Yes. In April 1970, the commission that ran Mississippi’s new state educational television system voted 3–2 to keep Sesame Street off the air because of its integrated cast of Black and white children. Public outrage forced the commission to reverse itself within about three weeks, and the show began broadcasting on Jackson’s WMAA-TV on June 8, 1970.1Snopes. Mississippi Officials Banned Sesame Street
What the Commission Voted
The Mississippi Authority for Educational Television had just begun broadcasting in 1970, reaching the area around Jackson through WMAA-TV (Channel 29).2Mississippi Public Broadcasting. About MPB Its five-member commission, all white and appointed by Governor John Bell Williams, was chaired by Jackson banker James McKay.3Mental Floss. When Mississippi Banned Sesame Street
That April, the commission voted 3–2 against carrying Sesame Street, which the Children’s Television Workshop was offering to public stations across the country at no cost. Accounts of the exact date differ: Snopes places the vote on April 30, Mental Floss on April 17.1Snopes. Mississippi Officials Banned Sesame Street3Mental Floss. When Mississippi Banned Sesame Street
Why the Show Was Rejected
Publicly, station executive director William R. Smith Jr. attributed the decision to “financial difficulties.”1Snopes. Mississippi Officials Banned Sesame Street The two commissioners who had been outvoted told a different story. They leaked the decision to The New York Times, and an anonymous commission member told the paper the vote had been taken on “racial grounds,” saying the program “uses a highly integrated cast of children” and that Mississippi was “not yet ready for it.”4The New York Times. Mississippi Agency Votes for a TV Ban on Sesame Street The presence of Black actors Matt Robinson and Loretta Long as lead hosts Gordon and Susan was a specific point of objection.5Open Culture. When Mississippi Tried to Ban Sesame Street
The money concern was real too, just not in the way Smith framed it. The legislature had appropriated roughly $5.3 million to build out the ETV network, and commissioners feared that airing a show with Black and white children together would cost them that funding. One commissioner, quoted by Ed Williams of the Delta Democrat-Times, said: “Right now I don’t think one program is worth risking what we’re trying to build in this ETV system.”1Snopes. Mississippi Officials Banned Sesame Street
State representative Tullius Brady of Brookhaven had already warned publicly that educational television exerted “a subtle influence” on children’s minds and that funding from the Ford Foundation, one of the show’s backers, could be used for “evil purposes.”3Mental Floss. When Mississippi Banned Sesame Street Other legislators had voiced similar objections to any national educational programming they saw as promoting integration.
The Climate That Made a Children’s Show Controversial
By 1970, Mississippi was in the final stages of resisting school desegregation. As late as 1967, less than 3 percent of Black children in the state attended classes with white students. The Supreme Court had struck down “freedom of choice” plans in Green v. County School Board in 1968 and ordered the immediate end of dual school systems in Alexander v. Holmes in 1969. White families were pulling their children into newly created private academies, and some integrated public schools maintained separation internally through staggered bells, lunch shifts, and separate water fountains.6Mississippi History Now. The Last Stand of Massive Resistance
Mississippi was not alone in treating the show as a political problem. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Tennessee also moved to preempt or limit it.5Open Culture. When Mississippi Tried to Ban Sesame Street
How the Ban Was Reversed
The story moved fast once it was out. The Hattiesburg American and the Delta Democrat-Times reported the ban on May 1, 1970, and the Associated Press, United Press International, and New York Times coverage pushed it national.1Snopes. Mississippi Officials Banned Sesame Street Parents, teachers, and other residents protested at the broadcaster’s Jackson headquarters.5Open Culture. When Mississippi Tried to Ban Sesame Street
On May 22, 1970, about three weeks after the original vote, the commission approved Sesame Street for broadcast. The show went on the air in Mississippi on June 8.1Snopes. Mississippi Officials Banned Sesame Street
Aftermath
Some board officials later denied that any formal or informal vote to reject the show had taken place, a claim that conflicted with contemporaneous reporting from multiple outlets. On June 22, 1970, the Federal Communications Commission told WMAA-TV it would take no action over the station’s initial failure to carry the program, accepting Smith’s financial-difficulties explanation.1Snopes. Mississippi Officials Banned Sesame Street
That fall, the Sesame Street cast made Jackson a stop on a 14-city national tour. Susan, Gordon, Bob, Mr. Hooper, and Big Bird performed at the Mississippi Coliseum in an event co-sponsored by the same commission that had tried to keep them off the air months earlier. The cast left Mississippi without a formal apology from the commission.5Open Culture. When Mississippi Tried to Ban Sesame Street