GADSDEN — Read Freely Alabama has been facing an uphill battle in its fight to keep controversial books in the children's and young adult sections of the state's public libraries. Now, the group hopes to channel the energy from the recent "No Kings" protest to boost its cause.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, along with Read Freely Alabama, held a public forum in Gadsden on Thursday evening to educate the public about the "threats" libraries face, such as the loss of funding if they refuse to relocate or remove offending books.
Read Freely's public policy director, Krysti Shallenberger, explained how the odds were stacked against them, given the current makeup of the Alabama Public Library System Board, and how the state's current policies on "banning" certain inappropriate books were tantamount to censorship. She also referenced a recent APLS meeting, where 7,000 letters were sent in by "crazies" to support a proposed amendment that would deem gender ideology inappropriate for minors.
"This has been 60 years in the making. This is their moment, their peak moment. They have all the power," she said. "And none of them has read Greek mythology, what they would call classical literature. Because they would know the tale of Icarus. They would know the tale of the Odyssey. They would know the tale of the Iliad. And they would especially know what the word hubris means."
Shallenberger said she didn't want to offer a "false hope," but instead encouraged her supporters to take a stand.
"They are good at turning the angry people out. We just got to be more stubborn. We got to turn out," she said. "So one thing we talked about is how do we make the people and the energy with the No Kings march for libraries… It just takes showing up."
One woman in the audience, who claimed to have worked with the Gadsden Library system for over 20 years, lamented losing the library as her "safe space," and threatened to ban the Bible in retaliation.
"You ban books about my race, the history of my family, or brown people, anybody, I'm going to have the Bible banned. I will," she said. Later, she added, "I love Jesus, but don't come mess with our books."
Laura Pitts, who was on the panel with Shallenberger and Read Freely's co-founder Angie Hayden, said she thought it "would be very funny" if leftists tried to get conservative books banned, though she doubted the strategy would work.
Hayden, who took part in the library controversy in Prattville, said she expected the state legislature to consider again a bill that would apply criminal obscenity laws to public libraries and public school libraries, which she said could lead to librarians being arrested and fined.
"There is a little naive part of me that thinks that this is, as they say, the last dying gasp of this old system of that deeply rooted sexism, racism, patriarchy. And that last dying gasp is pretty violent and pretty strong… At some point, the pendulum has to swing back to some sort of sanity."
She argued that Read Freely and its supporters were in the majority and that every library should have books that "piss you off."
Shallenberger agreed with Hayden, saying she was anticipating "the pendulum to swing back viciously."
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