'We're fighting for democracy and core freedoms' - book bans on the rise across America

Record ID: 1721082

  • Title: 'We're fighting for democracy and core freedoms' - book bans on the rise across America
  • Date: 13th April 2023
  • Summary: HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES (RECENT – MARCH 28, 2023) (REUTERS) BOOK TITLED “THIS BOOK IS GAY” HELD BY WOMAN AT HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD MEETING WOMAN HOLDING BOOK TITLED “THIS BOOK IS GAY” WIDE OF SCHOOL BOARD MEETING STUDENT SPEAKING AT MEETING WIDE OF MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (English) HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY RESIDENT, MOTHER OF FIVE, WHO DID NO
  • Embargoed: 27th April 2023 11:21
  • Keywords: Florida LGBTQ Texas authors banned books book bans democracy education law librarians protests racism readers school board sexuality students
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Books,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA001584008032023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Book bans are on the rise across the United States, in schools and public libraries, and people who follow the trend say there’s no indication of it letting up.
    In March of this year, the American Library Association (ALA) released new data documenting 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, nearly double the challenges reported in 2021. 58% of the reported challenges targeted books and materials in school libraries, classroom libraries or school curricula; 41% targeted materials in public libraries.
    Texas accounted for the most bans, followed by Pennsylvania and Florida.
    Most targeted books were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color, the ALA data determined.
    Nonprofit organization PEN America reported similar findings. Its latest report showed that book bans accelerated during the 2021-2022 school year, largely because of advocacy groups that called on public schools to remove more than 1600 titles, most addressing racism and LGBTQ+ issues.
    PEN America expects that number only to grow, as some states pass educational gag orders that implicate restrictions on books and other laws that pressure schools to censor their libraries.
    “We're in a much more heightened situation,” said Jonathan Friedman, PEN America’s Director of Free Expression and Education Programs. “We're fighting for democracy and core freedoms, that those freedoms have to apply to all of us…that's what's really at risk.”
    Ashely Perez, author of the young adult novel “Out of Darkness” and assistant professor at the Ohio State University, has firsthand experience with book bans.
    Her novel uses the 1937 New London, Texas, school explosion that killed nearly 300 people as a backdrop for a fictional romance between a black young man and a Mexican American young woman.
    PEN America ranked it as the 3rd most challenged book in the 2021-2022 school year.
    Perez told Reuters in an interview that “the reason that the particular books are being targeted is that they're books that do something different than young adult literature has traditionally done. They tell stories of folks who haven't traditionally been at the center of narratives in school libraries.”
    Students, she says, are the victims. “If they…share identities with the authors or the characters in the books that are being targeted, they are made to feel that not only do those books not belong in their school, but maybe they don't really belong in their school. They're made to feel that their actual existence is controversial in some way.”
    In some areas of the country, people are pushing back - on social media, in legislatures and courts, and on the ground.
    Celebrities like screenwriter Shonda Rhimes and actress Julianna Margulis have launched Instagram videos in support of #LetAmericaRead, an initiative designed by Creative Artists Agency and Campaign for Our Shared Future to raise awareness of the growing danger of book bans.
    In March at a rally to stop book banning ahead of a Brevard County School Board meeting in Viera, Florida, people carried signs reading “Book Bans are UnAmerican and Fascist” and displayed several books that have been challenged, including George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
    In Illinois, legislation moving through the General Assembly would require public libraries to have a written policy against book banning in order to be eligible for state grants.
    And in Texas, a federal judge ruled on March 30th that at least 12 books removed from public libraries by Llano County officials to be placed back on shelves within 24 hours.
    In response, the county commissioners are meeting Thursday (April 13) to consider shutting down the county libraries altogether.
    (Production: Soren Larson, Christine Kiernan, Joan Soley)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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