A charity has apologised and removed children’s book ‘The Story of Little Black Sambo’ from an eBay auction – after receiving complaints about it being RACIST.
St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice has pulled the 1975 reprint of the kids’ classic saying it was listed because of “naivety”.
The charity invited bids starting at £4.99 for the book which was written and illustrated by Helen Bannerman in 1899.
It was a huge hit with children for 50 years, but the word “sambo” and the original pictures showing a black doll have been deemed racist.
St Barnabas withdrew the item this week after receiving a string of complaints.
Spokesman Cat Webb said: “I can confirm that the book has now been permanently removed from sale.
“Please accept our sincerest apologies if we have caused any unintentional offence or undue upset.
“We have a zero tolerance policy to discrimination in any form and seek to confront and eliminate behaviour of this kind.
“The item was listed with naivety regarding its content and history and was listed with sheer enthusiasm to raise money for our organisation.
“We understand however that this is not acceptable and have implemented measures with immediate effect to ensure that nothing of this nature is ever listed again.”
