100-Year-Old Grandmother Slams Florida's Book Bans in Powerful Speech

At a Florida school board meeting, a 100-year-old woman spoke passionately, invoking her late husband, who died fighting the Nazis during World War II, against book bans. Her speech captured hearts and minds after the video of the encounter went viral online.

On Tuesday, hundreds of parents and grandparents filled the Martin County School Board meeting to demand the return of at least 80 titles to the public schools’ libraries. As a result of a complaint filed by parent Julie Marshall, the books were removed from school media centers due to their sexual content or perceived racist themes.

Schools’ responses to book challenges depend on state and local policies. For example, once a challenge has been filed, media specialists must remove books until the challenge has been resolved. In addition, state law mandates that media specialists ensure that library books are age-appropriate and free of pornography.

Introducing herself to the Martin County School Board, the centenarian who once taught senior citizens computer skills at the local high school made her point quickly.

“I am Grace Linn,” she said. “I am a hundred years young. I’m here to protest our school’s district book-banning policy. My husband, Robert Nicoll, was killed in action in World War II at a very young age. He was only 26, defending our democracy, Constitution, and freedoms.”

Eight days before the Normandy invasion, the unit that her husband commanded was bombed and strafed by Nazi planes, the Daily Beast reports. She was seven months pregnant when he was first declared missing in action. Three days after their daughter, Nicci, was born, she received a telegram saying he had died. Linn later received a picture that her husband had brought with him to Europe, but his remains could not be found.

“One of the freedoms that the Nazis crushed was the freedom to read the books they banned,” she said. “They stopped the free press and banned and burned books. The freedom to read, which is protected by the First Amendment, is our essential right and duty of our democracy. Even so, it is continually under attack by both the public and private groups who think they hold the truth.”