Last fall, the American Library Association compiled a list of books that have been targets of censorship, challenged for inclusion in the collections of school and public libraries. 1,269 books were challenged in 2022.
That’s almost double the number of books that were challenged the year before.
Most of the books are about LGBTQ communities, or are stories and histories centered around people of color.
Republican Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has made “anti-wokism” a central tenet of his campaign for President, and a central issue in his on-going feud with Disney. Around the country, conservative activists are seeking to limit what kids can access in their classrooms and curriculums.
Today on Midday, a conversation about what criteria teachers, parents, politicians and boards of education are applying in the contentious fights around book censorship.
Tom first speaks to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the Director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association.
A little later in the program, Tom speaks with Jolie McShane, the President of Republican Women of Baltimore County and Jeffry McDonald, the President of the Patriot Club of America, a group based in Baltimore County.
They have been working to have two books removed from Baltimore County school libraries, “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe.
(Update: June 1, 2023)
In this interview, Jolie McShane and Jeffry McDonald claim that the Bible, the Quran, “Catcher in the Rye” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” have been banned from Baltimore County school libraries. This claim is false. Gboyinde Onijalam, a spokesperson for the Baltimore County Schools, shared with us in an e-mail after the interview, “We have more than 50 copies of both Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird in our library collections. We also have multiple versions of both the Bible and the Quran in our collections as well.”
Tom also speaks with George Johnson, the author of “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” another book that is among the most frequently targeted for removal from libraries across the country.
