Texas book ban law causes a school district to remove Bible from libraries; The Guardian, December 30, 2024

Emily Swanson , The Guardian; Texas book ban law causes a school district to remove Bible from libraries

"While the state adopted library standards inclusive of HB900 last December, the fifth circuit has since blocked the part of the law requiring vendors to rate materials. Most of the rest of the law remains intact.

HB900 is being challenged in the US district court for the western district of Texas by bookshops in Houston and Austin, the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which have collectively filed suit against Texas school board and library officials.

The complaint says the “overbroad language of the Book Ban could result in the banning or restricting of access to many classic works of literature, such as ‘Twelfth Night,’ ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ … ‘The Canterbury Tales,’ ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,’ and even the Bible.”

The complaint argues that HB900 “harkens back to dark days in our nation’s history when the government served as licensors and dictated the public dissemination of information”."

Judge Strikes Down Portions of Arkansas Law That Threatened Librarians; The New York Times, December 24, 2024

Eduardo Medina, The New York Times; Judge Strikes Down Portions of Arkansas Law That Threatened Librarians

"A federal judge has struck down portions of an Arkansas law that could have sent librarians and booksellers to prison for providing material that might be considered harmful to minors.

The ruling by Judge Timothy Brooks of the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Arkansas is certain to be appealed. But his decision on Monday provided at least a temporary victory to librarians and booksellers who have said that the law would create a chilling effect since anyone could object to any book and pursue criminal charges against the person who provided it."

Book Bans Harm Kids; Scientific American, November 19, 2024

THE EDITORS , Scientific American; Book Bans Harm Kids

"Books are a gift, opening a door to the wide world. But not if you live in one of the U.S. communities where local school boards or state officials have cast certain books as scary monsters that harm children with words and ideas.

Organized conservative groups in many communities are censoring books from school and public libraries, claiming that some themes aren’t age-appropriate for children, never mind the context. They target books on health, climate change, psychology, and other science they find distasteful or antithetical to their way of thinking. They try to criminalize teachers and librarians who dare to give kids a chance to indulge their curiosity. Under the guise of protecting children from harm, they vow to defund public libraries and alter school curricula.

But it’s the book bans themselves that cause the most harm, robbing youngsters of opportunities to think critically, explore ideas and learn about experiences different from their own. The people responsible for moving books from classrooms and library shelves are trying to limit the flow of information. Their efforts aim to un­dermine democracy; they would create an electorate of young people who will not question authority, build alliances with people who have less political power, or challenge the status quo. Knowledge is power. Book bans go against the very nature of an open, civil society. Whether through the legal system, the ballot box or our voices, we must uphold educational freedom and support knowledge. We must stop the censoring of books.

Censorship has a shameful history in the U.S. The infamous 1873 Comstock Act made it illegal to mail works considered to be obscene, such as pamphlets about birth control. James Joyce’s Ulysses was banned in the country in the 1920s, and the U.S. Postal Service burned copies. More re­­cent­ly, conservatives have bowdlerized the history and science children learn in schools, altering depictions of slavery, rejecting textbooks that reference climate change and challenging evolution...

Some teachers are keeping canceled books in secret drawers. Some schools in more open districts are introducing the idea of reading clubs focusing on banned books. Librarians are questioning what they are allowed to put on shelves instead of promoting what’s there. Parents who want their kids to have a thorough education are trying to fight back against well-funded and politically motivated advocates of book bans.

The kids who can are speaking up for books and libraries. It is up to us to help them, as well as the ones who can’t. Book bans are antithetical to free speech and free thought. They are antidemocratic, antiscience and antievidence. Reading this editorial with no one looking over your shoulder is your fundamental right. Our children deserve the same."

Florida again argues books ban are 'government speech,' not prohibited by First Amendment; Tallahassee Democrat, November 19, 2024

 Douglas Soule, USA TODAY NETWORK via Tallahassee Democrat; Florida again argues books ban are 'government speech,' not prohibited by First Amendment

"In yet another case, Florida's government is arguing that book removals in public schools are "government speech," meaning they are unrestricted by the First Amendment.

It's a controversial legal argument, which free speech advocates have called "authoritarian," but one that the state has been particularly passionate about over the last year. Attorney General Ashley Moody's office even recently sent a representative to make it on behalf of a Texas community's public library...

The state's defense of the law and the book removal decisions by school districts goes beyond the government speech argument. It also argues that governments don't even have an obligation to "provide benefits" such as school libraries."

A Librarian From Louisiana Fights Book Bans and ‘the Haters’; The New York Times, November 4, 2024

 James Barron , The New York Times; A Librarian From Louisiana Fights Book Bans and ‘the Haters’

"Amanda Jones of Watson, La., is sure to get a shout-out at the New York Public Library’s $5,000-a-person gala tonight. The library, which invited her to attend, is giving her a free ticket.

Amid a surge in book bans nationwide, Jones moved into the spotlight in 2022 with a brief speech during a meeting at her hometown public library — not the library she oversees at a local middle school. She said books with L.G.B.T.Q. themes should not be taken off the shelves. Almost immediately, she began receiving expletive-laden messages accusing her of being a pedophile.

Jones stood her ground, writing a memoir, “That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America.” She also started a group called Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship to lobby against restrictions on libraries.

“The backlash she faced is a testament to the urgent need to protect intellectual freedom,” said Anthony Marx, the president of the New York Public Library."

Texas county reverses classification of Indigenous history book as fiction; Texas county reverses classification of Indigenous history book as fiction, October 22, 2024

Daniel Wu , The Washington Post; Texas county reverses classification of Indigenous history book as fiction

"CORRECTION

A previous version of this article incorrectly said that the book "Colonization and the Wampanoag Story" detailed the Wampanoag tribe's encounters with Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims. The Wampanoag tribe never encountered Columbus. The book details encounters between the Wampanoag tribe and the Pilgrims, as well as encounters between Columbus and other Indigenous tribes. The article has been corrected...

A Texas county on Tuesday reversed a decision to reclassify a children’s book on Native American history as fiction after the move drew anger from authors, advocates and one of the world’s largest publishing companies.

A citizen committee in Montgomery County, just north of Houston, moved the nonfiction book “Colonization and the Wampanoag Story” from the county library system’s juvenile nonfiction collection to its fiction collection last week, according to an email from a librarian shared with The Washington Post. The book details encounters between the Wampanoag tribe and the Pilgrims, as well as encounters between Christopher Columbus and other Indigenous tribes.

Advocates and nonprofits, including the Texas Freedom to Read Project, Authors Against Book Bans and the American Indian Library Association, blasted the move in an open letter Wednesday asking the county to move the book back to the nonfiction collection. They were joined by Penguin Random House, which published the book by author and Indigenous historian Linda Coombs."

Kentuckians challenged these 395 library books. Is your favorite listed?; Indianapolis Star via Courier Journal, October 17, 2024

John Tufts , Indianapolis Star via Courier Journal; Kentuckians challenged these 395 library books. Is your favorite listed?

K

"Roughly 150 public libraries, library associations and bookstores this Saturday will observe Freedom to Read Day. Advocates have said the event is a reminder that while Banned Books Week might've ended last month, the fight against book censorship continues.

More than 10,000 books were banned or challenged in U.S. schools last year, according to a September report released by PEN America. The free speech advocacy group found efforts to censor books nearly tripled in 2023-2024, a significant jump from the 3,362 instances documented over the previous school year.

A separate report released by the American Library Association during Banned Books Week (September 22-28), gave contrasting data, however...

What is Freedom to Read Day?

On Oct. 19, 2024, the ALA and ALA-funded Unite Against Book Bans campaign will celebrate libraries across the country and encourage civic participation with Freedom to Read Day, an event meant to draw attention toward fighting book censorship...

What books did Kentucky residents challenge in 2023?

Kentucky, according to an updated ALA report, challenged 395 books in libraries across the state — from Maia Kobabe's "Gender Queer: A Memoir" to John Green's "Looking for Alaska."

The Courier Journal has provided a full list of challenged books toward the bottom of this article.

The majority of challenges were directed toward books with LGBTQ+ themes and characters, as well as books featuring people of color...

C-D; Books that Kentuckians challenged, from 'Call Me By Your Name' to 'Dune: House Atreides'

• "Call Me By Your Name" by André Aciman
• "Calvin" by J.R. Ford
• "Camp Quiltbag" by Nicole Melleby
• "Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship" by Irene Latham
• Can't Take That Away" by Steven Salvatore
• "Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks A-Lot" by Dav Pilkey
• "The Cardboard Kingdom" by Chad Sell
• "Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow" by Rainbow Rowell
• "Catwoman: Soulstealer" by Sarah J. Maas
• "Cemetery Boys" by Aiden Thomas
• "Change Sings" by Amanda Gorman
• "Check, Please! #hockey" by Ngozi Ukazu
• "Check, Please! Vol. 2: Sticks & Scones" by Ngozi Ukazu
• "Chosen" by P.C. Cast
• "Cinderella is Dead" by Kalynn Bayron
• "Clap When You Land" by Elizabeth Acevedo
• "Clara Lemlich [She Persisted Series]" by Deborah Heligman
• "Class Act" by Jerry Craft
• "Clockwork Princess" by Cassandra Clare
• "Concrete Rose" by Angie Thomas
• "Cool for the Summer" by Dahlia Adler
• "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins
• "Critical Perspectives on Gender Identity" by Nicki Peter Petrikowski
• "The Crown of Midnight" by Sarah J. Maas
• "Cut" by Patricia McCormick

'No one wants to be censored':People are supporting 'book sanctuaries' despite politics

• "Damsel" by Elana K. Arnold
• "Darius the Great" by Jamie Poolos
• "Darius the Great Deserves Better" by Adib Khorram
• "The Dead and the Dark" by Courtney Gould
• "Dear Martin" by Nic Stone
• "Dear Sweet Pea" by Julie Murphy
• "The Deep & Dark Blue" by Niki Smith
• "Defining Sexual Consent: Where the Law Falls Short" by New York Times Educational Publishing
• "Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery" by Casey Parks
• "The Difference Between You and Me" by Madeleine George
• "Disarmed" by Sarah Rees Brennan
• "Doll Bones" by Holly Black
• "Doodleville" by Chad Sell
• "Drama" by Raina Telgemeier
• "Dress Codes for Small Towns" by Courtney C Stevens
• "The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend" by Kody Keplinger
• "Dune: House Atreides [Series]" by Brian Herbert"

Penn State librarians support freedom to read, unite against book bans; Penn State, October 17, 2024

Penn State; Penn State librarians support freedom to read, unite against book bans

"Saturday, Oct. 19, is the Freedom to Read Community Day of Action, a national event designated by the American Library Association (ALA) and United Against Book Bans to celebrate America’s libraries, safeguard the freedom to read and encourage civic participation.

According to Russell Hall, reference and instruction librarian at Penn State University Libraries’ John M. Lilley Library and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, his is one voice among many with strong feelings about book banning and censorship.

“Our core values as librarians are found in the Library Bill of Rights, which holds that libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment,” said Hall, a past chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee for the Pennsylvania Library Association, which serves to advocate for freedom of selection of materials for all libraries and oppose any infringement of intellectual freedom upon libraries. “We believe people are free to choose what they want to read, and to determine what their own children can and should read, but do not have the right to impose their will upon others who are free to make that choice for themselves.”

There’s nothing new about book bans. For centuries, published works ranging from religious texts to classic literature to contemporary novels deemed too controversial for young readers have been targeted for removal from library shelves across the United States...

Joel Burkholder, reference and instruction librarian at Lee R. Glatfelter Library at Penn State York, agreed. “Ban advocates try to frame their efforts as objective policy rather than an ideological agenda,” he said. “It’s the same basic tactic as citing peer-reviewed research to support the predetermined conclusion that pornography is a public health crisis or that being trans is a choice.”

For more information on the Freedom to Read Community Day of Action and events planned across the country, visit the United Against Book Bans website."

SHELVING FREEDOM: WHAT NEVADA STANDS TO LOSE IF IT STARTS ENACTING BOOK BANS; Las Vegas Weekly, October 17, 2024

Amber Sampson , Las Vegas Weekly; SHELVING FREEDOM: WHAT NEVADA STANDS TO LOSE IF IT STARTS ENACTING BOOK BANS

"With tensions mounting so close to home, some have wondered if Nevada might start banning books next. Alexander Marks, director of strategy for the Nevada State Education Association, says it’s highly unlikely.

“I think the right people are getting into trusteeships. The right people are getting into the Legislature. These are not issues that are on the tops of a lot of parents’ minds,” says Marks. “A lot of times, this is just certain politicians or parent groups trying to distract or fuel fear. They’re the Moms for Liberty folks just intent on dividing citizens by challenging books that represent marginalized and oppressed peoples.

“But when it comes down to it, when folks are casting their votes, that’s not where Nevada citizens are at.”

Nevada remains one of the few states in the country currently without a book ban, but there are efforts in place. Moms for Liberty, a political group that gained traction during the pandemic, has adamantly fought to ban books. Two CCSD school board candidates—Lorena Biassotti and Lydia Dominguez—were once tied to a local chapter of Moms for Liberty but have since distanced themselves.

In the last year, Washoe County in Northern Nevada has been the target of an aggressive number of book challenges, facing off against anti-LGBTQ activists, religious leaders and parents—all in the vocal minority. 

“Do parents have the right to monitor and select or disagree with certain materials? Of course they do,” Marks says. “But it’s inappropriate for them to do that for everybody and everyone else’s kids.

“There are a lot of dangerous attempts to stoke fears, rewrite history, diminish folks’ stories, whitewash injustices, and that prevents educators from challenging our students to live in a more equitable society,” he continues.

Much is at stake when it comes to banning the voices of our communities. For one, you’re silencing “a whole demographic,” Luster says, and dooming future generations to repeat the mistakes of our forebears. Children also run the risk of losing quality education. And by denying students access to different worlds, cultures and stories, they’re in danger of losing much more than that."

The Limitation Effect: A White Paper; October 2024

New York University and University of California - San Diego, The Limitation Effect: A White Paper

Experiences of State Policy-Driven Education Restriction in Florida's Public Schools

"How can a teacher discuss Jim Crow laws without breaking state law? Should a librarian stop ordering books with LGBTQ+ characters? A new white paper by UC San Diego and NYU researchers reveals the experiences of K-12 educators and parents in Florida grappling with state policies and policy effects restricting access to instruction, books, courses, clubs, professional development, and basic student supports."

Louisiana librarian, anti-book banning author to speak on censorship at Iowa City Book Festival; The Gazette, October 11, 2024

 Elijah Decious, The Gazette; Louisiana librarian, anti-book banning author to speak on censorship at Iowa City Book Festival

"The librarian, who has for decades worked in the same school she attended as a child, filed three police reports — each of which went nowhere.

So the 2020 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year and 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year decided to do something more — sue her harassers for defamation. Requesting damages of just $1, she wanted to set an example for the students who look to her to combat bullies, and for the librarians across the country facing similar challenges.

“I was raised to speak out, love thy neighbor,” she said. “I’m just doing what I was raised to do.”

“That Librarian,” her new book released in August, is part memoir and part manifesto on the front lines of America’s latest culture war. As she maps the book banning crises occurring across the country, she calls on book lovers to fight for intellectual freedom — a right fundamental to everyone’s freedom of speech.

As she studies book bans and court cases, she notices a few trends. Since book bans started in states like Texas, Florida and Louisiana, she said book censorship has spread to all 50 states in some way or another.

But now, in some of the states that were first to initiate the discussion, the pendulum is swinging back as others realize the mistruths they were fed — like the idea that librarians were putting pornography on children’s book shelves."

American Library Association president Cindy Hohl on why book bans are hard to stop; NPR, WAMU, October 11, 2024

 NPR, WAMU; American Library Association president Cindy Hohl on why book bans are hard to stop

"Cindy Hohl, the current president of the American Library Association, says the political temperature surrounding book bans has remained at a boiling point. Over the last year of her tenure, Hohl has witnessed librarians exit the profession due to increased stress, ridicule and public pressure to remove certain titles from their libraries–particularly those related to race and LGBTQ+ identity. Although these battles are particularly pronounced in hot spots like Florida and Texas, they're being fought in communities all over the country. In today's episode, NPR's Andrew Limbong speaks with Hohl about what librarians can and can't do to push back against this cycle of censorship and what it's like to lead through times of crisis."

They wrote a book while locked in solitary confinement. Texas won’t let them read it; The Guardian, October 11, 2024

Damascus James , The Guardian; They wrote a book while locked in solitary confinement. Texas won’t let them read it

"Our correspondences inspired me to put together Texas Letters, an ongoing anthology by nearly 50 writers who have spent more than 550 combined years in the bowels of Texas’s solitary confinement. In their contributions, they describe the loss of humanity, sanity and family connections in solitary. They say they have experienced copious violence, including assault and sexual abuse, at the hands of prison staff – one writer said a woman in a nearby cell had died after being beaten by a guard – and rampant neglect. Many describe poor mental and physical health that often leads to a desire to self-harm. Rates of suicide in Texas solitary confinement are disproportionally high, as these writers can attest.

One of the letter-writers was Lupe.

“It is hard to accept being locked in a 9x5 cage, for 24 hours a day, for years on end, with at most one hour a day out of your cell to shower, or to recreate alone in a slightly larger cage,” Lupe wrote to me in November 2023. “For the last few years,” he added, “the one hour a day out-of-cell time was cut down to one hour a week on a good week.”...

Texas is one of the most suppressive places for books in the country, alongside states such as Florida, Missouri and South Carolina. These states also have high incarceration rates; tough-on-crime states tend to be tough on the written word. And while book bans are a hot-button issue, particularly when it comes to public schools and libraries, prisons are actually some of the most restrictive reading environments in the US.

In Texas prisons, Texas Letters rests among banned titlesincluding The Color Purple; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire; and A Charlie Brown Christmas, in addition to New York Times bestsellers and books by Nobel peace prize nominees, civil rights leaders and even the Bard himself.

The Texas department of criminal justice (TDCJ) denies books for myriad reasons, as the Dallas Morning News reported in 2017. Where’s Waldo? Santa Spectacular was banned because it had stickers. Freakonomics was banned because it “communicat[es] information designed to achieve the breakdown of prisons through … strikes, riots, or security threat group activity” – books that talk about social justice movements or race often fall into this category. Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets was banned because it used “sexually explicit” imagery, as were reading materials about filing taxes, which could be used to commit fraud.

In reality, this censorship is a ploy to limit knowledge – about connections between slavery and mass incarceration, about literacy’s role in inspiring the desire for freedom, and, in the case of Texas Letters, about what takes place in solitary confinement under the guise of “justice”. It pits the ensemble behind these letters against the large-scale ignorance prisons try to cultivate and the enforced silence they apply."

AS NATIONWIDE BOOK BANS TOP 10,000, RASKIN, SCHATZ INTRODUCE BICAMERAL RESOLUTION CONDEMNING BOOK BANS; Jamie Raskin Press Release, September 25, 2024

Jamie Raskin, Press Release; AS NATIONWIDE BOOK BANS TOP 10,000, RASKIN, SCHATZ INTRODUCE BICAMERAL RESOLUTION CONDEMNING BOOK BANS

"Today, Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) reintroduced a resolution condemning an escalating censorship crisis that has removed and targeted thousands of books from the shelves of schools, libraries and universities across the country.  

The bicameral resolution, coinciding with Banned Books Week, reinforces congressional recognition of students’ First Amendment rights and affirms that the freedom to read is essential to a strong democracy. In the 2023-2024 school year alone, PEN America documented over 10,000 instances of individual books being banned, nearly triple the previous academic year. Many bans have removed books from public shelves with characteristics that would be targeted by Project 2025, which additionally proposes labeling teachers and librarians who distribute such books as sex offenders. 

“By filling our libraries with a diversity of stories, we help our students understand new perspectives rather than suppressing their freedom to think, read and write independently,” said Rep. Raskin. “We must close this chapter of censorship and, rather than continuing to take a page from the world’s dictators and autocrats, turn our attention to the resources students need to succeed. I am grateful to Senator Schatz for his partnership on this resolution.” 

“Any attempt to ban books because someone has an ideological disagreement or doesn’t believe in capturing the full scope of history is un-American,” said Senator Schatz. “Freedom of expression is a founding principle of our country, and it's up to all of us to stand up against these attacks on this fundamental right.”

According to findings from PEN America and the American Library Association, targeted books include classics like To Kill A Mockingbird, 1984, and The Handmaid’s Tale. Books are also more likely to be removed if they feature content related to the LGBTQIA+ experience, race or racial injustice or stories about grief and abuse...

Read what more supporters and advocates are saying about the resolution here. 

“Keep your nose in a book—and keep other people’s noses out of which books you choose to stick your nose into!” said Art Spiegelman, author and illustrator of Maus and other works...

"When we ban books, we aren’t simply just removing access to certain stories. We are telling groups of people that their stories don’t matter, which is to say their existence as human beings doesn’t matter either," said George M. Johnson, author of ALL BOYS AREN'T BLUE and FLAMBOYANTS: THE QUEER HARLEM RENAISSANCE I WISH I'D KNOWN."

Removing Books From Libraries Often Takes Debate. But There’s a Quieter Way.; The New York Times, October 8, 2024

Elizabeth A. Harris , The New York Times; Removing Books From Libraries Often Takes Debate. But There’s a Quieter Way.

"Thousands of books have been removed from schools and libraries over the past several years, often accompanied by stormy public meetings and acrimonious debate. But there is a quieter way books have been pulled from libraries — a process called weeding.

The practice is standard for librarians, a regular part of keeping their collections current. Traditionally, weeding involves removing books that are damaged, out of date or haven’t been checked out in a long time. This makes room for new editions and titles that are of more interest to the community.

Now, three years into surge in challenges and removals of books from libraries, weeding is sometimes being used to remove books because of the viewpoint they express or the story they tell. The issue is now working its way through the court system.

Advocates say that, increasingly, administrators and library board officials are using this approach to avoid the public spectacle of formally pulling them because of their content."

How Book Bans Happen Under the Radar; The New York Times, October 8, 2024

Elizabeth Harris, Farah Otero-Amad, Karen Hanley, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Gabriel Blanco , The New York Times; How Book Bans Happen Under the Radar

"Thousands of books have been publicly challenged and removed from libraries in the past couple of years. Elizabeth Harris, who covers books and the publishing industry for The New York Times, explains how books are being pulled from libraries in a quiet process called weeding. Weeding normally allows librarians to keep collections current, but some lawsuits argue that it has been used instead to remove books for content about racism, sexuality and gender."

“We Are a Relatively Easy Punching Bag”; Slate, October 3, 2024

LAURA MILLER , Slate; “We Are a Relatively Easy Punching Bag”

"While it’s not unusual for other industries to dedicate staff to influencing or changing public policy, it’s virtually unheard of in the relatively sleepy world of book publishing. Rosalie Stewart, however, has just been hired as Penguin Random House’s senior public policy manager, a new position that will fight the recent explosion in book-banning campaigns at schools and public libraries. At present, for example, officials in Texas and Iowa have attempted to argue that the book collections held by schools and libraries constitute “government speech” and are therefore not protected by the First Amendment. This bid to redefine the nature of public libraries was rejected by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Iowa, but for Texas, the matter is being weighed by the notorious extremists on the “rogue” 5th Circuit. I spoke with Stewart recently about the battle before her. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity....

There have been two book-banning reports recently from the ALA and PEN America. The first said that book challenges are slowing down, and the second said that banning attempts have ramped up. Could you explain why there would be that difference?

My colleagues—my former colleagues, I should say—at ALA are very good at what they do, and they’re very smart. As a professional association, they just have a different focus in terms of what they’re counting. They’re focused on a very specific definition of a “book ban.” They only count book removals. But we know that this censorship is playing itself out in different ways. Not only are books being challenged, removed, and then put back on the shelf, but there is soft censorship. There’s a chilling effect in terms of the books that people are buying and teaching. I think that PEN America’s definition is a little more expansive and draws on a wider variety of sources. Censorship is not going down. Book banning is not fading away. That’s not what we’re hearing from people out there. That’s a major challenge: How do we fight back against this on such a diffuse battlefield? It’s happening at the state legislatures; it’s happening at the school boards; and it’s happening at the agency level."

Folks Are Uniting Against Book Bans; Word In Black via Michigan Chronicle, October 7, 2024

Word In Black via Michigan Chronicle, Aziah Siid; Folks Are Uniting Against Book Bans

"Mychal Threets, a Black librarian and literary activist with a social media following rivaling that of any influencer, has a message for readers struggling to find themselves on shelves due to conservative-led book bans in public schools and libraries: You have the power to fight back.

“You belong in books, in libraries, in the world, just as you are. You have the freedom to read, to be in books, to see yourselves,” Threets says in a recent Instagram post about why he’s supporting the Freedom to Read Community Day of Action on October 19.

Threets created the post to announce his partnership with the New York Public Library on the Freedom to Read Community Day of Action campaign, an effort to encourage collective action and civic pushback against banning or restricting access to books written by, for, or about people from diverse communities.

The day is a national initiative from the American Library Association and its Unite Against Book Bans campaign, in partnership with Brooklyn, Queens and New York Public Libraries, and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries. The joint effort was started “in response to the wave of book banning and censorship that started gathering momentum in 2020,” according to a press release from the ALA...

Host Your Own Day of Action, But Be Careful

A free event guide and promotion kit walks folks who cares about the issue through how to host their own local Freedom to Read Community Day of Action on Oct. 19. It suggests everything from being ready to answer common questions about book banning to “inviting local community leaders, authors, librarians, or educators who want to share personal stories,” about what books mean to them.

However, given the vitriol against books by Black and other racially or ethnically diverse authors — and against books about Black history — it’s also suggested that folks take some safety precautions ahead of any scheduled events.

Precautions include monitoring social media and emails for threats or protests and inspecting areas around event venues for suspicious people or items. Restricting access to only those authorized to attend or celebrate the event is also recommended.

But if Mychal the Librarian can get the courage to show up to the day of action at the New York Public Library, the rest of us can, too. As Threets says in his Instagram video, “It is all about the freedom to read.”"