Dozens of New Yorkers braved below freezing temperatures Monday to call on Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the Freedom to Read Act, which would add crucial safeguards against book censorship to state law. Authors, educators, librarians, and high schoolers spoke to the Union Square crowd about the dangers of restricting students’ access to diverse literature, with many highlighting banned books that transformed their understanding of themselves and the world.
Award-winning authors George M. Johnson and Leah Johnson, both of whom have been widely banned, emphasized that every student has the right to read literature that features characters whose identities reflect their own.
“The freedom to read isn’t just about the ability to have books that give us empathy and have books that impact us,” said George M. Johnson, author of the New York Times bestseller All Boys Aren’t Blue. “It really is about us seeing ourselves as total and full human beings whose stories are deserving of being told.”
“I am so, so grateful that the people we write for stand up when someone threatens their rights,” said Leah Johnson, author of You Should See Me in a Crown. “You’re not going to just accept a world that says that your stories don’t matter, or that your stories are obscene, or the stories that reflect you don’t deserve a space on every single shelf.”
PEN America, NYCLU and NYCLU’s Teen Activist Project, American Booksellers Association, and NY Authors Against Book Bans jointly organized yesterday’s Freedom to Read Act Read-In in support of S1099. The bill requires the commissioner of education and school library systems to develop policies that empower school libraries to curate collections of “the widest array” of developmentally appropriate materials available.
Addy, a student organizer of NYCLU’s Teen Activist Project, kicked off the read-in by declaring that New York is running out of time. “The governor only has until the end of this year to sign this bill,” she said. “Until she does, students’ access to diverse books, truthful stories, and literature that represents their lives, identities, families and histories remains at risk.”
She introduced assemblymember Tony Simone, the sponsor of the identical House bill, who called it a “no-brainer.” “In a free society, you should be able to access all books, all information,” he said.
Although other states have faced more book bans in recent years, New York isn’t free from censorship. Since 2021, at least 25 books have been banned in the state. Steven Pico, whose challenge of book bans as a high school student led to the 1982 Supreme Court decision Island Trees vs. Pico, reminded the crowd that his school was just 45 minutes away. “Our opponents will never stop trying to silence the voices of others, so each of us has to do our part, because we are going to have to fight this battle again and again and again,” he said.
Loriana Donovan, a middle school librarian from Queens and Councilor-at-Large for NYLA, stressed that the law won’t be superfluous in a blue state. “Every single year, students come to me and they say, ‘Miss, isn’t this a banned book? Am I actually allowed to read this? Will I get arrested?’”
“Students who do have access right now to these books in their schools are hearing so much censorship rhetoric that they are beginning to doubt their own right to read freely,” she continued. “That confusion is exactly what censorship creates: fear, uncertainty, and the sense that their identities or families are somehow inappropriate. We cannot allow this message to take root in New York.”
The bill was sent to Gov. Hochul’s desk on Monday evening for her expected signature. New Yorkers have been able to express their support for the bill on PEN America’s website.
Since 2021, PEN America has documented more than 22,000 book bans in public schools nationwide, robbing students of a greater understanding of themselves and the world.
