Book Bans 
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SOURCE: Education Week
3/16/2023
Confusion Over Book Bans in Florida is a Feature, Not a Bug, of New Policies
The state education commissioner of Florida, Manny Diaz, has insisted that the state is not banning books. Civil liberties and library groups say that vague laws and public threats of prosecution are pushing educators to remove books without technically being forced to do so, which is the point.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
3/16/2023
Meet Some Librarians Fighting Back
Librarian Mary Grahame Hunter says libraries are places where children's rights and intellectual autonomy are respected. Some in her Michigan community are working to change that.
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
3/10/2023
What are the Evils and Dangers Targeted by Book Bans?
A study of the books flagged for restriction in Duval County, Florida in the last two years suggests that a particular political vision is driving the bans, focusing on LGBTQ themes and racial and religious diversity. But a fear of adolescents' developing autonomy also seems to be in play.
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SOURCE: The Hill
3/3/2023
At its 150th Anniversary, the Comstock Law is Relevant Again
by Jonathan Friedman and Amy Werbel
Anthony Comstock drew on elite connections to give himself near unilateral power to confiscate "obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, or immoral" materials —terms he was free to define on his own—and prosecute people for possessing them. Right-wing politicians seem to be inspired by the example.
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2/22/2023
America Fought Its Own Battle Over Books Before it Fought the Nazis
by Brianna Labuskes
The Armed Services Editions paperback books were wildly popular among World War II servicemembers. But they became symbols of American freedom to read in the war against fascism only after a bitter domestic battle about the works and topics that would be permitted.
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SOURCE: The Guardian
2/14/2023
Drop "Culture War" Description: Banning Books and Restricting Ideas is Fascism
by Jason Stanley
Conflicting cultural values are a normal part of democracy. What leaders like Ron DeSantis want is to make sure only one set of values has a place in the public square.
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SOURCE: African American Policy Forum
2/12/2023
African American Policy Forum Announces #TruthBeTold Campaign
The AAPF is launching an interactive project to monitor efforts to ban books, censor classes, and punish teachers, and to offer reader the opportunity to share their valued experiences with antiracist education.
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SOURCE: Why Are We Like This?
1/28/2023
The Case of the Disappearing Libraries Feat. Judd Legum
Journalist Judd Legum has been following the story of Florida teachers whose districts have told them Florida's new educational laws require them to close or remove their classroom libraries unless all the books are specifically approved by the state.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
1/31/2023
Florida Districts to Teachers: Hide Your Books or Risk Felony Charge
After requiring that both classroom libraries and school libraries have their contents vetted by trained media specialists, Florida delayed publishing the training for six months; amid uncertainty two school districts have told teachers to cover up their books.
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SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
1/24/2023
College Faculty: After K-12, Curriculum Laws are Coming For You
by James Grossman and Jeremy C. Young
State colleges involved with concurrent enrollment programs that allow high school students to take classes for credit are already susceptible to laws purporting to fight "indoctrination" in the secondary school curriculum. More intrusions on academic freedom are coming.
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SOURCE: Popular Information
1/9/2023
Students of Teacher Behind 150+ Book Ban Requests Detail History of Racism, Homophobia
by Judd Legum
The classroom conduct and public social media statements of a Florida teacher who is exercising the provisions of new legislation to ban books presenting Black perspectives on racism show that the law can easily be hijacked by motivated bigots.
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SOURCE: New York Times
12/12/2022
The Network of Groups Fueling the Spread of Book Bans
"In practice, the books most frequently targeted for removal have been by or about Black or L.G.B.T.Q. people, according to the American Library Association."
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SOURCE: Politico
10/24/2022
MAGA Mom Activists Heavily Represented on DeSantis Book Review Panel
Both transparency and expertise seem to have been ignored in the selection of conservative activists to staff a Florida panel implementing new restrictions on school libraries and in-classroom reading materials.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
10/17/2022
Book Bans Today Recall 1950s Panic over Comic Books
by Jeremy C. Young and Jonathan Friedman
Child psychologist Fredric Wortham had fough Jim Crow by theorizing the damage caused to Black children by segregation. He had a less likely role in supporting the idea that lurid plots in comic books would create a generation of emotionally damaged adults.
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SOURCE: The Conversation
9/20/2022
Book Bans Reflect Outdated Views on How Children Read
by Trisha Tucker
Research shows that children are not vessels into which books pour ideas, but co-creators of meaning as they read and process a book. Yet today's moral panic imagines books breaking down barriers between innocent childhood and a corrupt world.
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SOURCE: New York Times
9/16/2022
American Library Association: Book Bans Accelerating
“It represents an escalation, and we’re truly fearful that at some point we will see a librarian arrested for providing constitutionally protected books on disfavored topics,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the office of intellectual freedom at the library association.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
9/12/2022
Today's Book Bans Might be Most Dangerous Yet
by Jonna Perrillo
Today's book banners have broadened their attention from communist themes in textbooks and are attacking young adult literature titles that students are choosing to read, a much more significant intrusion on freedom of thought.
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SOURCE: PEN America
8/17/2022
PEN America: The Nation's Censored Classrooms
by Jeremy C. Young and Jonathan Friedman
"The restrictions and chilling effects of gag order laws threaten to destroy the climate of open inquiry required in free and democratic educational institutions."
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SOURCE: Washington Post
8/9/2022
Fighting Back Against Book Banners
by Margaret Sullivan
Attempts to ban books from public libraries are a threat to democratic culture and should alarm all Americans, argues Post columnist Margaret Sullivan.
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SOURCE: Texas Tribune
5/17/2022
Texas Librarians Face Harassment as they Navigate Book Bans
While some librarians in the state have been fired for refusing to comply with bans, many others have or are contemplating quitting over political interference with their work and social media harassment.
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