They're not just cartoons. They're caricatures associated with racist tropes, which have been used in conjunction with discrimination and even violence. The African pictures in particular look like minstrel shows, which were deliberately intended to demean black people in America.
It's not that the publishers were afraid of getting in trouble. It's that they were ashamed of their own book -- with good reason.
The book is explicitly depicting people from abroad, not African-Americans. As Dr. Seuss’s surviving family has attested to his character and wordliness, and his other books like “Horton Hears a Who” promote tolerance and the acceptance of minorities, I’m inclined to go with a simpler, more innocent explanation for these images.
Nitpicking and a pet-peeve but Elon Musk is an African-American.
You probably mean "black". They are not from Africa simply because they are black and for clarity we should stop being politically correct (especially when critical-race theory is so keen on language defining reality)
Sure, anyone can read the books. Just buy them. You just have to open your own bookstore, your own rental operation for the building its in and your own payment processor. Also your own supplier, publisher and hosting provider for the company website residing in your own datacenter wired up by your own isp. Noone can claim he's being censored, it's not the government after all ;)
It's not that the publishers were afraid of getting in trouble. It's that they were ashamed of their own book -- with good reason.