Leave American History Alone

I was recently discussing the issue of Censorship on dosomething.org 's Facebook page. Also, I am writing an article in which I explore the effects of censorship. Recently, school boards across the country have been issuing revised copies of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because of his frequent use of "nigger" throughout the novel. My stance on the whole issue has been clear from the very beginning: you cannot alter Twain's most noteable work, or American history for that matter because there is apart of it you wish you remove because of the apparent pain it causes. Everyone agrees the era of segregation and slavery was a painful one in American history. Twain produced this novel in the midst of this era.
School boards do not have the right to alter history nor do they have the right to change a piece of American literature because of the controversy it may cause. Just because we experience controversy does not necessarily mean we cave to that controversy and dilute our opinions, or in this case, a great work of significant literary merit.
You cannot suddenly decide what history to forget about in America because you feel it's painful. There are absolutely elements of our past that are excrutiatingly gruesome bet they happened. We cannot change the course of history but we can learn from it and become better. Twain's novel reflected that time period. Many things have changed since the novel was written such as integration, voter right's act, affirmative action, the election and appointment of countless African Americans to high positions. As a collective society, we have become more tolerant, more accepting of the past, the same must prove true to Twain's novel.