Library flap in Texas reflects increased local efforts to censor content; 37% of challenges to books in U.S. are in libraries

One of the March front pages of The Llano News

Conservative citizens and politicians are increasingly mounting efforts to remove from school and public libraries books they deem objectionable, as well as working to gain control of library boards to have more say. In Llano Cunty, a community of about 21,000 in the center of the Texas, Bonnie Wallace, a 54-year-old church volunteer, emailed administrative County Judge Ron Cunningham a list of 60 books she called "pornographic filth" and urged him to move the books to the adult section of the county's public libraries, Annie Gowen reports for The Washington Post.

Wallace stopped short of recommending the books be yanked entirely because she worried liberals would counter by censoring books such as the Bible. The list made its way to the county's chief librarian, who told Suzette Baker, head of one of the town's three branches, to consider putting the books behind the counter. Baker said that was censorship, created a display of banned books such as To Kill a Mockingbird, and was fired. Cunningham questioned in an email to Wallace whether public libraries were even necessary, and noted that the county wasn't required to provide one. 

Llano has since "taken works as seemingly innocuous as the popular children’s picture book In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak off the shelves, closed library board meetings to the public and named Wallace the vice chair of a new library board stacked with conservative appointees — some of whom did not even have library cards," Gowen reports. "With these actions, Llano joins a growing number of communities across America where conservatives have mounted challenges to books and other content related to race, sex, gender and other subjects they deem inappropriate. A movement that started in schools has rapidly expanded to public libraries, accounting for 37 percent of book challenges last year, according to the American Library Association. Conservative activists in several states, including Texas, Montana and Louisiana have joined forces with like-minded officials to dissolve libraries’ governing bodies, rewrite or delete censorship protections, and remove books outside of official challenge procedures."

Nationwide political action committee EveryLibrary said there have been "dozens of new attacks" on libraries in 2022. "In some cases, the challengers are being assisted by growing national networks such as the parental rights group Moms for Liberty or spurred on by conservative public policy organizations like Heritage Action for America, the ALA has said," Gowen reports.

In Llano, the library board voted to suspend the county's e-book lending system on the grounds that it didn't have sufficient parental controls, and also closed the libraries for several days before Christmas to review and organize youth books. One board member asked in an email for continued prayers for the librarians' discernment and said the library closure would be "entirely devoted to removing books that contain pornographic content," Gowen reports.

Some books were apparently removed for ideological reasons, such as one about systemic racism by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Isabel Wilkerson. Wallace's initial list of books she wanted removed was heavily populated with books concerning racism, homosexuality, and other themes unpopular with conservatives.

The new library board, which is overwhelmingly white, female and Republican (a local man was denied a seat on the board despite the fact that he has a master's degree in library science) voted to close meetings to the public. The county says that doesn't violate the state open-meetings law because the board, which now must approve all new library book purchases, is operating in an "advisory capacity." However, legal experts say that if Cunningham and the county commission consistently rubber-stamps the board's recommendations, a case could be made for the board falling under the law.

On his website The Bulwark, conservative commentator Charlie Sykes characterized the nationwide trend as "smut-hunting illiterati across the country [who] have risen up against public libraries." But, he wrote, some liberal Americans have also favored censorship with efforts to "cancel" authors such as J.K. Rowling for her anti-transgender views.