GET EDUCATED

Texas Freedom to Read Project supports, connects and mobilizes parent and community member-led initiatives fighting for student rights and against censorship and book bans in Texas https://www.txfrp.org.

United Against Book Bans is a national initiative to empower readers to stand together in the fight against censorship. It provides toolkits to take action, tracks data on book bans, partners with mission-aligned organizations, and offers a free collection of book résumés to support librarians, educators, parents, students, and other community advocates in their efforts to keep frequently challenged books on the shelves https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/.

American Library Association is the world’s oldest and largest library association and offers numerous resources to assist library workers and advocates to respond to book banning challenges. It also compiles data on book challenges from reports filed by library professionals in the field and from news stories published throughout the U.S. . https://www.ala.org/.

PEN America works to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others. Together with the PEN International Network, it champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. PEN America tracks all book bans in libraries and classrooms across the U.S. https://pen.org/.

Freedom to Read Foundation is affiliated with the American Library Associationand promotes, protects and defends the First Amendment to the Constitution and supports the right of libraries to collect - and individuals to access – information. https://www.ftrf.org/page/About.

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is the American Booksellers Association’s advocacy arm for promoting and protecting the free exchange of ideas, particularly those contained in books. It opposes restrictions on the freedom of speech; issues statements on significant free expression controversies; participates in legal cases involving First Amendment rights; collaborates with allied groups with an interest in free speech; and provides education about the importance of free expression to booksellers, other members of the book industry, politicians, the press and the public. https://www.bookweb.org/abfe-free-speech.

BE AN ADVOCATE

1. Report book bans and censorship to the American Library Association (https://www.ala.org/). Reporting censorship and challenges to materials, resources, and services is vital to defending library resources and protecting against challenges before they happen and also provides valuable data for future reporting.

2. Know your school board members. Follow school board elections and vote!

3. Attend your local library or school board meeting and provide public comment when the need arises. Most book ban battles are being fought on the local level, and attending local meetings and/or offering public comments are critical actions you can take to fend off book bans. Bring your support crew: your friends, parents, or teachers. And if permitted, take photos and share your experience. People are more likely to act if they see you setting an example.

4. Start a “Banned Book” Club.

5. Read a banned book to your child or grandchild.

6. Empower the youth, who are the most affected, to speak out against book bans through advocacy via talking with legislators and others about the fight for the freedom to read.

7. Buy banned books and put them into neighborhood free libraries

8. Watch Sebastian Padilla’s documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU1MnBALZI4

9. Write letters in support of students’ rights to read, and against book bans to the State Board of Education, your state legislator, and the State Legislature’s Education Committee.

10. Speak out against book bans whenever and wherever you can. Use social media platforms or the press to express your support for keeping books in classrooms and libraries. Write letters to your school board, school leaders, and library administrators, and encourage others to do the same. Let them know what kinds of books you want access to and remind them that you’re keeping tabs on whether or not they acknowledge your demands. Here are suggested talking points from https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/

a. Reading is a foundational skill, critical to future learning and to exercising our democratic freedoms.

b. We can trust individuals to make their own decisions about what they read and believe.

c. Parents have the right to guide their children's reading, but parents should not be making decisions for other parents' children. Specifically, a small group of parents should not dictate what books other people's children are allowed to read.

d. Books are tools for understanding complex issues. Limiting young people's access to books does not protect them from life's complex and challenging issues.

e. Young people deserve to see themselves reflected in a library's books.

f. Removing and banning books from public libraries is a slippery slope to government censorship and the erosion of our country's commitment to freedom of expression.

g. Reject any efforts to ban books and allow individuals and parents to make decisions about what they can read and believe

11. Publicly testify or write letters in support of students’ rights to read, and against book bans to the State Board of Education, your state legislator, and the State Legislature’s Education Committee (will re-convene in January 2025).

12. Sign up to watch the legislature online and prepare to spend a day in Austin to testify to the Education Committee, if necessary.