A First Amendment is non-negotiable. Nationwide, we’ve managed to uphold freedom of speech. However, from state to state, the First Amendment is faltering. Freedom of speech helps to build a democracy, and without it the voices of the people are silenced. Book banning in schools and public libraries is a direct violation of the people’s freedom of speech. A direct silencing of the people and we cannot let our freedom of speech falter in any state of our nation. When looking at the books that have been banned, we can see it clearly is. There is a common theme of what books are deemed “inappropriate:” books that cover stories of the people who are not categorized as white upper class. Children, teens, and adults shouldn’t be shielded from the stories of marginalized groups. The inequities in representation will only repeat themselves if we let book banning continue. Books are about telling a story—how is it fair to limit which stories can be told?
Covering topics like LGBTQ+ these banned books usually go against conservative ideals. Seeing these books in school libraries has upset some highly conservative communities. In 2023, Terri Lesley, director of Campbell County Public Library, was fired from her job for refusing to remove books with sexual and LGBTQ+-themed content. Two years later, she sued her employers, stating that this termination was a violation of the First Amendment. She received a $700,000 settlement, which raised awareness of the controversy of book banning. Terri Lesley is not the only librarian to be fired for similar reasons. Suzette Baker was a librarian in rural Texas who was fired for refusing to remove books with anti-racist and LGBTQ+-themed content. She received a $250,000 settlement. There are other stories like these; Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, and Florida are just a few places where book banning has been challenged. Although these lawsuits are a step in the right direction, there needs to be more pushback from the people. We can’t sit back and idly accept these violations of the First Amendment. By removing these books from public libraries and school libraries, communities are removing the truths of people’s lives and their freedom of speech.
These children’s books educate and show young girls and boys that it’s okay to feel different; they don’t have to conform to the norm. If we fail to send this message to the younger generations, it will only push us back further. Not only do these banned books contain LGBTQ+ content, but some of the books have been banned from schools because they speak of magic in good and bad ways. A Catholic school in Tennessee banned the Harry Potter series because it portrayed magic as something that could be good, and the Reverend at this school believed that by reading these books a child could conjure evil spirits. The Harry Potter series is something most children read. It contains adventure, the importance of friendship, hardships, magic, and whimsy. All these themes are taught throughout this book while telling a story of a boy without a family. Banning Harry Potter deprives children of the magic that has been in many of our childhoods.
According to PEN America, in the 2023-2024 school year, 10,046 books have been banned from various schools and libraries, up from 2,532 in 2022. This is a concerning jump in numbers. This is 10,046 instances where someone’s voice was silenced. It’s unjust and against what the United States says they stand for. Books like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Glass Castle are two books that have been banned in various libraries and schools around the US. These two books contain sexual assault, violence, and truth—truth about these women’s lives. We cannot continue to ignore the uncomfortable stories no matter how hard we try. Dystopian novels such as The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testament are banned in various libraries as well. They are said to contain mature themes and sexual content, and some go as far as to say that they feel oddly too close to the societal problems of today. Dystopian novels are meant to comment on the world of today, and they show people how extreme a world can get when the people are silenced. The US is a collection of our own stories; if we let powerful people choose which of these are told, we will only lose the plot.
