Candice Huber, Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Bookshop, New Orleans, LA

We all know that book bans and challenges aren’t new. Many of us have been fighting this fight for a long time. Recently, here in Louisiana, as in many other places, we’ve had an onslaught of book challenges. There is a very organized group going around the state and challenging the same books in each place, trying to get them removed from public libraries, or at least cordoned off into a “special” section. In February, this group decided to hit my local library in Jefferson Parish. Through a coordinated grassroots effort, we were able to stop them. Here’s how we did it!

First, it’s important to establish relationships with your local librarians. Because I am friends with mine, they came to me almost immediately to let me know that a book challenge was happening and to ask for my help. This book banning group had challenged twelve books in the library, and due to the current process, the books had been removed from the shelves and placed in the Library Director’s office “pending review.”

Since this book banning conglomerate had already struck in Lafayette, Livingston, and St. Tammany, I was aware of several groups that had already been through this, as well as a state level anti-censorship group. I got in touch with those groups, and they were more than willing to share information with me on who these people were, their tactics, and what had already worked and not worked for them in fighting against censorship. I spent some time gathering information, talking to these other groups and the librarians, contacting ABFE, looking at the Unite Against Book Bans website to get talking points, and researching our hyper-local government.

One of the major differences between Jefferson Parish and other parishes is that our library board is an advisory board only and not a control board, meaning they have no power over the book challenge process at the library. In our parish, the Parish Council, particularly the Parish President, is the final authority. Since I knew this, the first thing I did was create a Facebook group and an email address to find like-minded citizens who are concerned about book banning. The state level anti-censorship group and the other parish groups were extremely helpful in getting the word out about our group, and as folks joined, they invited other people, and our group quickly grew. 

Once the group was created, I posted all the resources, talking points, and some email and phone call scripts I wrote and asked folks to call and email their Parish Council representatives to ask for the books to be added back to the shelves and also to show up to the next scheduled meetings of the library advisory board and the Parish Council. Through our grassroots efforts, we had more people at the next three meetings than anyone from the opposing side.

I also personally emailed my local government official who presides over the library (here, they’re called Chief Administrative Assistants) to let them know that I was concerned and angry about my First Amendment rights being violated and asking that they put the challenged books back on the shelves until the review process was complete. Due to both the group and my personal pressure on our local government, the decision was made to put all the challenged books back onto the shelves while the review was still in process.

We continued to advocate to the library board and to our Parish Council members. When the review process was complete, the committee found that the challenges were unfounded and that the books would remain in the library where they were currently shelved. At the most recent council meeting, our Parish President really stood up for our libraries and librarians and made a solid stance against censorship. Through having solid relationships with local librarians, research, knowing our opposition, creating a grassroots movement and coordinated strategy for contacting our council people, working with other groups across the state, and knowing our local government systems and people, we were able to put a stop to this particular book ban! 

The fight against censorship is ongoing, though, and we’re hoping our efforts and strategies are effective in the state legislature as well. Our group is currently helping to fight censorship at the state level by sending representatives to speak against censorship bills in state senate committee meetings and by creating scripts and asking our group members to continue to email and call their state representatives to voice their opposition to these bills. We also know that this book banning group isn’t finished, and we’re prepared to help other areas they target. Now that we have a solid group, good knowledge of our local government, and are continuing to build relationships and fight censorship locally across the state, we have a much stronger position to fight censorship at the state level, and we hope to stop it there as well. 

Books targeted by the book ban:

• This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
  
• Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth
  
• Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas
  
• Confess by Colleen Hoover
  
• Breathless by Jennifer Niven
  
• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  
• Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
  
• Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
  
• My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis
  
• Flamer by Mike Curato
  
• Being You: A First Conversation About Gender by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli
  
• A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas