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Kelly Jensen will take back the helm of Censorship News next week, but in the meantime, editors Danika Ellis and Erica Ezeifedi have been filling in. This week, we’ve each spotlighted three censorship news stories: the first three are written by Danika, and the second three are written by Erica. The “highlights” include truly baffling choices for “protecting” teens in Corpus Christi libraries, a list of 700+ books removed from Florida schools, and an Alabama anti-censorship group’s call to action.
Corpus Christi Libraries Don’t Know What to Do With Teenagers
If you follow Kelly Jensen’s weekly Censorship News roundups, you’ll likely recognize Texas county Corpus Christi: they have been pushing for book bans in public libraries for quite a while. The newest developments are that they are considering a new “parent/guardian must be present” library card, which would block these minors from accessing self-checkouts and would require them to check out books only while their parent is present, who must show their ID. The updates to equipment would cost about $10,000.
You might be wondering, what’s the point of this card? Couldn’t these parents just not allow their minor to get a library card (they already require parental permission) and then check out those books on their card, since they have to be present anyway? That would also save them the step of having to show their ID, and it would allow them to use the self-checkout. But no, let’s spend thousands of dollars just to have the option of a useless library card. The biggest problem today is that the youth are borrowing too many of the wrong kinds of books.
But that’s not all! Corpus Christi is also working on a teen section in their library…in addition to the young adult section. They’re not sure how they’ll separate those, which is a fair problem to have, because those terms are used interchangeably, especially when it comes to book audiences. Meanwhile, they’re all moving YA books to adult if they think there is any “inappropriate” content. I imagine the “teen” section will end up as one shelf of Christian teen fiction.
Meet the 1970s Version of Moms for Liberty
TIME did a write-up about Norma Gabler, a white Christian mother who fought against the “secular trend” in textbooks in the 1960s-’80s. She inspired right-wing women across the country to follow her lead, setting back much of the incremental progress made toward more inclusive educational materials. She argued for book censorship under the guise of “parental rights”—sound familiar?
This article is a good reminder that this fight is not new. More importantly, it’s a reminder that book censorship is a white women problem. Whether it’s in the 1960s or the 2020s, it is white women who have led the charge to remove diverse books from shelves, to center white voices, to erase LGBTQ and BIPOC people from historical accounts. White women, that means it’s also on us to counteract this, both publicly and privately: from school board meetings to book club meetings.
Alabama Anti-Censorship Group Calls for Anyone Opposing Book Bans to Take Action
Anti-censorship group Read Freely Alabama is working to combat the incoming bill HB4, which would criminalize Drag Queen Story Hour events and would hold librarians liable if they allow minors access to materials that could be “harmful” to them, including “gender-oriented conduct.” (???) It’s incredibly vaguely defined, making librarians vulnerable, especially when it comes to LGBTQ-inclusive books.
Angie Hayden, co-founder of Read Freely Alabama, is asking for those opposing censorship efforts like this to show up to library board meetings and speak out: “These extremists, if we don’t show up, we are handing everything over to them. The thing about extremists is they are dedicated whereas the more reasonable majority is falling short as we are not as dedicated, loud, and consistent. That is where we need to be better.”
Last year, PEN America reported on how Florida was leading the country in book bans—which can cost school districts up to $135,000 a year—and it seems like it’s only getting worse. Not only are the books that are often challenged by and about non-white people and LGBTQ+ people, and therefore deprive people with these identities the ability to see themselves represented like everyone else, but they include classics that are part of a standard education. Lack of access to these books can hurt students in so many ways.
Florida Freedom to Read Project director Stephana Ferrell said, “A lot of them removed many, many books, including classic literature and literature that regularly appears on the AP exams and prepares our students for college-level coursework. We’re removing all of these books.” She continued, “Everywhere from Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Slaughterhouse-Five, George Orwell.”
Things Get Heated as 150 More Books Are Pulled From Shelves in Tennessee’s Rutherford County
Just a 40-minute or so drive out from my hometown, a battle over book bans is waging. The Rutherford County Board of Education has banned 35 books since February—which have included books like Beloved by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and Wicked by Gregory Maguire—and now 150 more books have been challenged, courtesy of broadened definitions of obscenity. This comes after the board voted this fall to seek a legal opinion letter from the State Attorney General on how to navigate changes in law.
The challenges have been initiated by board member Caleb Tidwell, and get this, in September during a board member, he had people from his church come and speak in support of his book challenges, pointing to “pornographic material” as the reason.
But there’s another of Tidwell’s church members, Butch Vaughn, who’s also a retired principal and fellow board member who doesn’t agree with the bans. “I look at it like a battle between good and evil sometimes, and I am always going to be on the side of good.”
He continued, “It’s like they’re just really creating dust, and I don’t think this needs to be an issue that divides us and keeps us from focusing on what’s really important.”
Vaughn also noted the toll these book bans have taken on the morale of the community, saying “It’s created so much bitterness, division. If you look at the number of times [the banned books] were checked out over the last years, it is just so minute. I mean, it’s like they’re just really creating dust in a lot of situations.”
He also noted that what he’s witnessing reminds him of a particular time in history: “It almost reminds me of 1930s Germany just a little bit, where if we pull them out of our libraries, where are we going to pull them out of next? I can’t tell other parents how to raise their children, and I’m not going to, it’s not my job.”
The American Civil Liberties Union is considering taking legal action against the board.
The festival endorses The Freedom to Read Statement, which decries book censorship outright, and during its two-day run, the festival will host around 300 authors. Some of these authors have had their work censored and will have the opportunity to speak on it.
The chief executive officer of the festival, Marianne DeLeon, said, “We believe in unfettered access to books without censorship, and I think it’s a really great question to be able to ask the authors, authors who have been censored in the past.”
