being presented during Banned Books Week—The American Library Association’s annual celebration of the Freedom to Read.