The persecution of books has been a part of human history from the time before the new era to the present day. Books were banned for their content, but often for the criticisms the authors made. The censorship was the most common form of banned books. In that way unwanted books were thrown out of the public life. Throughout the history, literary, philosophical, religious and political works were the victims of censorship. Besides banning books, some regimes or rulers used book burning as the method of censorship. By the act of burning they tried to destroy the written traces of those works that were considered inappropriate. Lists of banned books have appeared throughout history, but the most famous is Index librorum prohibitorum, a list of banned books of the Catholic Church. It appeared in the 16tˊˊh century and was abolished in 1966. Throughout the 19th century, groups of disgruntled citizens who fought against inappropriate books on various topics strengthened their influence. These groups occured in the United States, and their fight will result in a series of banned books in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. In this paper, reasons for contesting of certain books in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries were explored. The following works that were persecuted were used as a sample of the research: The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Diary of a Young Girl, To Kill the Mockingbird, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ulysses, Candida, Madame Bovary, and The Catcher in the Rye. By studying the acts that were contested, the causes of their contestation were explored. Also, the paper reviews the National Organization for Decent Literature, which is known for blacklisting books. The consequence of the persecution of books in the United States is a project known as Banned Books Week.