Tennessee news has my stomach churning. To comply with the legislature’s newly mandated guidelines, Knox County Schools recently banned several books including Alex Haley’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Roots, which depicts the horrors of enslavement. Two weeks later, the county…
House Republicans want nationwide book bans
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are trying to pass a bill that would codify nationwide book bans. House Resolution 7661 was introduced last month in a purported effort to prevent minors from accessing sexually explicit literature and other…
In conversation with Leila Green Little
In the last five years, conservative politicians and activists on the local, state and national levels have ramped up attacks against books about race, diversity, LGTBQ identity and American history. One of the most visible battles took place in the…
When book bans enter the classroom, students lose
On a recent trip to my public library, as I was scanning my books, a young boy next to me asked the librarian behind the desk how many books our library branch has. The answer was in the tens of…
Judges strike down book bans in Texas and in military schools
The last five years have seen an unprecedented rise in book bans in public libraries and schools, but two slow-moving court cases have overturned bans in Texas and at schools serving students in military families. In July 2023, Texas’ GOP-dominated…
Book banners almost always motivated by religion, speaker says
Proponents of book banning may differ in the titles or subjects they want to suppress, but they almost always are motivated by religious beliefs, college senior Katie Turcke observed during a recent webinar on censorship. The Pomona College student said…
Florida parents fight for right to get books restored
Three parents are appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit contending Florida violated their constitutional right to contest the removal of books from public schools. The target of the initial lawsuit and the appeal is a 2023 state law providing a…
Politicized pastor seeks library limits to ‘protect children’
Bill Bolin, the Michigan pastor who politicized his pulpit and was profiled by author Tim Alberta, now leads a local library board and is intent on “changing the sexual tone and nature of some library policies and practices.” Bolin was…
Most books banned from Naval Academy are back on shelves
Nearly all the 381 books pulled from the U.S. Naval Academy Library in April are back on the shelves after the Pentagon instituted its own criteria for banning books. “I am thrilled to report that, as a result of the…
Banned Together documentary challenges ‘book burnings’
Amid a plethora of culture war issues dividing America today, book bans are among the most visible and controversial. From Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth banning books at the U.S. Naval Academy to parents attempting to ban books in public…
Hegseth bans books by Jones, Butler, Wallis, Angelou and Kendi
Books by Robert P. Jones, Anthea Butler, Jim Wallis, Maya Angelou and Ibram X. Kendi are among the 381 volumes banned from the U.S. Naval Academy library by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth last week. “It is heartbreaking and frightening…
Reports of school library book bans were a ‘hoax,’ Trump appointees say
All those worries about book bans in public school libraries was just a “hoax,” according to the Trump administration. The acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education made that declaration in a Jan. 24 news…