JALSA in State House News Service on Combating Book Bans

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Excerpt from Lawmakers weigh standard to guard access to library books

Over the course of the hearing Wednesday, representatives of several civil rights groups came forward to speak.

“Personally, I am horrified that today, in 2024, I have to be testifying in front of a state legislative committee in the United States of America in defense of the right of people to read books,” said Cindy Rowe, president and CEO of the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action. “Book bans are tactics designed to control what ideas people can be exposed to, warping our perception of the world around us. Further, book bans are attempts to control our understanding of history in order to whitewash it. Efforts to combat book banning, like this legislation, are how we stand up to authoritarians, white nationalists, and others who would use division as a political tactic to keep us from coming together in a thriving democracy rooted in equity, empathy, and opportunity for all.”