I had thought America was against totalitarianisms. If so, surely it is important for young people to be able to recognize the signs of them. One of those signs is book-banning. Need I say more? ~ Margaret Atwood [1]

F
ollowing the Supreme Court’s recent overturn of Rowe v Wade, Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale has understandably become the face of activism for reproductive rights. But The Handmaid’s Tale wasn’t intended to be a feminist commentary on the control of women and their reproductive capacities.

Rather, it’s a study in totalitarian systems of government. Atwood’s foundational question?

If you wanted to seize power in the United states, abolish liberal democracy, and set up a dictatorship, how would you go about it? [2]

As Atwood’s quote at the opening of this piece points out, banning books is an early indicator of creeping totalitarianism. And, the number of books being banned in the United States has skyrocketed in the last few years.

Bearing Handmaid’s use as a protest symbol for reproductive rights in mind, it’s easy to overlook the significance that Gilead’s prohibition of women to read plays in establishing and maintaining its totalitarian control.

As one of Gilead’s hardliners put it:

Our big mistake was teaching them to read. We won’t do that again. [3]

The Testaments, Atwood’s follow-up work to The Handmaid’s Tale, reveals how Gilead falls.  And once again, reading and access to information looms large. Atwood’s combined works gives us insight into the role that reading and access to information can play in holding the line against totalitarianism in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Whoever controls the word maintains power

Within both novels, Atwood makes it abundantly clear that whoever controls the word maintains power. And what better way to symbolize this reality than to put the headquarters of Gilead’s enforcer unit, The Eyes, in what was once a library? This “former grand library”:

…now shelters no books but their own, the original contents having been either burned or, if valuable, added to the private collections of various sticky-fingered Commanders. [4]

The combined works serve as a reminder that learning to read has been carefully controlled throughout history. Who is allowed to. Who isn’t. And more insidiously, whose stories can and cannot be told. [5]

The narrator of The Handmaid’s Tale tells her story rather than writing it down because, as she notes, she has nothing to write with. And even if she did, writing is forbidden anyway. Gilead enforces its mandate against women reading and writing with a “three strikes” policy. On the third conviction they cut off your hand.

Though no one has suggested lopping off body parts as punishment for reading banned books in the U.S., teachers and librarians have been threatened with time behind bars for providing books like The Catcher in the Rye, The House on Mango Street, and Speak to students.[6]

Controlling whose stories can and cannot be told should sound especially familiar. Because these days, books that tell stories about people of color, those that revolve around LGBTQ+ individuals, or include characters from non-Christian backgrounds are being purged from classroom shelves and school libraries at an alarming rate.

And, when marginalized communities such as these are not represented in the books students read, it’s clear they’re intentionally being made invisible, stripped of their humanity, and therefore rendered powerless. Just like Atwood’s narrator, whose real name we don’t know because using it is forbidden.

We only know her as Offred, a name designed to eliminate her personhood, one composed of the possessive preposition “of” and the first name of the Commander she is currently assigned to. Offred tries to tell herself that this dehumanizing tactic doesn’t matter – like those who dismiss the omission of diverse communities in school curriculums as inconsequential… “but what I tell myself is wrong,” Offred reflects, “it does matter.” [7]

Just like it matters that particular communities within our country are being made invisible. That is also wrong.

Fascism erases history

One of the most effective ways of controlling the word and consolidating power is to erase history. And, as scholar of totalitarian systems Jason Stanley points out, that’s just what authoritarian regimes do. They find ways of erasing or concealing history, which allows them to misrepresent history as a single story.[8]

Consistent with this observation, Offred talks about book-burnings that took place across Gilead because:

the corrupt and blood-smeared fingerprints of the past must be wiped away to create a clean space for the morally pure generation that is surely about to arrive. [9]

Aunt Lydia is one of the women in charge of what Atwood describes as brainwashing new handmaids in a sort of Red Guard re-education facility known as the Red Center.[10] Lydia refers to the initial group of conscripted handmaids as a “transitional generation.”[11]

And, the reason they’re a transitional generation is that the “training process,” as it were, will be easier for the next cohort of handmaids. Because, as Aunt Lydia notes, they “will accept their duties with willing hearts.”[12] What Aunt Lydia doesn’t say, however, is that the next generation of handmaids will accept their duties willingly “because they will have no memories of any other way.”[13]

When authoritarian regimes set out to erase history, as Stanley further states, they do so through education, by purging certain narratives from school curriculums.[14] Gilead accomplished this by replacing girls’ academic curriculum with “domestic education,” which revolves around subjects like embroidery, elementary gardening, the making of paper flowers, skills deemed suitable hobbies for future Wives of Commanders.[15]

They were also taught “how to judge the quality of the food that was cooked for us and served at our table.”[16] What they weren’t taught, however, is how to read or write.

Reading and writing may not have been expunged from American schools, but as touched upon above, huge swaths of our history have been purged from the school curriculums in a number of states. Not to mention the recent dismantling of The Department of Education.

Educators at all levels are targeted, and any teaching that addresses racial hierarchy, patriarchy, or heteronormativity is being suppressed. Histories of political movements like Black Lives Matter are also being removed from social studies curriculums.

By eliminating the history of uprisings against the status quo, authoritarians give students the idea that the status quo has never been – and can never be – challenged.[17]

Lack of information is part of the nightmare

It goes without saying that not knowing what happened to her family at the hands of Gilead authorities during their attempted escape into Canada wears on Offred’s psyche. But, it’s significant that she also talks about a sense of deterioration, specifically the diminished skills that result from Gilead’s edict against women reading and writing.

Her Commander begins requesting that she visit him in his office alone. As it turns out, he’s not after kinky sex, but to watch her read books and magazines that he’s appropriated from pre-Gilead times… and to play Scrabble.

In describing these illicit meetings, Offred compares Gilead’s prohibition of reading to the deprivation of food:

On these occasions I read quickly, voraciously, almost skimming, trying to get as much into my head as possible before the next long starvation. If it were eating it would be the gluttony of the famished. [18]

But even worse, as she and the Commander play this quintessential game of words, she notes how her reading and writing skills have deteriorated:

My tongue felt thick with the effort of spelling. It was like using a language I’d once known but had nearly forgotten… It was like trying to walk without crutches, like those phony scenes in old TV movies. You can do it. I know you can. That was the way my mind lurched and stumbled, among the sharp r’s and t’s, sliding over the ovoid vowels as if on pebbles. [19] 

A comparable situation is taking place related to reading achievement in America. Reading scores on the most recent (2024) National Assessment of Education Progress (known as America’s report card) fell two points below 2022’s historic low. “We’re still recovering from the pandemic,” you may say. And, there is truth to that statement.

However, as Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, points out, this concern “cannot be blamed solely on the pandemic.”[20] The fact that math scores have not dropped among 8^th graders, and have actually improved among 4^th graders indicate something else is going on.

Recent studies have found that the surge in book banning has negatively affected reading skills. Yes, we’re still recovering from the pandemic. But educators now have fewer resources at their disposal to aid in this recovery. And the types of books hardest hit by these bans are the ones that have the greatest positive impact on reading achievement.

Results from The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study reveal that “social studies is the only subject with a clear, positive, and statistically significant effect on reading improvement.”[21] Social Studies is defined as:

the study of individuals, communities, systems, and their interactions across time and place that prepares students for local, national, and global civic life. [22]

And it’s precisely these types of books, those about diverse characters and life experiences, as well as books addressing difficult historical truths that are being banned from America’s classrooms and libraries – much to the detriment of students’ reading achievement.

Social and political dimensions of the ability to read

Atwood’s works also speak to the social, and political dimensions of the ability to read. She specifically focuses on oppression enforced by the institutional control of acquiring knowledge and information.

For example. Aunts are allowed to read and write, because they’re in charge of Handmaids’ assignments and maintaining bloodlines. And, Aunt Lydia employs this hierarchical distinction as a show of power, rubbing the handmaids’ proverbial noses in it, frequently making them watch and wait as she reads silently “flaunting her prerogative.” [23]

Commanders’ offices are lined with books. As suggested above, they like to accumulate books, gloat over the collections they’ve compiled, and boast about what they’ve pilfered. [24]

And, the Bible is kept under lock and key. This mandate is significant because Gilead is ostensibly founded on biblical concepts. Commanders can read from the Bible to their primarily female households, but the women are forbidden to read it for themselves. [25]

Needless to say, the Commanders cherry-pick passages and spin them in a way that supports Gilead’s totalitarian agenda. And, given that the source of these passages is denied them, women have no way of refuting these intentional misreadings.

The power of storytelling

The Handmaid’s Tale is undoubtedly about oppression and control. However, it’s also about the power of narrative. Atwood does indeed focus on oppression enforced by institutional control of knowledge and information. But, she also examines the self-liberating capacity of storytelling. [26]

The Aunts at the Red Center did their best to brainwash the woman who would come to narrate The Handmaid’s Tale. They set out to crush her identity and demolish her sense of individuality.  Yet, she manages to record her feelings, experiences, thoughts, and memories.

That’s because, as Jason Stanley observes:

authoritarians cannot erase people’s lived experiences, and their legacies written into the bones of generations. In this simple fact lies always the possibility of reclaiming lost perspectives. [27]

By telling her own story throughout the novel, Offred reclaims her sense of self and reconstructs the subjectivity they literally tried to beat out of her at The Red Center.  In short, she recovers the voice Gilead has denied her.

In doing so, she recreates erased histories and uncovers versions of events that Gilead had repressed. [28]

Most importantly, by sharing her tale she becomes a social agent – and, as a result of the power of narrative, aids in Gilead’s eventual downfall.

When only 11 people are responsible for 60% of book challenges in the U.S. (as has recently been the case), the vast majority of us are being denied a voice – in this case about which books our kids are allowed to read. [29] To say nothing of the voices within the marginalized communities whose stories are being banned, voices that allow us to understand and relate to those whose lives are different than our own.

Since only a handful of individuals are responsible for over half of the book challenges in this country, they’re the ones determining whose histories are being erased. And, without consulting the rest of us, they’re repressing information about landmark events like the Stonewall uprising, not to mention the institution of slavery and its role in our country.

Reclaim your voice. Make sure stories like these continue to be told. Narrative has the power to break down the “us vs them” environment  authoritarian regimes thrive on. [30]

A trio of narratives

Like The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood’s follow up work is a meta-narrative about storytelling, one emphasizing the importance of testimony and witnessing. The Testaments is divided into a trio of interwoven narratives: One is Aunt Lydia’s, which is written illegally in blue ink and unironically hidden inside a copy of Cardinal Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua: A Defense of One’s Own Life. 

The second is the recorded testimony of a young woman named Agnes, about growing up in The Republic of Gilead. And third, is the recorded testimony of Daisy, a teenage girl who grew up in Canada, and can’t help but feel that her parents are keeping something from her.

The motif of reading and writing is emphasized toward the end of Atwood’s novel as if to highlight its role in the fall of Gilead.

As noted above, Aunt Lydia is the keeper of Gilead’s bloodlines. She’s also the clandestine chronicler of its “secret histories.”[31] Aunt Lydia is not entirely what she seems. And, she’s well aware that knowledge is power. Especially the aspect Henry Ward Beecher pointed out, that knowledge is “powder also, liable to blow false institutions to atoms.” [32]

Agnes doesn’t learn to read until she commits to becoming an aunt.  And, she chose this path in order to save herself from being married to an old and powerful Commander with a track record of young wives who die from mysterious illnesses. But even then, she continues to accept what she’s been taught about Gilead and her subservient place in it.

The day finally comes, however, when Agnes is granted full access to the Bible.

And, after reading a story she’s been told over-and-over in school for herself, Agnes discovers that she and all the other girls have been lied to about what the passages say. She sees that the meanings of the stories have been twisted to keep women obedient, subservient, and willing to sacrifice themselves to the patriarchy.  Agnes tells us that:

Up until that time I had not seriously doubted the rightness and especially the truthfulness of Gilead’s theology. If I’d failed at perfection, I’d concluded that the fault was mine. But as I discovered what had been changed by Gilead, what had been added, and what had been omitted, I feared I might lose my faith. [33]

Agnes has come to realize “everyone at the top of Gilead has lied to us,” and that, as is typical of authoritarian regimes,:

Bearing false witness was not the exception, it was common. Beneath its outer show of virtue and purity, Gilead was rotting. [34]

Sometime later, Agnes comes face-to-face with another startling revelation. She discovers that her birth mother is a runaway handmaid suspected of working with the resistance in Canada. Consistent with Jordan Stanley’s observation about life experiences being etched in our bones, this information triggers the memory of when Agnes was torn from her mother’s arms as they were running through the forest in an attempt to escape Gilead.

The Gilead wife who raised Agnes transformed this harrowing experience into a nightly fairy tale about how they had been running through the forest after she rescued Agnes from a wicked witch. [35] Agnes puts two-and-two together, as the saying goes. She realizes that, like the Bible passages fed to her on a daily basis, her own story had been twisted for Gilead’s purposes.

The kicker is…   that the document Agnes is now able to read – one that only Aunt Lydia could have slipped onto her desk – reveals that her mother had a second child, one who had been smuggled into Canada as an infant. And, that child is Baby Nicole.

Baby Nicole has become a propaganda tool for the people of Gilead to rally around:

Baby Nicole, whom we prayed for on every solemn occasion at Ardua Hall [where Aunts are trained]. Baby Nicole, whose sunny cherubic face appeared on Gilead television so often as a symbol of the unfairness being shown to Gilead on the international stage. Baby Nicole, who was practically a saint and martyr, and was certainly an icon. [36] 

When Agnes discovers that Baby Nicole is her sister, the proverbial lightbulb flickers on, and she begins to comprehend “the deplorable degree of corruption” within the totalitarian regime that has taken over the United States of America. [37] Any blind obedience she may have felt to The Republic of Gilead is stripped away. She comes to understand that, if the country she loves is to be saved, action must be taken to bring Gilead in line with what it purports to stand for.

At this point, it should be apparent that the source of the third testimony, the Canadian teenager named Daisy, is none other than Baby Nicole. Significantly, Atwood chose the name Nicole because it means “Victory of the people.” [38] And she is, indeed, the lynchpin in events that lead to Gilead’s fall.

The Testaments is defined by action

While The Handmaid’s Tale is about Offred’s powerlessness and passivity, The Testaments revolves around action. As established above, this action is born of the ability to read and have access to information. And, it’s prompted by revealed deceptions and restored history.

It should come as no surprise that this regime-ending action revolves around Aunt Lydia, Agnes, and Daisy/Baby Nicole. Or that, as in many other works about the fall of totalitarian regimes, resistance organizations, undercover operatives, and the exposure of sensitive secrets are all involved.

Needless to say, Henry Ward Beecher was right, knowledge is explosive – when information about the multitude of crimes among Gilead’s top brass was released, this authoritarian regime begins to crumble. In true totalitarian fashion, what was left of Gilead still tried to control the word. They insisted that the repressed information Aunt Lydia had been compiling which was being released by Canadian media, was all “fake news.” [39]

Despite Aunt Lydia’s role in perpetuating Gilead’s abuse – or perhaps because of it – there’s a lesson we can learn from her. At the close of her hand-written manuscript, she addresses a future reader, acknowledging the possibilities for what will become of the pages she’s written.

The prospects are consistent with the way we currently treat works of literature. We’ll either view them as a treasure, “to be opened with utmost care.”  Or we’ll tear them apart, maybe burn them, as Lydia notes,  “that often happens to words.” [40]

This future reader may also read Aunt Lydia’s testimony, wondering how she could have “behaved so badly, so cruelly, so stupidly,” and she wouldn’t be astonished if that is the case. [41] What Aunt Lydia hopes, however, is that the future reader will be a student of history, and:

Make something useful of [Aunt Lydia]: a warts-and-all portrait, a definitive account of [her] life and times, suitably footnoted. [42]

Aunt Lydia’s lesson is that she advocates for a complete and accurate history to be told about Gilead, even though it comes at her expense. Regrettably, book banners in the U.S. restrict information about the hard truths in American history rather than make something useful of them.

We all have a choice to make when it comes to book banning and the creeping totalitarianism it indicates. It’s the same choice Offred faced as she contemplated the message carved in the closet by the handmaid assigned to this Commander before her:

I could just sit here, peacefully. I could withdraw. It’s possible to go so far in, so far down and back, they could never get you out.

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. [Which means don’t let the bastards grind you down.] Fat lot of good it did her.

Why fight?” [43]

Offred’s answer after considering the possibility of not fighting…  “That will never do.” [44]

Row! Row for your life!

Margaret Atwood used the following quote from Ursula K Le Guin as an epigram for The Testaments. It picks up where Offred’s contemplation above leaves off:

Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. [45]

Le Guin’s quote is embodied in the last leg of the clandestine operation that ultimately brings Gilead down. Agnes and Nicole are in a rowboat, struggling to make it to the shore where resistance operators are expecting them. Given that the tide is against them, Agnes is understandably worried that they’re so far out they’ll be swept away.

Their situation functions as a metaphor for a nation being swept away by creeping totalitarianism. And, Nicole’s response to Agnes sums things up perfectly:

No we won’t. Not if you try. Now, go! And, go! That’s it! Go! Go! Go!…  Row! Row for your life! [46]

It goes without saying that the two make it to shore and are scooped up by the resistance agents waiting there. The cache of information they are carrying is successfully delivered. And the rest as they say is history, one that is complete, accurate, and available to learn from.

Atwood’s addition of “Historical Notes” is an optimistic indication that Gilead did indeed fall. But, it’s also a cautionary tale. Because Professor Pieixoto’s misogynistic remarks make it abundantly clear that the seeds of what spawned Gilead are still present, and that the fight to keep it at bay is ongoing and constant.

And, that doesn’t simply apply to women’s issues, or to the fictional Republic of Gilead. It applies to democracy generally. So, don’t let book banning keep you or your student from reading books that help us understand our history, the people in our community, or how our government is intended to work.

Make sure stories like these get told. Knowing our history and understanding those whose lives are different than our own has the power to break down the “us vs them” environment authoritarian regimes thrive on. [47]  And if we know how our government is intended to work, we can see when its institutions are being disregarded or dismantled for authoritarian purposes.

As Senator Cory Booker urges us:

Don’t let your inability to do everything undermine your determination to do something. Progress starts with a single step forward. [48]

So, fire up family reading nights and feature banned books. Visit the public library with your student and check out the books your district has removed from its curriculums or library shelves. Organize a banned book club for your teens.

Heed Nicole’s call to action, “Row. Row for your life!” Which in this case means, Read, Read, Read! As Henry Ward Beecher told us, and Margaret Atwood has shown us, knowledge is power…  to keep freedom alive and our democracy strong, or to blow false, authoritarian regimes to atoms — whichever one is called for.
.

That’s my take on The Handmaid’s Tale — What’s yours?
Check out this Discussion Guide to get you started.

And, here are a couple of resources for
learning about American history:

Teaching American History

Bill of Rights Institute

Endnotes:

[1] Taneja, Sehr. “These Were the Most Commonly Banned Books in America in 2021.” Katie Couric Media. August 12, 2022.
https://katiecouric.com/entertainment/book-guide/most-banned-books-america/

[2] Bickford, Donna M. Understanding Margaret Atwood. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2023. Pg 24.

[3] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 307.

[4] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments.  New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 64.

[5] Thomas, P. L. “Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments: Reading and Writing Beyond Gilead.” Radical Scholarship.com https://radicalscholarship.com/2019/10/07/margaret-atwoods-the-testaments-reading-and-writing-beyond-gilead/

[6] Missouri House Bill No. 2044. https://house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills201/hlrbillspdf/4634H.01I.pdf

[7] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 84.

[8] Stanley, Jason. Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. New York: One Signal Publishers, 2024. Pg xi-xii.

[9] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 14.

[10] Renfro, Kim. “Margaret Atwood has a small but violent cameo in ‘the Handmaid’s Tale’ premiere.” Business Insider.  April 27, 2017. https://www.businessinsider.com/handmaids-tale-margaret-atwood-cameo-pilot-2017-4?op=1

[11] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 117.

[12] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 117.

[13] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 117.

[14] Stanley, Jason. Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. New York: One Signal Publishers, 2024. Pg xii.

[15] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments.  New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 19, 154.

[16] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments.  New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 154.

[17] Stanley, Jason. Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. New York: One Signal Publishers, 2024. Pg xx-xxi.

[18] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 184

[19] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 155-156.

[20] Schwartz, Sarah. Reading Scores Fall to New Low on NAEP, Fueled by Declines for Struggling Students. January 29, 2025. EducationWeek.
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/reading-scores-fall-to-new-low-on-naep-fueled-by-declines-for-struggling-students/2025/01

[21] Adam Tyner and Sarah Kabourek. Social Education 85 (1), pp 32-39.

[22] National Council for the Social Studies. https://www.socialstudies.org/about/definition-social-studies

[23] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 275.

[24] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments.  New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 282.

[25] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 89.

[26] Bickford, Donna M. Understanding Margaret Atwood. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2023. Pg 24.

David S. Hogsette (1997) Margaret Atwood’s Rhetorical Epilogue in The Handmaid’s Tale: The Reader’s Role in Empowering Offred’s Speech Act, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 38:4, 262-278. Pg 263.

[27] Stanley, Jason. Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. New York: One Signal Publishers, 2024. Pg xii.

[28] Bickford, Donna M. Understanding Margaret Atwood.  Columbia, South Carolina:The University of South Carolina Press, 2023. Pg 25

David S. Hogsette (1997) Margaret Atwood’s Rhetorical Epilogue in The Handmaid’s Tale: The Reader’s Role in Empowering Offred’s Speech Act, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 38:4, 262-278. Pg 264.

[29 ]Natanson, Hannah. “Objections to sexual, LGBT, content propels spike in book challenges.” The Washington Post. June 9, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/23/lgbtq-book-ban-challengers/

[30] Stanley, Jason. How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. New York: Random House, 2020.

[31] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 39.

[32] Beecher, Henry Ward. “Anti-Slavery Lectures,” The New York Times, January 17, 1855.
https://www.nytimes.com/1855/01/17/archives/antislavery-lectures.html

[33] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 272.

[34] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 276.

[35] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 19.

[36] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 295.

[37] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 301

[38] Gilbert, Sophie. “The Challenge of Margaret Atwood.” The Atlantic. September 5, 2019.

[39] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 349

[40] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 355

[41] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 355

[42] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 355

[43] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 225

[44] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.  New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Pg 225

[45] Le Guin, Ursula. In Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 11.

[46] Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. New York: Vintage Books, 2019. Pg 340

[47] Stanley, Jason. How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. New York: Random House, 2020.

[48] Senator Cory Booker. Facebook. October 21, 2020.

Images:

Whoever controls the word maintains power: Photo by Biao Yu on Unsplash

Fascism erases history:  Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Lack of information is part of the nightmare: Photo by Valentin Fernandez on Unsplash

Social and political dimensions of the ability to read:  Photo by Artem Balashevsky on Unsplash

The power of storytelling: Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

A trio of narratives:  Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

The Testaments is defined by action: Original photo by unknown author. Reproduction from public documentation/memorial by Lear 21 at English Wikipedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

In conclusion:  Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

Book bans are an effective weapon
to divide & conquer

Book bans are an effective weapon in the arsenal of those who would benefit from division. Because, as Salman Rushdie observes:

Great writing makes a great noise in the mind, the heart.[3]

Literature gives us insight into people whose lives are different from our own. Books help us understand one another.

In doing so, they have the ability to cultivate a community of common interest.  The result?  We become resistant to the divide and conquer strategy we see so much of these days.

A dearth of understanding, and lack of common community interest, makes it easier for the seeds of division to take root. That’s why books that focus on diversity and inclusion are being targeted. To say nothing of the countless diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) endeavors being purged these days.

When divisive rhetoric is used – like describing a particular group of people as “vermin,” characterizing them as illegitimate, or portraying them as enemies – it’s always important to ask yourself who’s going to benefit from your animosity toward the targeted group.

As Octavia Butler admonishes us in The Parable of the Sower:

Embrace diversity.

Unite —

Or be divided,

robbed,

ruled,

killed.

By those who see you as prey.

Embrace diversity

Or be destroyed.[4]

We aren’t born with prejudices. They’re made for us, manufactured by someone who stands to profit from the division.

In the example above, it was the wealthy plantation owners who prospered. So…  who’s benefitting from our division these days. Someone’s going to get something out of it, and it sure isn’t going to be any of us.

Restricting Information:
Companion of Divide & Conquer

Companion of the tried-and-true divide & conquer strategy is the restriction of  information. And again, we’ve seen this tactic before. As abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher observed, in the antebellum south:

Slaveholders realized that allowing non-slaveholders access to information would disrupt their own fortunes, and thus imposed a strict system of censorship throughout the region.[5]

Beecher put the situation (both then and now) in a nutshell. He pointed out that ignorance (that is, lacking particular knowledge) can become an institution, one that can be legislated. With this in mind, consider the fact that legislation exists censoring K-12 curriculum in Florida, Indiana, South Carolina, Connecticut, and Texas just to name a few.

Fifty educational gag orders have been introduced in 16 different states as of February, 2023. One topic these bills prohibit teachers from addressing is sexual orientation and/or gender. These laws also proscribe teaching about race, racism, and difficult aspects of American history like native American boarding schools.[6]

The impact of legislation like this is that students are ignorant of events that took place in our country. That makes it impossible to know when elected officials (or those campaigning for office) are making distorted claims and re-writing history, spinning it for their gain.

The result of this tactic? We’re rendered docile. Because we don’t have enough information to see through their baloney and challenge it.

Author Margaret Atwood alerts us to the dangers of this scenario:

I had thought America was against totalitarianisms. If so, surely it is important for young people to be able to recognize the signs of them. One of those signs is book-banning. Need I say more?[7]

No. She doesn’t need to say more.

A sign of encroaching Authoritarianism

Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison hit the proverbial nail on the head when she pointed out:

Authoritarian regimes, dictators, despots are often, but not always, fools. But none is foolish enough to give perceptive, dissident writers free range to publish their judgments or follow their creative instincts. [8]

Because doing so would allow authors’ works to nurture the common community interest that would keep such authoritarian regimes from gaining traction.

Morrison went on to say:

The historical suppression of writers is the earliest harbinger of the steady away of additional rights and liberties that will follow. [9]

Bearing the repeal of Row v Wade in mind, and the increase in restrictive voting laws, not to mention the elimination of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Morrison’s observation appears to be terrifyingly spot on.[10]

This machine kills fascists

As a reminder of the power that words and music have against political ills, Woody Guthrie (you know, the guy who wrote This Land is Your Land) affixed a message on his guitar during World War II that said, This machine kills fascists.

Guthrie’s guitar was a fascist busting machine because, as Woody points out:

The song I sing will kill some old ideas. [11]

Books are fascist busters too. In an essay addressing the political use of language, George Orwell himself stated:

Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. [12]

And, in response to the question of why he writes, Orwell answered:

I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. [13]

And, this is why books are fascist busters. Reading books with diverse characters lets us see through the lies designed to divide us. It enables us to recognize each other as people. It makes us aware that we have more in common than we are different. As a result, reading diverse books goes a long way towards cultivating common community interest.

And when that happens, we become resistant to the divide & conquer strategy typically employed by authoritarian types. But how do we resist when authoritarian tendencies have already gained traction in our society?

As Henry Ward Beecher significantly noted:

…knowledge is not only power… but powder also, liable to blow false institutions to atoms.[14]

And remember this sage advice from famed anthropologist Margaret Mead:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.[15]

With that pearl of wisdom in mind, here are a few deep dives into books that address this very situation — works that nurture democracy, or show the impact reading and diverse literature can have in deflecting authoritarianism.

Be sure to check out our take on these fascist busting books. Read the works in their entirety. And arm yourself against the divide & conquer strategy so often used by authoritarian types.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Fahrenheit 451

Leaves of Grass

The Giver

Endnotes:

[1] O’ Tuama, Padraig. Public Lecture. John Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. March 3, 2025.

[2] Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc, 2005. Pg 327-328.

[3] Rushdie, Salman. “Notes on Writing and the Nation.” Burn This Book. New York: Harper, 2009. Pg 80.

[4] Butler, Octavia. The Parable of the Sower.  London: Headline Publishing Group, 2019.Pg 185.

[5] Beecher, Henry Ward. “Anti-Slavery Lectures,” The New York Times, January 17, 1855.

[6] Jonathan Friedman, Jeffrey Adam Sachs, Jeremy C. Young, Samantha LaFrance. “Educational Censorship Continues: The 2023 Legislative Sessions So Far.” Pen America. https://pen.org/educational-censorship-continues-in-2023/

[7] Taneja, Sehr. “These Were the Most Commonly Banned Books in America in 2021.” Katie Couric Media. August 12, 2022.
https://katiecouric.com/entertainment/book-guide/most-banned-books-america/

[8] Morrison, Toni. “Peril.” Burn This Book. New York: Harper, 2009. Pg 1.

[9] Morrison, Toni. “Peril.” Burn This Book. New York: Harper, 2009. Pg 1.

[10] Dobs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022). National Constitution Center. https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/supreme-court-case-library/dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization

Christina A. Cassidy and Ayanna Alexander. “Supreme Court tossed out heart of Voting Rights Act a decade ago, prompting wave of new voting rules.” Washington News via Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-act-supreme-court-black-voters-6f840911e360c44fd2e4947cc743baa2

Press Release. “U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden’s Book Ban Hoax.” U.S. Department of Education. January 24, 2025.

[11] Woody Guthrie Center.

[12] Orwell, George. Why I Write. New York: Penguin – Great Ideas, 2005. Cover.

[13] Orwell, George. “Why I Write.” Why I Write. New York: Penguin – Great Ideas, 2005. Pg 8.

[14] Beecher, Henry Ward. “Anti-Slavery Lectures,” The New York Times, January 17, 1855.

[15] National Museum of American History. Smithsonian. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1285394

Images:

Fascist Busters:Photo by Priscilla Du Preeze on Unsplash.com

Book Bans are an Effective Weapon: compiled from images by annie-spratt on unsplash.com, and john salvino 0n unsplash.com

Restricting Information: Photo by 2y.kang on Unsplash

A Sign of Encroaching Authoritarianism: Mussolini and fasces symbol

This Machine Kills Fascists: Public Domain. This image is available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c30859.

#Banned Books       #On Censorship      #Celebrations      #Right to Read Day

Endnotes:

[1] Eugenios, Jillian. “The next chapter in record U.S. book bans? ‘Soft censorship.’” NBC News. September 27, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/soft-book-bans-censorship-lgbtq-race-rcna172855

L
aurie Halse Anderson’s Speak has faced controversy for decades due to its portrayal of sexual assault. Some critics have mischaracterized its content as “soft pornography” or “political propaganda,” particularly in states like Missouri, Nebraska, and Florida. By 2021, accusations arose that Speak was anti-male and would encourage harmful behaviors, such as increasing abortion rates. Despite these challenges, Speak is ultimately about survivorship, giving voice to those silenced by trauma—particularly its protagonist, Melinda, who struggles to reclaim her identity after experiencing sexual assault. Far from being a political statement or anti-male, Anderson’s work is deeply personal, exploring the emotional aftermath of violence.

In 2019, Anderson took her fight against censorship to the next level by publishing Shout, a memoir that confronts issues of sexual assault, silencing, and the #MeToo movement head-on. While Shout takes place in a more contemporary social context, it shares many thematic similarities with Speak in its exploration of survivorship, trauma, and the power of breaking silence. Just like Speak, Shout has also faced challenges and bans, despite its relevance to ongoing cultural conversations about sexual violence and the imperative for survivors to speak up. Anderson’s choice to confront such difficult material in both novels reflects her dedication to challenging the culture of silence that so often surrounds sexual assault, especially in young adult literature. To this day, she is still fighting censorship, showing up at school boards, going on interviews such as NPR, and her own digital activism.

“Soft Pornography” Accusation

 The argument that Speak promotes “soft pornography” primarily stems from the depiction of Melinda’s sexual assault. Some critics, particularly in conservative regions like Missouri and Nebraska, misinterpret the scene as inappropriate sexual content. However, this view fails to recognize the scene’s purpose: Speak portrays the trauma of the assault through Melinda’s perspective, focusing on her emotional and psychological aftermath rather than any graphic details. Anderson’s careful treatment of the subject focuses on the consequences of the violence, not the violence itself.

Fundamentally, literature is a space for discussing difficult but necessary topics, especially for young readers who may be experiencing similar trauma. Removing such books due to discomfort over subject matter can rob adolescents of an opportunity to find validation in their own experiences. Rather than exploitative, Speak presents the sexual assault as an integral part of Melinda’s journey to reclaim her voice and identity, making it more about recovery than shock value. Dismissing it as “pornography” silences important conversations about consent, trauma, and healing.

“Political Propaganda” Accusation

After 2021, as debates around Speak continued, another criticism surfaced—Speak was labeled “political propaganda,” with some accusing it of promoting anti-male sentiments. Critics claimed that the novel could lead to an increase in abortion rates or misrepresent men, framing them all as potential aggressors. This type of accusation stems from the novel’s critique of rape culture, which examines how societal norms perpetuate the silence around sexual violence. Rather than targeting men specifically, Speak focuses on the systems that allow violence to persist by silencing survivors, reinforcing that both men and women can play roles in supporting or dismantling these systems.

Far from being anti-male, Speak critiques systems of power that allow violence to flourish, and this critique is essential for all genders. Rape culture is a societal issue, not a gendered one. Both men and women can be affected by these harmful systems, and literature like Speak creates space for deeper conversations about how these structures work. Moreover, sexual assault affects all genders. For instance, studies show that 1 in 6 men have experienced sexual abuse or sexual assault. This statistic underscores that sexual violence is not solely a women’s issue. This makes Speak even more relevant for young readers who need to understand that survivorship is not limited to one gender.

Importance of Breaking the Silence

At its core, Anderson’s work, including her memoir Shout, is about breaking the silence surrounding sexual violence. Her anger over the continued silencing of survivors drove her to write Shout, published 20 years after Speak. Shout came out amid the rise of the #MeToo movement, founded by Tarana Burke in 2006 and gaining global attention in 2017, further highlighting the urgency of addressing sexual violence in society. Another study shows forty percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to police in 2017, but only about 25% were reported to police in 2018.” The book is a raw reflection of Anderson’s own experiences and frustrations with the lack of progress, adding a deeply personal dimension to the broader social critique.

While Speak fictionalizes Melinda’s experience, Shout serves as Anderson’s direct contribution to the #MeToo movement, amplifying survivors’ voices and advocating for accountability. The banning of these books—whether due to accusations of “political agendas” or “inappropriate content”—only reinforces the culture of silence that Anderson and #MeToo aim to dismantle.

Conclusion

Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak and Shout remain essential works for addressing sexual violence, despite accusations of being “soft pornography” or “political propaganda.” These claims distract from the novels’ fundamental purpose: to foster dialogue about survivorship, healing, and dismantling rape culture. Whether exploring Melinda’s fictionalized experience in Speak or Anderson’s own story in Shout, these books encourage readers to confront uncomfortable truths and break the silence that enables sexual violence to persist. Rather than banning these works, educators and readers alike should recognize their importance in creating empathy, awareness, and social change.

This is the fundamental reason I have written this essay. As a young male sexual assault survivor, when I encountered this book, I was able to learn that I wasn’t alone. As I read this book in middle school, I learned the vocabulary of what had happened to me. I had gotten sexually abused and assaulted, and it began a hard and arduous process of reconciling what had happened to me. I have to thank Melinda and Laurie Halse Anderson for this. I may have never been able to reclaim my voice, and start speaking if not for this book.

As book bans have drastically risen, Speak and Shout, are almost always on the list. Book banning, especially in the context of young adult literature, can have far-reaching consequences. By removing these books from schools and libraries, those most in need of support are denied access to stories that could help them process their own experiences. The very act of banning Speak reinforces the culture of silence that Anderson’s work seeks to dismantle.

This personal connection is why book bans are so damaging. For every survivor like me who found solace in Speak, there are countless others who might never have the chance if these books continue to be censored. The rise in book bans not only targets works about sexual assault but also restricts access to critical stories about race, gender, and identity. This wave of censorship disproportionately affects marginalized communities, whose stories are often deemed too controversial or political for public consumption. These works are vital not only for their literary merit but also for the crucial role they play in fostering empathy, understanding, and social change. As book bans continue to rise, it is more important than ever to defend the right to access literature that challenges the status quo and empowers survivors. Anderson’s work offers a powerful reminder that silence is not the solution—and that speaking out is an act of resistance and healing.

By banning these books, we are not protecting young readers; we are denying them the chance to learn, grow, and find the strength to reclaim their own voices.

Essayist bio:

David Win is an undergraduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, predominantly working in the non-profit and advocacy space. He states, “in this space I come as a survivor and book lover.”

#Banned Books    #On Censorship   #Benefits of Humanities

Images:

“Soft Pornography” Accusation: Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

“Political Propaganda” Accusation:  Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

Importance of Breaking the Silence:  Photo by Johannes Krupinski on Unsplash

Conclusion:  Photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash

A
nd so it begins…  as of January 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has rescinded all guidance indicating that school districts’ implementation of book bans could violate civil rights laws.

The agency has also eliminated President Biden’s recently-created position of book ban coordinator.[1] Responsibilities of this now-abolished post entailed the development of training for schools regarding how book bans that target specific communities conceivably run counter to federal civil rights laws – specifically Title VI and Title IX of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.[2]

Title VI and Title IX are foundational civil rights laws. And, they were enacted to ensure that students are free from discrimination in educational settings.

Title VI:

It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.[3] Note that, unlike Title IX, Title VI’s protections are not limited to “education” programs and activities.[4]

Title IX:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance…  Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination “on the basis of sex” includes discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.[5]

Congress consciously modeled Title IX on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[6] And, together these laws are consequential tools aimed at ensuring that schools remain places where every student can learn and thrive without fear of harassment or exclusion.

A Case Study in
How the System Used to Work

An investigation by the OCR into the removal of books featuring LGBTQ+ and racial minority characters at Forsyth County Schools in Georgia serves as a case study for how the now-dismantled system worked.

First, it’s important to note that a significant number of the books recently removed from school and library shelves were challenged on the basis of containing LGBTQ+ themes or because they address race and racism.

More than half of attempted book bans over the past several years were works containing LGBTQ+ themes and content. Forty percent were books that revolve around protagonists or secondary characters of color. And 21% of those challenged address issues of race or racism. [7]

The OCR found that removing books featuring LGBTQ+ and racial minority characters created a hostile environment for students. During this probe, LGBTQ+ students and their families reported fear over losing a sense of safety because their school environment became “more harsh,” that is to say abusive, “in the aftermath of the book removals.”[8]

In the same report, students of color indicated that eliminating books with diverse characters made it difficult to see themselves represented in their school libraries. Lack of representation isn’t simply a matter of not getting enough attention. Rendering a population invisible within society effectively silences minority voices.[9]

The OCR ultimately concluded that the book bans, combined with lack of communication throughout the challenge process, as well as ongoing discourse from district leadership about LGBTQ and racial issues, constituted a violation of the students’ civil rights.[10]

The complaint was ultimately settled with a resolution agreement between the Forsyth County School District and the OCR. Among other things, the resolution lays the foundation for improved communication between all parties involved.

But more importantly, it establishes a process for improving school climate and addressing “harassment based on sex, race, color or national origin.”[11]  And ultimately, this resolution agreement deters the violation of students’ civil rights.

Such investigations
will no longer be happening.

 Rather than addressing such documented harms, the Department of Education under the Trump Administration has rescinded all department guidance pertaining to book bans and how removing books from school libraries could violate students’ civil rights.

And they didn’t waste any time doing it – the process was set in motion on Inauguration Day. Not only that… as we speak, the Trump administration is drafting an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education entirely.[12]

Trump’s OCR has dismissed the 17 cases heretofore under investigation, stating it was ending “Biden’s book ban hoax.”[13]

But, book bans in United States’ public school classrooms and libraries are anything but a hoax. The free expression advocacy group Pen America has tracked nearly 16,000 book ban attempts in public schools across the nation since 2021.[14]

Why is the Department of Education
no longer taking on book bans?

Why has the Office for Civil Rights been stripped of its ability to hold districts accountable for these actions? Why isn’t it addressing censorship – which silences students and impedes their access to education – a priority for this administration?

Why is the Trump administration preparing to dismantle the Department of Education – whose mission is to “promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access” – altogether?[15]

Suppressing access to information is a tactic that’s been used before in this country. As pointed out by Henry Ward Beecher, the slave-holding class in the antebellum south “realized that allowing non-slaveholders access to information would disrupt their own fortunes, and thus imposed a strict system of censorship throughout the region.”[16]

Beecher also noted that schoolbooks containing accurate material about the evils of slavery “were expunged” because it’s understood that “youthful impressions [are] the most lasting.”[17]

We see this tactic being employed again today. Confirmed by the fact that 16% of books banned in recent years are history books or biographies.[18]

Beecher put the situation, both then and now, in a nutshell with his statement that ignorance (that is… lacking information or particular knowledge) can become an institution, one that can be legislated. Sound familiar?

As he also pointed out:

Knowledge is not only power… but powder also, liable to blow false institutions to atoms.[19]

It seems we have our answer as to why the current Office of Civil Rights is no longer taking on book bans and censorship. Especially when considered in light of the fact that 10% of books recently banned in American school districts contained themes of rights and activism. It’s because, as Beecher noted and we learned from Schoolhouse Rock, knowledge is power.[20]

What’s the purported motive
for these recent actions?  

The OCR’s press release cites “fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education” as the motive behind these recent actions.[21]

There’s no question that parents deserve a say in shaping their children’s education, especially when it comes to matters revolving around their moral and religious beliefs. But, parents already have that right.

Parents’ legal right “to control the education of their own” pupils was established by the Supreme Court in 1923 with the case Meyer v Nebraska.[22]

Ironically, Meyer v Nebraska revolves around the state of Nebraska’s ban (and yes, that is the word used in the judicial opinion) on forms of education pertaining to marginalized groups.  In this case, the immigrant population generally was targeted, and those of German heritage in particular – in an effort to “foster a homogeneous people.”[23]

The irony lies in the fact that the ruling which establishes the right Trump’s Department of Education purports to be upholding when books with LGBTQ+ themes or discussions of racism are banned, actually finds that restricting education for and about such minority populations is unconstitutional.

Be that as it may…   the right “to control the education of their own” students has long been exercised by parents who have objected to some of the material their children read or view. [24] And, there are ways to do it without trampling on the rights of others. But the day when that conversation was relevant has unfortunately passed.

The fact of the matter is, in its current configuration the Department of Education is no longer in the business of ensuring students’ access to information which, needless to say, is the foundation of a well-rounded education.

What can we do about it?

 What can we do about it? As children’s writer James Howe points out:

Banning books is just another form of bullying. It’s all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power.[25]

Needless to say, we should make our voices heard at PTA and school board meetings, especially those of our students – whose right to education and information is being infringed upon. Vote in local elections. Run for your local school board.

These actions are important undertakings to be sure. But not everyone has the resources to run for a seat on their school board. That’s what book banners are counting on, as evinced by the recent influx of political money into those elections.

But there’s a “work-around” as it were to ensure your child’s access to information and the well-rounded education they have a right to. And that is to turn the parental rights book banners invoke on its head. Ex-school teacher Stephen King nails it as the expression goes with his advice to:

…run, don’t walk, to the nearest non-school library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your [student’s] eyes and your [student’s] brain, because that’s exactly what [they] need to know…   controversy and surprise – sometimes even shock – are often the whetstone on which young minds are sharpened.[26]

Deny book banners the power to control and impoverish your student’s education. Take the bull by the proverbial horns. Fire up family reading nights and feature banned books. Visit the public library with your student and check out the books your district has removed from its classrooms or library shelves. Organize a banned book club for your teens.

Any book worth banning
is a book worth reading.

As science fiction legend Isaac Asimov so astutely put it, “any book worth banning is a book worth reading.”[27] Studies show that when allowed to read books with difficult or “disturbing” subject matter, students who previously read little or nothing “started reading like crazy,” both in and out of school.[28]

Not surprisingly these students’ reading achievement improved. That’s no small consideration, given that the most recent reading scores on “the nation’s report card” (for 2024) have plummeted to a historic low.[29]

We’re undoubtedly still playing catch-up from the Covid pandemic. Both math and reading scores are still below pre-pandemic levels. But it’s significant to note that only the reading scores have dropped since the previous assessment period.

Why the disparity?  Well…  when we ban books, we tie one arm behind educators’ backs, because they have fewer resources at their disposal to help teach our kids to read at a proficient level. Moreover, a diverse library is one of the best – if not the best – tool in a teacher’s arsenal.

A recent survey of educators from all 50 states found that when diverse books are added to classroom libraries, student reading time increased by 4 hours per week on average. As a result, students’ reading scores increased to three points higher (+9) than the national expected average yearly gains. The lowest scoring students made the greatest gains (+11).

Teachers in this survey indicate that for every additional bilingual book added to their classroom library, their students’ reading assessment scores increased by seven points on average.

They further stated that for every additional LGBTQ+ book added to their classroom library, their students’ reading assessment scores increased by 4.5 points on average. [30]

In addition to improved assessment scores, students in a study of middle-schoolers also report improved self-control, as well as  developing more, and stronger, friendships and family relationships. And, students report being “happier. Yes, happier.” [31] This, of course, is the polar opposite of the baloney banners spout to frighten parents into falling in line.

The bottom line…

Rather than succumbing to a policy of restricted information and diminished education, “control the education of your own” by making sure your students have access to books that are being removed from classroom and school library shelves. Reading the types of books targeted by these bans fosters critical thinking, trains perspective-taking, and engenders empathy.[32]

Not only are these skills that students are going to need in order to be whole, successful adults, they’re essential social skills for an informed citizenry in a democratic society. Let’s make sure the next generation of American citizens is equipped with them.

Be sure to take a look at our
“Fight Book Bans” segment.

Don’t miss our Case Study on
how to push back against book bans.

#Department of Education  #book bans
#state-sponsored censorship  #banned books

Endnotes:

[1] Press Release. “U.S. Department of Education Ends Bien’s Book Ban Hoax.” U.S. Department of Education. January 24, 2025.

Arundel, Kara. “Education Department rescinds Biden-era Book ban guidance.” Jan 24, 2025. K-12 Dive.com
https://www.k12dive.com/news/school-book-bans-Education-Department-civil-rights/738310/

[2] Merod, Anna. “Ed Dept to appoint coordinator to take on book bans nationwide.” June 8, 2023. K-12Dive.com
https://www.k12dive.com/news/education-department-coordinator-addressing-book-ban/652458/

[3] U.S. Department of Justice/ Civil Rights Division. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Overview of Title VI:  https://www.justice.gov/crt/fcs/TitleVI

EveryLibrary Objects to Trump Administration Calling Book Bans a Hoax. January 24, 2025.
https://www.everylibrary.org/trump_administration_ends_school_book_ban_consent_decree

[4] U.S. Department of Justice/ Civil Rights Division. Title IX. Title IX Legal Manual
 https://www.justice.gov/crt/title-ix

[5] U.S. Department of Justice/ Civil Rights Division. Title IX. Title IX Legal Manual.
https://www.justice.gov/crt/title-ix

[6] U.S. Department of Justice/ Civil Rights Division. Title IX. Title IX Legal Manual
https://www.justice.gov/crt/title-ix

EveryLibrary Objects to Trump Administration Calling Book Bans a Hoax. January 24, 2025. EveryLibrary.com
https://www.everylibrary.org/trump_administration_ends_school_book_ban_consent_decree

[7] Arkin, Daniel. “More than half of 2023’s most challenged books have LGBTQ themes.” April 11, 2024. NBCnews.com
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/banned-books-lgbtq-library-association-rcna146236

Heeter, Jonathan. “Three Facts and a Fiction: Challenging Books,” March 15, 2023. American University, Washington DC.
https://www.american.edu/news/au-three-facts-fiction-banned-books.cfm

[8] Landmark Civil Rights Agreement Over Book Bans in Forsyth County (GA) Schools. May 21, 2023. EveryLibrary.com https://www.everylibrary.org/landmark_school_book_ban_civil_rights

[9] EveryLibrary Objects to Trump Administration Calling Book Bans a Hoax. January 24, 2025.
https://www.everylibrary.org/trump_administration_ends_school_book_ban_consent_decree

Letter of Advisement to Forsyth County Schools Superintendent. United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Region IV.

[10] Landmark Civil Rights Agreement Over Book Bans in Forsyth County (GA) Schools. May 21, 2023. EveryLibrary.com https://www.everylibrary.org/landmark_school_book_ban_civil_rights

[11]  Resolution Agreement. Forsyth County Schools. Complaint No. 04-22-1281. United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights

Letter of Advisement to Forsyth County Schools Superintendent. United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Region IV.

[12] U.S. Department of Education. Press Release: U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden’s Book Ban Hoax. January 24, 2025.

Mason, Jeff. “Trump seeks executive order, cooperation with Congress to shut Education Department.” Reuters.com February 4, 2025.

[13] U.S. Department of Education. Press Release: U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden’s Book Ban Hoax. January 24, 2025.

[14] Alfonseca, Kiara. “Department of Education dismisses book ban complaints, ends guidance.” ABCNews 
https://abcnews.go.com/US/department-education-dismisses-book-ban-investigations-ends-guidance/story?id=118098825

[15] U.S. Department of Education. “Mission of the U.S. Department of Education.”
https://www.ed.gov/about/ed-overview/mission-of-the-us-department-of-education

[16]Beecher, Henry Ward. “Anti-Slavery Lectures,” The New York Times, January 17, 1855.
https://www.nytimes.com/1855/01/17/archives/antislavery-lectures.html

[17] Beecher, Henry Ward. “Anti-Slavery Lectures.” The New York Times. January 19, 1854.
https://www.nytimes.com/1854/01/19/archives/newyork-city-antislavery-lectures.html

[18] Book Banning, Curriculum Restrictions, and the Politicization of U.S. Schools Report. September 19, 2022.

[19]Beecher, Henry Ward. “Anti-Slavery Lectures,” The New York Times, January 17, 1855.
https://www.nytimes.com/1855/01/17/archives/antislavery-lectures.html

[20] O’Kane, Caitlin. “Over 1,600 books were banned in U.S. school districts in one year – and the number is increasing.” September 20, 2022. CBSnews.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/banned-books-list-increased-schools-ban-critical-race-theory-sexuality-pen-america-report/

[21] U.S. Department of Education. Press Release: U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden’s Book Ban Hoax. January 24, 2025.

[22] “Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923).” Justia U.S. Supreme Court.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/262/390/

[23] “Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923).” Justia U.S. Supreme Court.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/262/390/

[24] “Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923).” Justia U.S. Supreme Court.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/262/390/

[25] “Read Harder Challenge 2025.” Book Riot.
https://bookriot.com/support-banned-books-week-quotes-censorship/

[26] Stephen King Quotable Quote. Goodreads.

King, Stephen. “The Book-Banners: Adventure in Censorship is Stranger Than Fiction.”
https://stephenking.com/works/essay/book-banners-adventure-in-censorship-is-stranger-than-fiction.html

[27] Williamson, Rebecca. Let Freedom Read – Banned Books Week 2023. September 22, 2023. San Diego State University. https://library.sdsu.edu/features/banned-books

[28] Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston. “What Happens When Young People Actually read ‘Disturbing’ Books.” Teachers College Press blog. October 31, 2023.

[29] Schwartz, Sarah.“Reading Scores Fall to New Low on NAEP, Fueled by Declines for Struggling Students.” EducationWeek, January 29, 2025.  https://www.edweek.org/leadership/reading-scores-fall-to-new-low-on-naep-fueled-by-declines-for-struggling-students/2025/01

[230] The Impact of a Diverse Classroom Library. First Book Research & Insights. 2023.

[31] Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston. “What Happens When Young People Actually read ‘Disturbing’ Books.” Teachers College Press blog. October 31, 2023.

[32] The Ljubljana Reading Manifesto: Why higher-level reading is important. October 20, 2023. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.
https://www.ifla.org/news/ljubljana-manifesto-on-higher-level-reading-launched-at-frankfurter-buchmesse/

Images:

And so it begins…: Photo by Julia Joppien on Unsplash

A Case Study in how the system used to work:  Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Such investigations will no longer be happening: Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Why is the Office for Civil Rights under the Trump administration no longer addressing book bans:  Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

What’s the purported motive for these recent actions:  Photo by Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash

What Can We Do About it: Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

Any Book Worth Banning: Photo by Johnny McClung on Unsplash

The Bottom Line: Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Endnotes:

[1] Alberty, Erin. “Book banning activists target Little Free Libraries in Utah.” Axios Salt Lake City, Oct. 4, 2024. https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2024/10/04/book-ban-little-free-libraries-utah

R
ay Bradbury’s iconic dystopian work Fahrenheit 451 offers compelling insights into today’s epidemic of book banning. The progression of events within the text parallels how this scourge of book bans has unfolded. And, the predictive nature of Bradbury’s observations makes the correlations between them all the more captivating.

The work’s opening lines makes it immediately clear that we’re enmeshed in a nightmare scenario:

It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things
eaten, to see things blackened and changed.[1]

This opening passage continues with Montag – Bradbury’s fireman protagonist – holding the brass nozzle of a firehose in his fists:

With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.[2]

Given that firemen are civil service employees, combined with the fact that this work was originally published during the McCarthy era, it’s easy to see why Fahrenheit 451 is frequently considered a criticism of government censorship.

But, according to Bradbury himself, it isn’t. As Bradbury famously noted:

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.[3]

Bradbury was no fan of censorship, to be sure.  The scathing coda added to Fahrenheit 451 in 1979 makes that perfectly clear. But, the work itself is a study of how the dystopian society Montag lives in arrived at the point where the government inserted itself, and firemen no longer extinguish fires but set books ablaze.

Montag’s Enlightenment

On his way home from the book burning described in the opening passage, Montag meets a young woman named Clarisse McClellan, who turns out to be his new neighbor. Not surprisingly, Clarisse embodies the essence of her name – brightness, radiance, and brilliance.[4] And, it’s this encounter that sets Montag’s enlightenment and subsequent transformation in motion.

Cutting right through Montag’s mundane small talk, Clarisse gets directly to the point:

Have you ever watched the jet cars racing on the boulevards down that way?”

I sometimes think drivers don’t know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly,” she said. “If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! he’d say, that’s grass! A pink blur? That’s a rose-garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days. Isn’t that funny, and sad, too?”

You think too many things,” said Montag, uneasily.[5]

The point Clarisse makes revolves around people’s lack of attention to the world they live in, and the dearth of understanding such shallowness creates.

Clarisse’s remarks also apply to how we read

Clarisse’s observation parallels the way far too many of us read. The first thing we notice about a book is its plot. And who doesn’t enjoy reading about a couple guys on a cross-country rager (as in Kerouac’s On the Road), or a spooky old haunted mansion with an ancestral curse (a la Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables).

Hermann Hesse describes this type of reader as “naïve.”[6] They relate to books like a horse to its driver: the book leads, and the reader simply follows. The book’s substance is accepted without question.

There’s a world of difference, however, between knowing what a sentence says and what it means. Most people are naïve readers, who make their way through a book by simply processing the text on the page. They follow the dotted line from one plot point to the next and, by the end, walk away with a general grasp of what happened in the story – but nothing more. Their understanding of the book they just read is the equivalent of the “blur” experienced by the drivers of Bradbury’s jetcars.

Up until recently a significant number of book challenges stemmed, quite simply, from shallow reading. For example, early challenges to J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye came from parents who essentially charged that Holden Caulfield sets a bad example for teen-age readers, that teenagers shouldn’t behave like Holden does.[7]

What is ironic to the point of frustration is that, when engaged at a level beyond simple plot, it’s obvious that Salinger is actually making these parents’ point for them – this isn’t acceptable teenage behavior, to be sure. But clearly, none of the challengers has engaged the work at a level that prompts them to ask why Holden acts the way he does… or at an even deeper level that would elicit the question, “what is Salinger actually writing about?”

When read merely for plot, The Catcher in the Rye appears to be nothing more than the story of a teenage boy having trouble transitioning to adulthood. However, the inappropriate behavior Holden Caulfield engages in and the way he expresses himself have a rhetorical purpose. When read accordingly, it becomes apparent that these behaviors are a response to the shifting societal landscape Salinger sees in postwar America.

Holden is grappling with the same kinds of questions the challengers’ own children are facing. Holden Caulfield is not, in fact, intended to be a role model. When the reader sees the proverbial blades of grass, individual roses in the garden, and actual cows rather than blurs of color, it is clear that Salinger’s work is about much more than the antics of a rebellious teenager.

What does Clarisse’s uncle have to do
with standardized testing in schools?

Clarisse’s anecdote about her uncle being jailed for driving slowly parallels the way standardized testing in schools obliges educators to focus on reading comprehension skills rather than knowledge-building, or critical thinking.[8]

It’s interesting to note that Montag’s response to Clarisse’s pairing of observations about experiencing the world at a cursory level with a story referring to consequences resulting from slowing down and fully engaging is, “You think too many things.”[9]

Clarisse also points out that Montag consistently gives pat, unconsidered responses to her questions – “you never stop to think what I’ve asked you.”[10]

It’s a thought-provoking exchange. Because, as educator Randi Weingarten points out:

Standardized testing is at cross purposes with many of the most important purposes of public education. It doesn’t measure big-picture learning, critical thinking, perseverance, problem solving, creativity or curiosity…[11]

Social studies curriculum professor, Lisa Gilbert’s comment continues this line of thinking:

What policymakers in many states also fail to understand, is how much standardized testing has shifted our students toward the need to feel certain about things — whereas our lives in this world are filled with ambiguity. [12]

And, literature reflects this ambiguity. But, teaching for standardized testing conditions readers to overlook the bulk of a work, which as with icebergs lies beneath the surface. So, important considerations about a book – like historical context, the author’s life experience, or how the meaning of words and phrases can change – get missed.

Such cursory engagement leaves students with empty husks of the books they’re reading. They may know what the book in question says, but are left not understanding what it means. How it addresses the ambiguity of life. What it actually has to say. Which in turn, perpetuates the type of book challenge mentioned above, one that is the product of shallow reading habits.

The Rise in Disregard for the Humanities.

Not too long after Montag’s encounter with Clarisse, it becomes apparent to the chief of his station that something is amiss with him. So, in an effort to get Montag back in line, Captain Beatty dresses him down with a lecture on the history of their profession.

At one point during Captain Beatty’s admonition, Montag inquires about Clarisse and her disappearance. And, Beatty’s response reflects the rapid rise in disregard for the Humanities.

His rejoinder to Montag’s inquiry is “you can’t rid yourselves of all the odd ducks in just a few years.” Beatty sees Clarisse as a dangerous “odd duck” because “she didn’t want to know how a thing was done, but why.” [13] 

As Beatty states, he knows how to nip independent thought like Clarisse’s in the bud:

You can’t build a house without nails and wood. If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. [14] 

And, the nails and wood Beatty is referring to are an education that fosters critical thinking. Beatty’s recipe for thwarting independent thought like Clarisse exhibited?

Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely `brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with.
 [15] 

And we’ve seen this attitude reflected in the number of Arts programs that have been slashed, the number of Liberal Arts colleges that have shuttered, and the decline in Humanities degrees conferred generally.[16]

No Child Left Behind and the Common Core State Standards have pushed k-12 educators to prioritize science and math over other subjects.
[17] 

According to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Humanities’ share of bachelor’s degrees conferred is at its smallest number since a complete accounting of Humanities degrees first became possible, in 1987.
[18]

Though it seems paradoxical, even Albert Einstein championed a liberal arts education, advocating that it – rather than the acquisition of special knowledge –  be at the forefront of education.  Einstein sums up this contention by asserting that those whose education is limited to specialized knowledge “more closely resemble a well-trained dog” than a well-rounded individual.
[19]

Only happy books are allowed

As is apparent by his remarks about Clarisse, the core message of Captain Beatty’s  harangue is clearly that people should amble through life, unthinking, untested, and mollified. The following passage constitutes the cornerstone of his menacing discourse:

Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn’t that right? Haven’t you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren’t they? Don’t we keep them moving, don’t we give them fun? That’s all we live for, isn’t it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these.[20]

And, there are indeed books that have been banned because they aren’t upbeat enough. Here are a few examples:

• Alabama school board challenged The Diary of Anne Frank because, it was “a real downer.”[21]
  .
• The St. Helens, Oregon school board banned The House on Mango Street from middle-school curriculum, expressing “concerns for the social issues presented.”[22]
  .
• A group of community members and clergy in Mobile, Alabama called for local school officials to form a special textbook screening committee. And, Of Mice and Men was targeted for “morbid and depressing themes.”[23]

But, doesn’t Captain Beatty have a point? Don’t we all want to be happy? Don’t most parents want their children to be happy? What’s so wrong with only reading books that make us happy? What else is literature for, but to entertain us?

H. G. Wells’ 1912 essay The Contemporary Novel, addresses this very question. And Wells’ answer?

And this is where the value and opportunity of the modern novel come in. So far as I can see, it is the only medium through which we can discuss the great majority of the problems which are being raised in such bristling multitude by our contemporary social development.[24]

Toni Morrison also weighs in on the value of writers and the books they produce:

Certain kinds of trauma visited on peoples are so deep, so cruel, that unlike
money, unlike vengeance, even unlike justice, or rights, or the goodwill of others, only writers can translate such trauma and turn sorrow into meaning, sharpening the moral imagination.

A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.[25]

As Wells and Morrison make clear, the world isn’t always a happy place. And, books help us deal with that world.

But, what actually happens when adolescents read disturbing books? Well…  literary scholars Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston have studied this, and here’s what they learned. The students they interviewed, most of whom said they previously read little or nothing, “started reading like crazy” both in and out of school. And, their reading achievement improved. They also reported improved self-control, as well as developing more, and stronger, friendships and family relationships. Students also reported being “happier. Yes, happier.”[26]

Take that, Captain Beatty! 

Sanitizing literary works

On the surface, sanitizing literary works appears to be a reasonable compromise strategy. It seems to allow us to talk about issues like those Wells and Morrison point out, while also addressing Captain Beatty’s observations about sensitivity to particular demographics:

Don’t step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that![27]

But does sanitizing really serve as a viable trade-off? What happens when we cleanse texts? Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one victim of such sanitizing.

Folklorist Patricia A. Turner traces the unfortunate transformation of the Tom character from Christ figure to racial slur. Stowe wrote Tom as a figure who refuses to reveal where two enslaved women who had been sexually abused by their enslaver are hiding. Tom knows he’ll be beaten to death for not selling them out. Yet he remains defiant, refusing to say where they are. It’s the polar opposite of what that character has come to mean.

Stowe faced an incredible amount of criticism from the apologists for slavery. And according to Turner, in an effort to sell tickets, producers of the early stage shows catered to the sensitivity of these slavery apologists.  They revised the image of slavery Stowe had depicted and characterized Uncle Tom in minstrel fashion – rendering him the weak, subservient figure that continues to be associated with his name.

But, deciding not to sanitize books isn’t just about saving the reputation of literary works. A 2011 episode of The Daily Show addresses the real problem with expurgating literature. Jon Stewart and Larry Wilmore are discussing a recent re-issue of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one where every instance of the n-word was replaced with the word “slave.”

Playing devil’s advocate, Stewart suggested that the new edits make the book less “uncomfortable.”  Wilmore’s response hits the mark:

Look, Mark Twain put that word in for a reason. The n-word speaks to a society that casually dehumanized black people. Slave was just a job description. And it’s not even accurate — in the book Jim is no longer a slave, he ran away. Twain’s point is that he can’t run away from being a n—-r.“[28]

And, Twain’s point (interpreted by Wilmore) remains relevant today. But, we never have a conversation about that if everyone feels OK with Jim’s situation – the attitude easily becomes “institutional slavery no longer exists, so everything’s fine.” Huck Finn is watered down to become a story about a boy’s adventures on the river, rather than the social commentary it was intended to be.

As social critic and educator bell hooks reminds us:

Oppression is insidious; if we pretend it does not exist, that we do not see it or know how to change it, then the oppression never has to go away… Denial permits us to be complicit.[29]

The slippery slope to anti-intellectualism

Captain Beatty points out another problem that develops when we sanitize literature, one consistent with Bradbury’s own experience with expurgated texts and compounded by the current disregard for a liberal arts education:

Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater.[30]

Ironically, Fahrenheit 451 was itself sanitized for high school students’ consumption. More than 75 passages were modified, eliminating words like damn, and hell, as well as the mention of abortion.

Two incidents within the text were also removed. In the first, a drunk man was changed to being a sick man. The second instance refers to cleaning fluff out of the human navel, and was changed to cleaning ears.

A friend alerted Bradbury to the expurgation of his work, and not surprisingly, he promptly demanded that the publisher withdraw the sanitized version and replace it with his original.[31]

In Fahrenheit 451’s coda, Bradbury notes how one of his short stories had been edited for an anthology. He doesn’t pull any punches when addressing such editing/ cleansing of literary works:

Skin, debone, demarow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito – out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron’s mouth twitch – gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer – lost!

Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like – in the finale – Edgar Guest.[32] Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant’s attention – shot dead.[33]

And what are the long-term repercussions of a diet of such pablum? The rise of anti-intellectualism. As Captain Beatty puts it, “the word intellectual, of course,” became a “swear word.”[234]

Beatty refers to the exceptional student who answered the most questions while so many others sat like “leaden idols hating him.”[35] And, it was this “bright boy” who was “selected for beatings and tortures after hours.”[36]

The captain’s diatribe lays out what happens when anti-intellectualism is on the rise:

Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man? Me? I won’t stomach them for a minute.[37]

This passage reflects the harassment, doxxing, and even violent threats suffered by teachers and librarians. Those whose jobs revolve around study and reflection have been vilified, characterized as pedophiles and accused of grooming children.

Here are just a few examples:

Associate professor of Library and Information Science Natalie Cooke’s email address and phone number were circulated among hate groups and their followers… and the harassment that followed was every bit as bad as you would imagine.[38]

Amanda Jones, who heads the board of the Louisiana Association for School Librarians, found a death threat in her email about a month after she spoke out against censorship at a public library. And she would get many more.

But, the one that rattled her most was from a man only four hours away from where she lived. And, “It was pretty explicit in the ways that he was going to kill me,” Jones said. “I was actually petrified.”[39]

And, Maegan Hanson, a library director in a small Idaho town, reports, “We had people threatening to burn down our building.”[40]

Like the “bright boy” in Beatty’s anecdote, individuals whose careers revolve around reading and intellectual activities have ended up with targets on their backs – and not necessarily the metaphoric variety.

Silencing stories about diversity

Captain Beatty also contends, conditions become such that “You always dread the unfamiliar.”[341 He further states, “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal like the constitution says…”[42] So, stories reflecting diversity are silenced.

As author George M. Johnson notes:

The curriculum that is being taught in most school systems is still heavily geared towards the straight, white, male teen,” Johnson says. “And so when we now have the ability to put books into curriculum that tell other stories, that tell stories that are non-white, that tell stories that are non-heterosexual, they’re trying to take them out across the board because, you know, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, how dangerous would it be if young white teens had to actually learn about the other people who exist in society with them?’[43]

Black literature

Black literature has long been the target of coordinated censorship efforts, spanning at least back to the Harlem Renaissance. But, as a result of the current mania revolving around Critical Race Theory – which is engendered by groups like No Left Turn in Education – the number of banned books featuring prominent characters that are Black has skyrocketed. Along with works written by Black authors. And those that tell stories from a Black perspective.[44] Here are just a few examples:

• Newbery Medal Winner New Kid by Jerry Craft is one such book.[45] New Kid is a graphic novel about relocating to a new school where diversity is low.
  .
• Then there’s Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which has faced widespread bans due to its depiction of slavery, not to mention the way it addresses other dark moments in American history.[46]
  .
• And, let’s not forget The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, the book that ignited the anti-Critical Race Theory frenzy.[47] Jones’ work reframes American history by putting slavery and its legacy at the center of our national narrative. 

LGBTQ+ literature

As with Black literature, opposition to LGBTQ books is not a new phenomenon in America. But the current wave is unprecedented in scope and scale.

According to American Library Association data, from the 2000s to the early 2010s, LGBTQ+ books were the target of between less than 1 – 3 percent of all challenges filed in schools. In 2022, however, that number had surged to 45.5 percent.

Founding chairman of Moms for Liberty, Jennifer Pippin, cites concern over sexually explicit material as the reason for challenges to LGBTQ+ books rather than homophobia. However, over one-third of the challenges to LGBTQ+ titles are simply because they feature LGBTQ+ lives or stories.[48]

A few examples of banned LGBTQ+ literature are:

• All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson chronicles their childhood, adolescence, and college years as a queer Black youth. Johnson’s work explores subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy. It’s frequently challenged for LGBTQ+ content, and claims of sexual explicitness.[49]
  .
• Then there’s This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson. This Book Is Gay is a non-fiction book utilizing Dawson’s experience as a PSHE co-ordinator (Personal, Social and Health Education), Dawson offers basic information about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience. Frequently claimed to be pornography, it was also the subject of bomb threats sent to the Hilton Central School District in New York.[50]
  .
• There’s also Maia Kobabe’s book Gender Queer: A Memoir. Kobabe (who uses e/em/eir pronouns) charts eir journey of self-identity. But, this work is more than a personal story: it’s a useful and touching guide to gender identity for advocates, friends, and, basically, humans everywhere. It too is regularly challenged for LGBTQ+ content, and claimed to be sexually explicit.[51]

Unfortunately, there are maaaany more books on the list of works about diversity that have been silenced. And, once again, Toni Morrison alerts us to why it’s not only important for these stories to be told, but for us to keep fighting against bans of books like these. And, that’s because:

Unpersecuted, unjailed, unharassed writers are trouble for the ignorant bully, the sly racist...[52]

Societal energy is re-directed

Interestingly, it was a turn of events completely unrelated to books that kicked things into high gear. In Montag’s society it was: 

when houses were finally fireproofed completely, all over the world… there was no longer need of firemen for the old purposes. They were given the new job, as custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread of being inferior: official censors, judges and executors.[53]

When it comes to our current epidemic of book banning, COVID-19 was the match that set things ablaze. Anger about mask mandates and school closures was quickly harnessed and re-directed toward books that banners claim clash with conservative values – which ultimately includes teachings about gender, race, social justice, and history.[54]

School board races had typically been friendly, and uneventful, with little money involved. But that was about to change, primarily due to the influence of conservative political organizations like the Family Heritage Alliance, the Free Republic Political Action Committee, Moms for Liberty (which has 300 chapters in 48 states), and the aforementioned No Left Turn in Education.[55]

There are at least 50 such groups in total advocating for bans in K-12 schools.[56] These political organizations are well-funded, and operate at the national, state, and local levels. What had traditionally been local contests became the targets of a handful of national conservative groups, who are pouring money into local school board races.[57]

Only 11 people are responsible for 60% of book challenges.

A Washington Post study reveals that 60 percent of all challenges were made by only 11 people. Previously, book challenges trickled in from individuals one book at a time.

But these days, serial filers lodging 10 or more complaints are responsible for two-thirds of all challenges – some of them challenging literally hundreds of books.[58] And a good number of these rely on a network of volunteers gathered with the backing of political organizations like those mentioned above.

Legislators are also compiling vast lists of books to challenge, like the one containing 850 books from Texas state representative Matt Krause. He then sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency and superintendents of school districts around the state requiring that schools tell him whether they possess any books on his list. Krause’s correspondence also demanded a detailed accounting of where those books are and how much money was spent on them.[59] And it doesn’t stop there.

State-sponsored censorship

And, here’s the evidence. Proposals in the Missouri legislature, one of which states that librarians would be “punished by a fine” of up to five hundred dollars or “by imprisonment in the county jail” of up to one year for providing “age-inappropriate sexual material.”[60]  But who decides what material is “age-inappropriate”? As any parent will tell you, children’s readiness for any given subject matter is as individual as the kids themselves.

Then there’s Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which has several Florida schools removing books from their libraries.[61] There’s also the Sunshine State’s “Stop Woke Act”, which restricts the discussion of difficult historic truths that may make students feel “discomfort, guilt, or anguish” due to U.S. racial history – institutional slavery, for example, or how First Nations peoples were forced onto reservations, or that Japanese-Americans were put into internment camps during World War II.[62] Much to the dismay of their students, this law has teachers removing or covering all the books in their classroom libraries until they have been “vetted” by the proper authorities.[63]

And Project 2025 is looming, which would elevate such censorship and book banning to the federal level. In Project 2025’s forward, Kevin D. Roberts declares that the terms “sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, [and] reproductive rights” would be deleted from “every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”[64]

Project 2025 further states that “the noxious tenets of ‘critical race theory’ and ‘gender ideology’ should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country. These theories poison our children.”[65] Earlier in the forward, such tenets are characterized as pornography.  And, it declares that “the people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders.”[66]

Unlike the society Montag lives in, we aren’t literally setting books aflame…  yet. But, we are setting proverbial fire to the constitution.

And yet again, it’s Toni Morrison with a pearl of wisdom about the significance of book banning:

The historical suppression of writers is the earliest harbinger of the steady peeling away of additional rights and liberties that will follow.[67]
.

In Conclusion

Fortunately, there’s an alliance of activists pushing back against book banning. This community parallels the one in the last segment of Fahrenheit 451 who memorize books, and function as living libraries.

Groups like the American Library Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and indeed the individuals behind websites like This Book is Banned are fighting to ensure our right to read.

Given what’s at stake – especially bearing Toni Morrison’s words in mind – join the coalition. Get Involved. Vote in elections of every level, and elect legislators who’ll submit bills like the Books Save Lives Act  and the Fight Book Bans Act rather than the Stop WOKE Act.

Speak out in support of books that have been challenged at school board meetings. Better yet, run for your local school board.

Exercise your reading rights. Check out banned books from your public library – it really does help!

And finally, support your public library. Because, when it comes to books and the dangers that arise from banning them, libraries embody the biblical passage Montag cites at the close of Fahrenheit 451:

And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.[68]

Books, of course, are the fruit of a library. And, as Bradbury is keen to point out, the future is going to need them.
.

That’s my take on Ray Bradbury’s  Fahrenheit 451 – what’s yours?
Check out these Reader Resources from the 
National Endowment for the Arts to get you started.

Endnotes:

[1] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451-The 5oth Anniversary Edition.  New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 3.

[2] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451-The 5oth Anniversary Edition.  New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 3.

[3] Butler, Bethonie. “Ray Bradbury dies: Favorite quotes from the ‘Fahrenheit 451’ author.” The Washington Post, June 6, 2012. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/ray-bradbury-dies-favorite-quotes-from-the-fahrenheit-451-author/2012/06/06/gJQAGhIoIV_blog.html

[4] “Meaning of the first name Clarisse.” Ancestry.com

[5] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 9.

[6] Hesse, Hermann. “On Reading Books.” in My Belief: Essays on Life and Art. Edited by Theodore Ziolkowski. Translated by Denver Lindley. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974), 101.

[7] Mydans, Seth. “In a Small Town, a Battle Over a Book.” The New York Times, (Sept. 3, 1989).

[8] Wexler, Natalie. “New Study Suggests Standardized Testing Misses A Lot of Learning.” Forbes. February 23, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2023/02/22/new-study-suggests-standardized-reading-tests-miss-a-lot-of-learning/

[9] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 8.

[10] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 8.

[11] Kober, Farra. “Randi Weingarten: Common Core should be a guide, not a straitjacket.” May 9, 2014. MSNBC. https://www.msnbc.com/all/you-asked-randi-weingarten-answered-common-core-standardized-testing-msna325831

[12] Watts, Judy H. “Bans that disrupt democracy.” Washington Magazine. February 19, 2024. https://source.wustl.edu/2024/02/bans-that-disrupt-democracy/ 

[13] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 60.

[14] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 60.

[15] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 61.

[16] Snyder, Christopher A. “A Liberal Education in Name Only.” Inside Higher Ed. October 23, 2023.
https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/10/23/liberal-education-name-only-opinion

[17] Gregory, Danny. “Let’s Get Rid of Art Education in Schools.” Kappan. April 1, 2017.

[18] “Bachelor’s Degrees in the Humanities.” American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

[19] Fine, Benjamin. “Einstein Stresses Critical Thinking.” The New York Times. October 5, 1952.

[20] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 59.

[21] Driscoll, Molly. “30 banned books that may surprise you.” The Christian Science Monitor. October 3, 2012. https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/1003/30-banned-books-that-may-surprise-you/The-Diary-of-A-Young-Girl-by-Anne-Frank

[22] Van Winkle, Katie. “Saving Mango Street.”  Rethinking Schools.  https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/saving-mango-street/

[23] “Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.” Banned Library.
https://www.bannedlibrary.com/podcast/2015/12/26/banned-46-of-mice-and-men

[24] Wells, Herbert George. “The Contemporary Novel.” The Atlantic Monthly. January, 1912. Pg 8

[25] Morrison, Toni. “Peril” Burn This Book: notes on literature and engagement. New York: Harper, 2009. Pg 3.

[26] Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston. “What Happens When Young People Actually read ‘Disturbing’ Books.” Teachers College Press blog. October 31, 2023.

[27] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 57.

[28] Perlmutter, Sammy. “Jon Stewart Takes on ‘Huckleberry Finn’ N-Word Controversy.” HuffPost. Jamuary 12. 2011.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jon-stewart-takes-on-huck_n_807921

[29] Kirk-Duggan, Cheryl A. “Quilting Relations with Creation: Overcoming, Going Through, and Not Being Stuck.” Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society, New York: New York University Press, 2006. Pg 180.

[30] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 57.

[31] Sova, Dawn B. “Censorship History of Fahrenheit 451.” Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Pg 134.

[32] Edgar Guest has been called “the poet of the people,” whose poems presented a deeply sentimental view of daily life. “Edgar Guest.” The Academy of American Poets. Poets.org   https://poets.org/poet/edgar-guest

[33] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 176.

[34] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[35] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[36] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[37] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[38] Morehart, Phil. “Defeating Bullies and Trolls.” American Libraries. March 15, 2019. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/librarians-defeating-bullies-trolls/

[39] Pendharkar, Eesha. “A School Librarian Pushes Back on Censorship and Gets Death Threats and Online Harassment.” EducationWeek.September 22, 2022.
https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/a-school-librarian-pushes-back-on-censorship-and-gets-death-threats-and-online-harassment/2022/09

[40] Alfonseca, Kiara. “Librarians say tthey face threats, lawsuits, jail fears over ongoing book battles.” April 13, 2024. Abcnews.go.com
https://abcnews.go.com/US/librarians-face-threats-lawsuits-jail-fears-ongoing-book/story?id=109081570

[41] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[42] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[43] Reena Advani, Rachel Treisman. “Banned Books: George M. Johnson on the need to tell all people’s stories.” NPR.org
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1130433140/banned-books-all-boys-arent-blue-george-johnson-lgbtq-ya

[44] “Book Bannings Targeting Black Authors and Perspectives Are Skyrocketing.” Everylibrary.org February 07, 2023.
https://action.everylibrary.org/book_bannings_targeting_black_authors_and_perspectives_are_skyrocketing

Tyler Kingkade, Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins. “Critical race theory battles invade school boards – with help from  conservative groups.” NBCnews. June 15, 2021.   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critical-race-theory-invades-school-boards-help-conservative-groups-n1270794

[45] Bellamy-Walker, Tat. “Book bans in schools are catching fire. Black authors say uproar isn’t about students.” NBCnews. January 6, 2022.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/book-bans-schools-are-catching-fire-black-authors-say-uproar-isnt-stud-rcna10228

[46] Getachew, Denora. “Best Banned Books by Black Authers, from Toni Morrison to Angie Thomas.” Teen Vogue. February, 2023. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/best-banned-books-black-authors

[47]  Cathryn Stout, Sam Park, Dan Lyon, and Monica Rhor. “How Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project ignited the critical race theory backlash.” Chalkbeat Tennessee. July 19, 2021.

[48] Naatanson, Hannah. “Objection to sexual, LGBTQ content propels spike in book challenges.” The Washington Post. June 9, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/23/lgbtq-book-ban-challengers/

[49] “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023.” American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

[50] Pendharkar, Eesha. “Book Ban Debates Prompt Bomb Threats Against Schools.” Education Week. April 27, 2023. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/book-ban-debates-prompt-bomb-threats-against-schools/2023/04

[51] “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023.” American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

[52] Morrison, Toni. “Peril” Burn This Book: notes on literature and engagement. New York: Harper, 2009. Pg 2.

[53] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 59.

[54] Gruver, Mead. “From masks to book banning, conservatives take on educators.”
Associated Press. December 19, 2021.
https://apnews.com/article/conservatives-educators-coronavirus-masks-book-banning-cfe02e318d95070d468c88e7294d8aa9

[55] Denise-Marie Ordway. “School board elections in the US: What research shows.” The Journalist’s Resource. May 28, 2024. https://journalistsresource.org/education/school-board-elections-research/

[56] Chavez, Nicole. “At least 50 groups in the US advocated to ban books in the past year.” CNN.com September 19, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/19/us/book-ban-movement-pen-america-report-reaj/index.html

[57] Atterbury, Andrew. “National conservative groups pour money into local school board races.” Politico. September 19, 2022. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/19/conservative-school-board-fundraising-florida-00057325

[58] Naatanson, Hannah. “Objection to sexual, LGBTQ content propels spike in book challenges.” The Washington Post. June 9, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/23/lgbtq-book-ban-challengers/

Lapin, Andrew. “Meet Bruce Friedman, the Jewish dad who got a version of Anne Frank’s diary and hundreds of other books banned from his Florida school district.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency. October 6, 2023. https://www.jta.org/2023/10/06/united-states/this-jewish-dad-got-a-version-of-anne-franks-diary-removed-from-his-florida-school-district

[59] Chappell, Bill. “A Texas lawmaker is targeting 850 books that he says could make students feel uneasy.” NPR.org October 28, 2021. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/28/1050013664/texas-lawmaker-matt-krause-launches-inquiry-into-850-books

[60] Missouri House Bill No. 2044. https://house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills201/hlrbillspdf/4634H.01I.pdf

[61] Legum, Judd. “’Don’t Say Gay’: Florida schools purge library books with LGBTQ characters.” Popular Information. January 5, 2023. https://popular.info/p/dont-say-gay-florida-schools-purge

[62]  Florida Bill 2022148. https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/148/BillText/Filed/HTML

[63] Negussie, Tesfaye and Rahma Ahmed. “Florida schools directed to cover or remove classroom books that are not vetted.” abcNEWS. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/florida-schools-directed-cover-remove-classroom-books-vetted/story?id=96884323

[64] Project 2025. Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, 2024.Pg 4-5.

[65] Project 2025,.Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, 2024. Pg 5.

[66] Project 2025. Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, 2024 Pg 5.

[67] Morrison, Toni. “Peril” Burn This Book: notes on literature and engagement. New York: Harper, 2009. Pg 3.

[68] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 165.

Images:

Montag’s Enlightenment:  Photo by Nghia Le on Unsplash

Clarisse’s remarks also apply to how we read: Photo by Thong Vo on Unsplash

Clarisse’s uncle and standardized testing: Photo by Ben Mullins on Unsplash

Disregard for the Humanities: Photo by Markus Spiskeon Unsplash

Only happy books are allowed: Photo by Josh Felise on Unsplash

Sanitizing literary works: Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash

The slippery slope to anti-intellectualism:  Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Silencing stories about diversity: Photo by Jackson Simmer on Unsplash

Black literature:  Maya Angelou reciting her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. William J Clinton Presidential Library. Public Domain

LGBTQ+ literature: Photo by Isi Parente on Unsplash

Societal energy is re-directed: Photo by Rey Seven on Unsplash

State-sponsored censorship: Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

In Conclusion:  Photo by Johann Siemens on Unsplash

FYI:

T
his year’s theme is Freed Between the Lines. Our freedom to explore different perspectives and new ideas is under threat to be sure. But, book bans do more than just restrict our access to stories. They undermine our rights. So, let’s push back against book bans by coming together to celebrate the right to read…  and find freedom in the pages of a book.

The Office for Intellectual Freedom has documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources in 2023. Four key trends have emerged from the data they gathered from 2023 censorship reports:

• In 2023, pressure groups focused on public libraries as well as targeting school libraries. The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries grew by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges last year. School libraries saw an 11% uptick over 2022 numbers.
  .
• This surge was driven by groups and individuals demanding the censorship of multiple titles, often dozens or hundreds at a time.
  .
• 47% of the titles targeted in censorship attempts represent the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals.
  .
• There were attempts to censor more than 100 titles in each of these 17 states: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.[1]

Book bans are clearly on the rise across America. So, starting on Banned Books Week, the Banned Wagon—powered by Penguin Random House, Unite Against Book Bans (UABB), First Book, and Little Free Library—is setting out on their second Banned Wagon tour. They’ll be stopping at bookstores and libraries in nine American communities across the Midwest and the South that are being impacted by book banning.

Get their tour schedule here. And, hop on the Banned Wagon, join the fight against censorship, and pick up your free banned book while supplies last!

Some Ways to Get Involved.

Banned Books Week is a time to voice censorship concerns, and show our communities the importance of intellectual freedom. It’s also a time to celebrate free expression.

Here are some things you can do to fight censorship, keep books available in libraries, and promote the freedom to read!

Stay informed. If you hear about a challenge at your local library, support your librarian, as well as  free and open access to library materials by contacting the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). That’s important because OIF estimates that it only learns about 3-18% of all book challenges.

Speak out. Talk to your friends about why we should all be allowed to choose for ourselves what we and our family read. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper, your public library director, and your school principal supporting the freedom to read. Speak about the importance of unrestricted reading on your local public radio station.

Write a letter to a favorite banned or challenged author. Take a few minutes to thank a banned or challenged author for their words. You can find their Twitter handles and addresses here.

Organize a film Festival:  Film and video productions can vividly depict the impact censorship has on individuals and society. Consider screening a film or sponsoring a First Amendment film festival for Banned Books Week. Here’s a list of suggestions.

But be aware that public performance of these videos and DVDs may require a license. You can find information about these licenses at Motion Picture Licensing Corporation and Movie Licensing USA.

It’s important to note that, happily, many documentaries come with public performance licenses.

Exercise your reading rights. Check out a banned book from your public library. Encourage your book club to discuss rebellious reads. Here’s a list of the top ten most challenged books of 2023 – with a book resume and information about their challenges –  to help you get started.

Finally, peruse This Book is Banned’s readings of books that have been banned.

Also…  don’t forget our Power of Books Series, interviews with authors about why it’s important for stories containing characters with diverse backgrounds and life experience to be told.

And most importantly,
keep the momentum going beyond Banned Books Week.
Engage in these activities all year round. 

#on censorship

Endnotes:

[1]  “Book Ban Data.” American Library Association.   https://www.ala.org/bbooks/book-ban-data

A
ccess to diverse books is not only essential to a strong education and a free mind, it’s critical to a healthy democracy.

Reading is more than merely the decoding of texts. It’s the main road to basic information exchange, personal development, and the foundation of life-long learning.

More importantly, however, reading is our most powerful tool for developing analytic and critical thinking. It expands our conceptual capacities. It trains perspective-taking and cognitive empathy – social skills indispensable for informed citizens in a democratic society.[1]

But, we’re currently in the midst of a book banning crisis.

Well-funded pressure groups are mandating the removal of books from library and school shelves. They’re pushing state governments to impose educational gag orders on teachers and staff.

These laws silence discussion about race and gender in America, as well as difficult issues like poverty, domestic abuse, and drug addiction.

In doing so, they isolate and discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and students of color. They leave victims of abuse feeling detached, alone, and blaming themselves for what they have suffered.

They give us the impression that the cycle of poverty is easily broken, or that only people who are morally deficient suffer from addiction.

And…  they cast a long and shameful shadow of censorship across our libraries and schools.

Polling repeatedly shows that communities across our country agree that families should be able to decide for themselves what their children can and cannot read. Not another parent. And certainly not a politician. At their core, these laws are anti-family, anti-freedom, and anti-American. [2]

Put a stop to these policies at the ballot box.

These pressure groups won’t quit pushing for anti-education policies. Nor will state and local legislators refrain from introducing such bills until we put a stop to it at the ballot box. Like in the election that’s coming up in November.

So, we must use our votes up and down the ballot to demand that our policymakers protect students, public servants, and especially our right to read. That means voting for legislators who support the belief that our public institutions must serve diverse communities and remain a hallmark of a free people.

It means voting for lawmakers who will put forward legislation like the Books Save Lives Act and the Fight Book Bans Act, rather than the Don’t Say Gay bill or the Stop the Woke act – which impose educational gags, and undermine what libraries are all about.

HERE’S A VOTER CHECKLIST TO ENSURE THAT WE DO JUST THAT:

• PREPARE FOR THE ELECTION.
  • Register or confirm your voter registration.
  • Know what’s on your ballot.
  • Go to this site for state-by-state election information.
    .
• ADVOCATE WITH THIS ACTION TOOLKIT from Unite Against Book Bans.
  • Share the candidate questionnaire.
  • Or use it to ask key questions during public forums.
  • Review talking points, contact media, and more.

• ORGANIZE YOUR COMMUNITY.
  • Use your personal influence to help friends, family, and other community members prepare for elections and turn out to vote.
  • Check out these resources for library professionals, educators, faith groups, students, parents, and authors.
    .
• SHOW UP & SPEAK OUT.
  The freedom to read is a non-partisan, American value. Let’s mobilize our communities to vote in every election – for pro-library, anti-book banning candidates.
  .
• MOST IMPORTANTLY, GET TO THE POLLS AND CAST YOUR VOTE![3]

Because a democratic society – which is based on informed multi-stakeholder consensus – can only succeed with resilient readers. As Margaret Atwood points out in her oft-quoted warning:

If there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy…  will be dead as well”.[4]

#on censorship       #The Books Save Lives Act

Endnotes:

[1] The Ljubljana Reading Manifesto: Why higher-level reading is important. October 20, 2023. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. https://www.ifla.org/news/ljubljana-manifesto-on-higher-level-reading-launched-at-frankfurter-buchmesse/

[2] Take the Voter Pledge. Unite Against Book Bans. https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/vote/

[3] Take the Voter Pledge. Unite Against Book Bans. https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/vote/

[4] The Ljubljana Reading Manifesto: Why higher-level reading is important. October 20, 2023. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. https://www.ifla.org/news/ljubljana-manifesto-on-higher-level-reading-launched-at-frankfurter-buchmesse/

Images:

Vote: Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Book Banning Crisis: Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash

Ballot Box:  Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

Pressley Unveils Bill to Confront Rise in Book Bans,
Ensure Inclusive Learning Environments

WASHINGTON – With the rise of book bans nationwide, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) unveiled the Books Save Lives Act to help ensure an inclusive learning environment and counteract the harm of book bans across the country. Rep Pressley unveiled the legislation in a floor speech earlier today, and later convened authors, advocates, and educators at the Library of Congress to discuss the negative impact book bans have on learning environments for vulnerable students. 

According to estimates, more than 3,000 books were banned in the 2022-2023 school year, a 33% increase from the previous school year. These bans overwhelmingly target books about race and racism, as well as books with LGBTQ+ characters. 

“Rather than honor the brilliance and diversity of our authors, illustrators, and librarians, Republicans are focused on further marginalizing people who already face systemic discrimination in our society – including people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, religious minorities, and people with disabilities – through discriminatory book bans,” said Rep. Pressley. “The Books Save Lives Act pushes back on this dangerous trend and reaffirms the need for representative literature by ensuring libraries nationwide maintain a diverse collection of books and classifying book bans as violations of federal civil rights laws. Every reader deserves to see themselves reflected in our literature – and our bill would help make that a reality for all. I am grateful to our partners in crafting this legislation, and I urge Congress to pass my bill without delay.”

The Books Save Lives Act would counteract the rise in book bans and help ensure an inclusive learning environment for all students. Specifically, the legislation would: 

• Ensure primary and secondary schools have a library with a trained librarian; 
• Require public libraries and school libraries to maintain a diverse collection of books; 
• Classify discriminatory book bans as violations of federal civil rights laws; and 
• Direct the Government Accountability Office to report on the effect of book bans on underrepresented communities. 

The legislation is co-sponsored by Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-07), Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Donald M. Payne, Jr. (NJ-10), Kweisi Mfume (MD-07), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Summer Lee (PA-12), Glenn Ivey (MD-04), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Maxine Waters (CA- 43), Alma Adams (NC-12), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Stacey Plaskett (VI), Jahana Hayes (CT-05), Shontel Brown (OH-11), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), Hank Johnson (GA-04), Marc Veasey (TX-33), Steven Horsford (NV-04), and Lucy McBath (GA- 07). 

The legislation is endorsed by We Need Diverse Books, PFLAG National, Florida Freedom to Read Project, Color Of Change, EveryLibrary, National Education Association, and Human Rights Campaign. 

“As a student, the library was my second home. I discovered stories that opened up my world and my understanding of myself on the library shelves. I support the Books Save Lives Act because I want future young people to see themselves and their world reflected fully and accurately in their libraries,” said Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer. 

“As book bans have spread nationwide, they have disproportionately targeted books with BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ characters. 30 percent of recently banned books featured LGBTQIA+ characters or themes while 30 percent featured characters of color or themes on race. This is why We Need Diverse Books established the Books Save Lives initiative in 2022 to directly address the alarming rise of censorship, and this is also why we welcome the introduction of the Books Save Lives Act, sponsored by Congresswoman Pressley. This legislation is critically needed to ensure that school libraries reflect the diversity of our world and to combat the book banning movement that has already removed thousands of diverse titles from school shelves. BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ children are especially vulnerable to self-harm and have some of the highest rates of attempted suicide in the country. When these kids cannot see themselves in the books that they read, they learn the powerful lesson that their stories and their lives don’t matter. We must not only protect the freedom to read, we must also protect the children who need diverse stories the most— because we know that books save lives,” said Caroline Rihmond, We Need Diverse Books. 

“Banning books and education is an organized and funded effort that the Books Save Lives Act will put in check. PFLAG National is proud to endorse the Books Save Lives Act because every person deserves the joy that comes when you can find, learn, and be inspired by books about all kinds of topics and people,” said Brian K. Bond, CEO, PFLAG National 

“Florida Freedom to Read Project is proud to support this bill which will ensure that the expert curation of our libraries is inclusive of all the communities they serve. All Americans deserve the opportunity to see their lives reflected on the shelf and know that they are welcome here,” said Stephanie Ferrell, Florida Freedom to Read Project. 

Earlier this year, during Banned Books Week, Rep. Pressley visited the Turner Free Library in Randolph, Massachusetts to discuss the growing threat of book bans across the country and the need for accessible, representative literature. Rep. Pressley was joined at the roundtable by librarians, educators, and community members from Randolph and Milton. In April 2022 in a House Oversight Committee, Rep. Pressley discussed how banning books in schools harms future generations. 

#    #    #

 Get involved:
Support your public library.
Contact your state and congressional representatives, advocating for legislation
that ensures diverse collections of books and inclusive learning environments.

We can make a difference in the fight against book banning!

#on censorship

______________________________________________________

Endnotes:

[1] Duster, Chandelis. “States begin to push back on book bans – by banning them.” CNN.com
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/04/us/states-fight-book-bans-reaj/index.html

[2] Duster, Chandelis. “States begin to push back on book bans – by banning them.” CNN.com
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/04/us/states-fight-book-bans-reaj/index.html

Robert, Lydia. “Laws restricting book bans are on the rise.” BanBookBans.com
https://www.banbookbans.com/news/theumasslowell-100923.html

Images:

House Chamber:Architect of the Capitol.

Congresswoman Pressley Unveils Bill:Pressley Press Packet

See the Full Text:Floor speech video linked in Pressley Press Packet

T
his Juneteenth, we celebrate Ida B. Wells-Barnett, whose lifelong crusade to make lynching a federal crime finally came to fruition on March 29, 2022 – 124 years and 21 presidents later.[1]  Wells-Barnett was an educator, investigative journalist, and early civil rights activist during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[2]

Lamentably, it’s become exceedingly difficult to tell stories like Ida’s and make her writings known in American schools. Because more and more states are introducing legislation that restricts how teachers can discuss racism, sexism, and issues of systemic inequality in their classrooms.

Forty-four states have done so or have taken other steps that would limit how teachers can discuss these issues, since January 2021.[3]

And there’s a long history to this type of tactic – attempting to ban knowledge and control the historical narrative. During the days of slavery, it was illegal to teach enslaved persons to read – but secret schools were organized in hidden places at night.

During the Civil Rights movement, terror organizations like the KKK threatened organizers against spreading “dangerous” ideas – but organizers refused to capitulate.[4]

And today, extremist groups like Moms for Liberty threaten librarians with doxing or even gun violence for making books addressing racism in America accessible.[5]

But, it’s still be possible for young people to learn our nation’s true history. If not in school, from books, music, or on other avenues… websites like ThisBookisBanned.com, for example, whose organizers stand in solidarity with teachers and librarians facing this heinous legislation and threatened violence.[6]

Today, we’re seeing to it that Ida B. Wells-Barnett is celebrated. And, we’re doing our part to ensure that her anti-lynching campaign for racial justice doesn’t get swept under the proverbial rug – as much as the book banners at Moms for Liberty would like to see that happen.

Born into slavery

Ida Bell Wells was born into slavery on July 16,1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.[7] During the Reconstruction era, her parents were involved with politics and the democratization of education. Her father belonged to the Freedmen’s Aid Society, and helped start a school for newly freed enslaved people.[8]

Throughout her late teens, Ida was a teacher at Marshall and Tate County schools in rural Mississippi.[9] After her parents’ death, she and her siblings moved to Memphis, Tennessee to live with a relative.

At this time, she was hired by the Shelby County school system, and attended sessions at Fisk University – a historically Black college in Nashville – during her summer vacations.  She also studied Lemoyne-Owen College – a historically Black college in Memphis.[10]

“I have a seat and I intend to keep it.”[11]

Decades before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Ida B. Wells (not yet Barnett) resisted giving up her seat on a passenger train going from Memphis to Woodstock, Tennessee. While Parks was arrested, Wells was not. She was, however, manhandled, and writes about the incident in her autobiography:

One day while riding back to my school I took a seat in the ladies’ coach of the train as usual. There were no jim crow cars then. But ever since the repeal of the Civil Rights Bill by the United States Supreme Court in 1877* there had been efforts all over the South to draw the color line on the railroads.

 When the train started and the conductor came along to collect tickets, he took my ticket, then handed it back to me and told me that he couldn’t take my ticket there. I thought that if he didn’t want the ticket, I wouldn’t bother about it so went on reading. In a little while when he finished taking tickets, he came back and told me I would have to go in the other car. I refused, saying that the forward car was a smoker, and as I was in the ladies’ car I proposed to stay. He tried to drag me out of the seat, but the moment he caught hold of my arm I fastened my teeth in the back of his hand.

 I had braced my feet against the seat in front and was holding to the back, and as he had already been badly bitten he didn’t try it again by himself. He went forward and got the baggage-man and another man to help him and of course they succeeded in dragging me out. They were encouraged to do this by the attitude of the white ladies and gentlemen in the car; some of them even stood on the seats so they could get a good view and continued applauding the conductor for his brave stand.

By this time the train had stopped at the first station. When I saw that they were determined to drag me into the smoker, which was already filled with colored people and those who were smoking, I said I would get off the train rather than go in… which I did. Strangely, I held onto my ticket all this time… [12]

And then, she sued the Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern railroad company.[13] Surprisingly, the court decided in Wells’ favor, ordering the railroad company to pay damages. Needless to say, the railroad appealed the case to the Tennessee Supreme Court, and not so surprisingly, the decision was reversed. [14]

Suffragist and founding orgnaizer of the NAACP

Years later, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a founding organizer of the NAACP.[15] She was also instrumental in the establishment of the National Association of Colored Women’s Club, an organization which was created to address issues surrounding women’s suffrage and civil rights.[16]

As significant as these contributions are to civil rights and American history generally, Wells-Barnett’s name is most frequently associated with her campaign to make lynching a federal crime.

The Peoples Grocery Lynching

Just at the point when Wells-Barnett realized she could make a living from her newspaper, the Free Speech, the lynching that changed her life occurred. On March 9, 1892, she learned that Thomas Moss (whose daughter was her godchild), had been murdered – to be more precise, lynched – along with two of his employees, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart.

Moss was a black man who owned Peoples Grocery, a successful grocery store in Memphis, Tennessee. As such, his store and its owner were seen as a threat by the white grocer whose store had served the community before Moss opened his.

The incident was sparked when a racially charged mob grew out of a fight between a Black and a white youth over a game of marbles near Moss’ grocery.

In short, adults got involved, violence ensued, and about 30 Black individuals were taken from their homes and jailed – among them Moss, McDowell, and Stewart, as well as the Black adolescent who was involved in the marble game that triggered the episode.

In the wee hours of the night, Moss, McDowell, and Stewart were dragged from their cells by 75 men, transported to a railroad yard outside the city’s limits, and shot to death. Given that Moss, McDowell, and Stewart were the only victims of this extralegal violence, there is little doubt that it was punishment for becoming an economic competitor to the white grocery store owner.[17] 

Wells-Barnett was not in Memphis when this atrocity occurred. But, the leader in the Free Speech for that week called for the Black population to follow Moss’ dying words (reported in a newspaper the day after his death), “tell my people to go West – there is no justice for them here.”[18]

And, the Black community did just that. Within two months, six thousand people had abandoned Memphis. And, every type of business began to feel “this silent resentment of the outrage, and failure of the authorities to punish the lynchers.”[19]

On May 21, 1892, Ida B. Wells-Barnett published an impassioned editorial about the recent lynchings in the Free Speech. In response to her article, a mob burned down her press while she was attending a conference in New York City. And, her life was threatened if she were ever to return to Memphis.

In light of these threats, she remained in New York City until 1893, when she relocated to Chicago where she lived for the rest of her life. [20]

Her lifelong campaign begins

Wells-Barnett explicitly attributes the Peoples Grocery lynching with changing the course of her life. And, in response to the frequency of lynchings throughout the American South, she dedicated her life to documenting these horrific occurrences.

She published her research in a pamphlet titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, prefacing this searing work with the words:

It is with no pleasure I have dipped my hands in the corruption here exposed. Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.[21]

Southern Horrors was the culmination of her intensive investigative work, providing eye-witness accounts, as well as statistics for lynchings reported in newspapers across both the South and the North.

It was groundbreaking, providing evidence that white men were rarely punished for sexual violence they perpetrated against Black women, while Black men were murdered by mobs for consensual sexual relations with white women.

She undermined the notion that lynchings were in response to rape, by pointing out that this accusation was levied at an unrealistic percentage of all victims. Wells-Barnett also challenged the fundamental assumption that it was only Black men who had been subject to lynchings. She revealed that Black women were also the victims of this heinous act.

In 1895, she published the first documented statistical report on lynching – A Red Record. With this book’s publication, she not only became one of the first prominent Black women journalists in the U.S., she was one of the first data reporters decades before the discipline formally existed.[22]

Ida B Wells-Barnett goes to The White House

And, Wells-Barnett took her campaign to William McKinley’s White House. During her visit, she gave the president a petition appealing to him for national anti-lynching law, which stated:

For nearly twenty years lynching crimes, which stand side by side with Armenian and Cuban outrages, have been committed and permitted by this Christian nation. Nowhere in the civilized world save the U.S. of America do men, possessing all civil and political power, go out in bands of 50 and 5,000 to hunt down, shoot, hang or burn to death a single individual, unarmed and absolutely powerless. Statistics show that nearly 10,000 American citizens have been lynched in the past 20 years. To our appeals for justice the stereotyped reply has been that the government could not interfere in a state matter. Postmaster Baker’s case was a federal matter, pure and simple. He died at his post of duty in defense of his country’s honor, as truly as did ever a soldier on the field of battle. We refuse to believe this country, so powerful to defend its citizens abroad, is unable to protect its citizens at home. Italy and China have been indemnified by this government for the lynching of their citizens. We ask that the government do as much for its own.[23]

During the same period, she also lobbied Congress for the national anti-lynching law introduced by Illinois Congressman William E. Lorimer. But, to no avail on both fronts.

That didn’t stop her crusade, however. Wells-Barnett turned next to President Theodore Roosevelt, who merely addressed the issue through appeals to public morality and sentiment rather than actual federal reforms.

After that was President William Howard Taft, who wanted to leave the issue to the states but promised his personal support once his presidency was over. And, the anti-lynching campaign got even less aid during President Woodrow Wilson’s administration.

President Warren G. Harding supported the Anti-Lynching Bill that was introduced in Congress during the Wilson administration but had been halted by filibuster. And, he delivered a speech that condemned lynching. But public response was largely negative, indicating the difficult road that lay ahead for anti-lynching activists.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett died on March 25, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois. Though lynching still raged and the legacy of her tireless dedication was not fully realized, her activism was instrumental in establishing the space for future discussion to take place.[24]

On May 4, 2020, she was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize, “for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans.”[25]

Finally, on March 29, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the anti-lynching measure she had worked so hard to make happen into law, rendering lynching a federal hate crime.[26]

So, we’re celebrating Ida B. Wells-Barnett in observance of Juneteenth. And, to help keep her story alive, here are some of her works to download. [Be advised, given the subject matter this material contains disturbing images and accounts of violence]:

Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases.
Eye-witness accounts of lynchings reported in newspapers
across both the South and the North.

A Red Record.
The first documented statistical report on lynching.

Mob Rule in New Orleans.
An examination of the dynamics of racial violence
and lynching during the Jim Crow Era.

And for all you educators out there, here’s a lesson plan to download,
Ida B. Wells and the Long Crusade to Outlaw Lynching,
designed by RetroReport, a fabulous source for classroom resources.

#civil rights movement        #Juneteenth             #banned authors

Endnotes:

[1] “Ida B. Wells and the Long Crusade to Outlaw Lynching.” February 15, 2024. RetroReport.org
https://retroreport.org/has-lesson-plan/ida-b-wells-and-the-long-crusade-to-outlaw-lynching-2/?utm_source=Retro+Report+Education&utm_campaign=c212e1f834-MAR11_DOUBLEV_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_64a84ba2bf-c212e1f834-357769000&mc_cid=c212e1f834&mc_eid=bd14da2bcd

[2] “Letter from Ida B. Wells-Barnett to President Woodrow Wilson.” March 26, 1918. DocsTeach from the National Archives. https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/ida-b-wells-wilson

[3] Schwartz, Sarah. “Map: Where Critical Race Theory Is Under Attack.” June 6, 2024. EducationWeek. https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/map-where-critical-race-theory-is-under-attack/2021/06

[4] IBWEP Statement on Recent Attacks Against Critical Race Theory in Schools.” The Ida B. Wells Education Project Blog. https://www.idabwellseducationproject.org/ibwep-blog

[5] Altschuler, Glenn C. “Six reasons why Moms for Liberty is an extremist organization.” July 9, 2023. The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/education/4086179-six-reasons-why-moms-for-liberty-is-an-extremist-organization/

[6] IBWEP Statement on Recent Attacks Against Critical Race Theory in Schools.” The Ida B. Wells Education Project Blog. https://www.idabwellseducationproject.org/ibwep-blog

[7] Norwood, Arlisha R. “Ida B. Wells. Barnett.” National Women’s History Museum. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett

[8] Levesque, Faron. “Ida B. Wells and People’s Grocery.” The MIT Press Reader. https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/ida-b-wells-and-peoples-grocery/

Heather-Lea, Patricia. “Ida Wells an inspiring heroine for international Women’s Day.” Addison County Independent. https://web.archive.org/web/20201104023730/https://addisonindependent.com/letter-editor-ida-wells-inspiring-heroine-international-womens-day

[9] Bay, Mia. To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells.  New York: Hill and Wang, a division of Farraar, Strauss and Tiroux, 2009. Pg 34.

[10] Levesque, Faron. “Ida B. Wells and People’s Grocery.” The MIT Press Reader. https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/ida-b-wells-and-peoples-grocery/

[11]“Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern Railroad Company v Ida B. Wells.” Digital Public Library of America. https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/ida-b-wells-and-anti-lynching-activism/sources/1113

[12] Wells, Ida B. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Edited by Alfreda M. Duster. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1970. Pg 18-19.

*The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was, among other things, designed to provide all citizens regardless of color access to public accommodations. Wells was in error, however, about the date when this act was held unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. That actually occurred in 1883.

[13] “A legal brief for Ida B. Wells’ lawsuit against Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern Railroad Company before the state Supreme Court, 1885.” Digital Public Library of America.
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/ida-b-wells-and-anti-lynching-activism/sources/1113

[14] “A legal brief for Ida B. Wells’ lawsuit against Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern Railroad Company before the state Supreme Court, 1885.” Digital Public Library of America.
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/ida-b-wells-and-anti-lynching-activism/sources/1113

[15] Sullivan, Patricia. Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the making of the Civil Rights movement. New York: The New Press, 2009.

[16] Norwood, Arlisha R. “Ida B. Wells. Barnett.” National Women’s History Museum. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett

[17] Mitchell, Damon. “The People’s Grocery Lynching, Memphis, Tennessee.” Jstor Daily. January 24, 2018. https://daily.jstor.org/peoples-grocery-lynching/

Wells, Ida B. “Lynch Law in all its Phases.” February 13, 1893. Voices Of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project. https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/wells-lynch-law-speech-text/

[18] Wells, Ida B. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Edited by Alfreda M. Duster. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1970. Pg 50-51.

[19] Wells, Ida B. “Lynch Law in all its Phases.” February 13, 1893. Voices Of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project. https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/wells-lynch-law-speech-text/

[20] Mobley, Tianna. “Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Anti-lynching and the White House.” The White House Historical Association. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/ida-b-wells-barnett-anti-lynching-and-the-white-house

Little, Becky. “When Ida B. Wells Took on Lynching, Threats Forced Her to Leave Memphis.” May 18, 2023. History.com https://www.history.com/news/ida-b-wells-lynching-memphis-chicago

[21] Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. New York: The New York Age Print, 1892.

[22] Mobley, Tianna. “Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Anti-lynching and the White House.” The White House Historical Association. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/ida-b-wells-barnett-anti-lynching-and-the-white-house

[23] Cleveland Gazette, 9 April 1898. Reprinted in Herbert Aptheker, ed., A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, 2, (The Citadel Press: New York, 1970), 798. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/56

[24] Mobley, Tianna. “Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Anti-lynching and the White House.” The White House Historical Association. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/ida-b-wells-barnett-anti-lynching-and-the-white-house

[25] “Ida B. Wells,” Special Citations and Awards (The Pulitzer Prizes, 2020) . https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/ida-b-wells

[26] “Remarks by President Biden at Signing of H.R. 55, the ‘Emmett Till Antilynching Act.’” March 29, 2020. The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/03/29/remarks-by-president-biden-at-signing-of-h-r-55-the-emmett-till-antilynching-act/

Images:

Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Ida B. Wells Papers, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Born into Slavery: Historic Charleston.org https://www.historiccharleston.org/research/photograph-collection/detail/slave-cabin-with-child-in-doorway/8C433E91-F909-47F7-AF1F-459819142111

I have a seat and I intend to keep it: Digital Public Library of America. https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/ida-b-wells-and-anti-lynching-activism/sources/1113

Suffragist and founding organizer of the NAACP: Capper’s Weekly (Topeka, Kansas) 01 August 1914, pg. 3.

The Peoples Grocery Lynching: Thomas Moss family-Ida B. Wells Papers, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Her lifelong campaign begins: Cover of Southern Horrors. Public Domain.

Ida B Wells-Barnett goes to The White House: President William McKinley.https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/william-mckinley/

Juneteenth Flag: Lisa Jeanne Graf, who modified the original Juneteenth flag created in 1997 by Ben Haith, the founder of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation. Alvarez, Beatrice. “What Does Juneteenth Celebrate? The History of the Holiday.” PBS, 15 June 2022, www.pbs.org/articles/learn-about-and-celebrate-juneteenth/.