Fight Book Bans; Save Democracy!

On a dark, cold mid-winter’s night, a group of people stand shoulder-to-shoulder, huddled against the sharp wind. Some of them are nervous, but all are angry. Their town—their children—are in danger. Something must be done.

Suddenly, their faces are illuminated against the night as a bonfire roars to life. As the flames climb high above their heads, a preacher addresses them in a fiery speech. He rails against the devilry infecting society. Sorcery. Witches. Evil. As the conflagration reaches its peak, people begin to step up to the fire—tentatively at first, then with conviction—and begin throwing books into the flames.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the scene described above was from a previous, less-enlightened century, where pitchfork- wielding townsfolk burned heretics at the stake, or perhaps a passage from Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, which famously depicts firemen who burn books.

This particular book burning, however, took place outside of Nashville, Tennessee in February 2022. A white, evangelical nationalist led his congregation in a massive book burning. The book that sparked the event? Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, by Jewish writer Art Spiegelman, first published in 1986.

Some may recall the headlines when, in late 2021 and early 2022, a flurry of school districts banned Maus from schools (along with other Holocaust-focused titles). Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, both the original version published in 1947 and the more recent Anne Frank’s Diary: the Graphic Adaptation by David Polonsky and Ari Folman, have been the target of similar bans over the last few years. In 2022, a school district outside of St. Louis removed all of its Holocaust-themed books from schools (though some of these were later returned to shelves).

While the outcry against these removals was loud and swift, book banning in schools has continued to flourish, especially with the growing popularity of ultra-conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, which the Southern Poverty Law Center defines as an “extremist.”

The numbers tell the story: PEN America, the nonprofit at the forefront of fighting book bans, recorded 10,046 instances of book bans in school libraries during the 2022–2023 school year, a number three times higher than the previous academic year. Early signs point to 2024–2025 being a similarly devastating year. Numerous states, including Florida, Texas, Utah, Idaho, South Carolina, and Tennessee, have already passed legislation that supports book bans, some of which even mandate heavy fines and/or jail time for school librarians who offer banned titles. These include Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

It’s not just school libraries that are facing book bans either. According to the American Library Association, 2023 was a record year for bans and challenges in public libraries, as well, increasing a staggering 92% over the previous year.

No matter how cool (and wonderful) it is to see big bookstores embracing displays of “banned books,” the truth is, libraries and classrooms are where most young people access books. The books at the center of these bans are overwhelmingly written by and about historically-marginalized groups, especially LGBTQ+ stories and those written by people of color. Call Me By Your Name, by Jewish author André Aciman, is one example; others include All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson, This Book is Gay, by Juno Dawson, Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, and And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell, Justin Richardson, and Henry Cole.

Feminist classics have also topped many frequently-banned book lists over the past few years. Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood titles are frequently targeted by censors, as are those by Jewish writers. In fact, PEN America’s list of the 19-most banned books of 2023 contains seven written by Jewish authors, including fantasy author Sarah J. Maas. Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes, which is about a school shooting, tops the list as the most-banned book of the year. Picoult, a wildly popular novelist, has become a vocal opponent of these bans.

And the banning is organized. That is, while complaints by parents about individual titles once comprised the majority of book challenges, well-funded groups like Moms for Liberty are overwhelming school systems by demanding sweeping bans on entire topics. They have the power—and deep pockets—to create long, expensive legal battles that public schools can ill afford. As a result, many libraries are resorting to “soft” bans, in which certain authors or topics are quietly pulled off shelves as a preventive measure. School Library Journal found that 47% of school librarians admitted to having voluntarily removed a book in 2023. That’s up from 42% in 2022. I suspect the real number is even higher.

These censorship groups, and the legislation they’ve inspired, often use vague language to describe the content of the books they wish to suppress, claiming they contain “vulgar” or “sexually explicit” material. These catch-all terms are in fact used to eliminate anything that falls outside of the groups’ agenda. Maus, for instance, was banned from schools in McMinn County, Tennessee—a ban which inspired the above-mentioned book burning—on claims of “vulgar language” and “nudity.” A few swear words and an image of a naked corpse, people claimed, overrode the story’s important Holocaust narrative.

Fighting local book bans doesn’t just feel good: it actively helps kids. There have been numerous studies that confirm the negative impacts the book censorship has on youth, both in terms of self-esteem and learning outcomes. For instance, a 2022 report by the Trevor Project revealed alarming results about the mental health crisis in queer youth; banning books that share queer stories further isolates this already-vulnerable group and increases the stigma around them. Access to diverse books expands students’ worldviews and encourages empathy among different identity groups. Studies by the Anti-Defamation League link better Holocaust education with more empathetic attitudes toward Jews, a broader intolerance for oppression of any kind, and negative views of extremist, fear-based politics. It’s no wonder that people were devastated when Holocaust books were removed from schools en masse. The learning outcomes offered by diverse books, including Holocaust stories, have the potential to uphold what is left of democracy and tolerance in America.

What, then, can the average “person of the book” do to stop this onslaught of book bans? How can we make sure that we— our kids, friends, and community—have access to diverse books that will allow them to see themselves, and the issues they face, reflected back at them? How do we help maintain—or regain—resources that will foster empathy rather than divisiveness?

Start local: talk to librarians. Librarians are in many cases the first and only line of defense when it comes to book bans, and are often willing to talk to supporters. Ask them (and school administrators) who selects the books for the library? What happens if a parent or outside community member objects to a particular book or subject? Has this happened to them before? Have they ever been pressured to remove books from the catalogs? Knowing the basic policies and what you’re up against are important first steps.

Share your findings with others in your community. While book bans remain widely unpopular, there is a loud minority threatening our libraries; it is crucial for administrators and librarians alike to know that the anti-ban crowd is present and vocal, as well. You can also check out PEN America’s national database of book bans and challenges. It is comprehensive, user-friendly, and searchable, making it easy to check for bans by school district.

Attending PTA and school board meetings. While not realistic for everyone, these are useful ways to hear what’s happening with school libraries. Martha Hickson, a New Jersey school librarian and anti-censorship activist, encourages people to look out for policy changes on the agenda of school board meetings, especially any that have to do with “curriculum, textbooks, library resource materials, or diversity. Most of these policies,” she told the New Jersey ACLU in 2023, “are fairly stable and have been on the books for years. Changes now may indicate the influence of pro-censorship groups.” She also encourages people to pay attention to who is speaking at public meeting, noting some of these book censorship crowds may organize online and “roam from town to town.” They may not be from your community and thus shouldn’t have sway over local policy.

It is important to contribute nationally, since—for now, at least—book bans tend to be highly concentrated in certain states, often ones where other aspects of public education are also coming under attack. Living someplace with protections in place doesn’t mean that you can’t help elsewhere. There are a number of organizations that already have boots on the ground in these battleground states. The groups Get Ready Stay Ready and Unite Against Book Bans have educational materials and advice on concrete steps to fight book bans. Organizations like the Texas Freedom Network and Florida Freedom to Read provide opportunities for anyone—no matter where they live—to help undo the damage already done in these two states.

Make no mistake: book bans are political and meant to encourage a narrowing of readers’ views of the world, to support white Christian nationalism, and to erode democracy. We must take an active part in revealing what many of the banned books have to offer: that history has lessons for the present,
that everyone’s story matters, and that being near others with different backgrounds and experiences enriches our lives and our communities.

Leah Grisham, PhD, is an Ohio-based writer. You can find her work (and attempts to distract herself from the real world) on Instagram @Leahshewrote.