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Why Mississippi Once Banned Sesame Street In The 1970s For Being Too Salacious
The beloved PBS children’s TV program was too controversial for some during its early days on air
The beloved PBS children’s television show Sesame Street has been around for more than 50 years. Using a cast of puppets to teach youngsters basic educational building blocks like reading and math, it also incorporates social behaviors like kindness, acceptance and sharing. An institution that still goes trong to this day, it is nearly universally loved. However, that didn’t stop the State of Mississippi from banning it for a short time during the 1970s for being too salacious.
First airing in 1969, just as the United States was entwined in the Vietnam War and was also attempting to push past segregation, the show was seen as simultaneously groundbreaking and controversial by some. Hoping to reach all children, especially those of color in inner cities that did not receive the same educational opportunities as white suburban kids, the idea was to try and level the educational playing field through television.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for the time, one area where the program did not fully resonate was in the deep South. In January 1970, the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television convened to…
