We must not let our history books be banned and burned | Letter
My book, “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice,” has just been banned in Texas. That makes three states — Rhode Island, Texas and Tennessee — where the true story of a 15-year-old girl, whose bravery sparked the civil rights movement, has been pulled from library shelves, tossed into a dumpster and burned.
This growing movement is led by our leering president, who has deemed the telling of civil rights histories about women and minorities as “inherently racist, sexist (and) oppressive.”
When I got the news of my book’s Texas banishment through Reddit, I sent a crowing message to my social media friends, which was returned with fist-pumping congratulatory messages.
But my enthusiasm has faded. When I consider the steep price for removing my book and many others from the shelves, I feel anger and dread. As Debrorah Caldwell Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, puts it, “Each demand to ban a book is a demand to deny each person’s constitutionally protected right to choose and read books that raise important issues.”
We must protect these stories and make them available to young readers. We can’t let them shovel dirt over our embarrassing times and difficult moments. We learn and grow as a nation by facing fully even our most shameful episodes.
The banned book movement is spreading. Reddit reports that — in Texas alone — 1,781 books were removed during the 2024-2025 school year.
We must act to keep these stories available to the young people in our lives.
Phillip Hoose
Portland
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Tagged: featured letter, letter to the editor
