The Resistance: Five People Standing Up to Book Banners
With the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week set to begin on Sunday, September 22, a week of events will serve to celebrate diversity in literature and to remind Americans that, in the words of former ALA executive director Tracie D. Hall, “free people read freely.” But for many librarians and educators on the front lines of who have found themselves under fire—and in several high profile cases, literally fired—for defending the freedom to read has come at a steep cost.
For our freedom to read issue, PW recently caught up with five people who are bravely standing up to the censors.
Civil rights attorney Iris Halpern has a lot of experience fighting for the constitutional rights of her clients. But she hasn’t represented many—if any—librarians over the course of her career. That is, until now.
In September 2023 Halpern made national headlines when she negotiated a $250,000 settlement for librarian Brooky Parks, who was fired from her job at Erie (Colo.) Community Library in 2021 for daring to promote anti-racism and LGBTQ history workshops for teens. A partner at Denver-based civil rights firm Rathod Mohamedbhai, Halpern specializes in cases involving employees victimized by discrimination. And her client list now includes several librarians and educators, including two librarians with active court cases: Suzette Baker in Llano County, Tex., and Terri Lesley, the longtime Campbell County (Wyo.) Public Library director, who was fired in dramatic fashion last fall for refusing to censor LGBTQ books.
“I’ve had to become an expert very quickly,” says Halpern, when asked about the issues facing the librarians she now counts as clients. But, she adds, it didn’t take long for her to recognize the strategy being used by book banners in libraries and schools across the country, and, maybe more importantly, in state legislatures.
Terri Lesley
For 27 years, Terri Lesley was a fixture at the Campbell County Public Library in Gillette, Wyo., the last 13 years as director. “I grew up in Gillette,” she says. “I know a lot of people and have made a lot of connections in the community over many years.” But like so many librarians caught up in this wave of book banning, she didn’t see the end coming until it was too late.
The first warning shots were in summer 2021, when a handful of local activists objected to a Pride Month social media post by the library, and later a transgender magician’s scheduled appearance at the library. From there, things continued to escalate, with one particular family (multiple members of which Lesley is now suing for civil rights infractions and defamation) even reporting the library to the sheriff after finding a handful of LGBTQ-themed books in the teen section. That move garnered national headlines but no charges. And the library board at the time backed Lesley.
Suzette Baker
For Suzette Baker, former head of the Kingsland Library in Llano County, Tex., being a librarian was her dream job. As ex-military, she found purpose in serving. She loved making fun, quirky book displays. And she understood the importance of the work she was doing.
“If you look at a country and you look at their libraries, the freedom that exists in the library reflects the freedom that exists in the country,” she says. “So, if freedom is what we want in our country, then freedom is what we must have in our libraries.”
Brooky Parks
Today, Brooky Parks works as a business and economics reference librarian at the University of Denver. But from 2019 to 2021, she served at northeastern Colorado’s Erie Community Library. “When I was in grad school, I didn’t want to go into school libraries, because I thought I’d have to deal with more censorship,” Parks says. “I decided to go into public libraries. But it’s not safe there at all.”
In Erie, Parks organized an LGBTQ book club for teens, and youth anti-racist programming. But after a handful of patrons complained, the High Plains Library District canceled her projects. When she protested, the district fired her.
Read the article in its entirety at www.publishersweekly.com