As Book Banning Campaigns Spread, this Funder is Defending the Right to Read

Amanda Jones was accused of being a groomer and a pedophile, she was trolled and doxxed on social media and snubbed at high school football games. Given this treatment, one might assume that Jones is some kind of deviant. In fact, she is a school librarian — and not just any school librarian, but the 2021 School Librarian of the Year, just one of her many accolades.

Jones’ offense? She stood up at a library board meeting in her Louisiana hometown and said: “Libraries are for everyone.” The comment was part of a three-minute speech against censorship. At a time when conservative activists are attacking libraries and librarians for including books they consider controversial on their shelves, simply opposing censorship has become a flashpoint.

Jones, whose story was reported on NPR’s Here and Now, is just one of a number of librarians who have faced harassment, physical threats, and even criminal charges in recent years. The fury is aimed at books that conservative groups consider problematic, primarily those that elevate the experiences of LGBTQ individuals and people of color.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), last year saw the highest number of book challenges, attempts to remove or restrict materials, since the organization began compiling data 20 years ago. In 2022, there were 1,269 challenges — almost double the number in 2021. Even picture books for very young children are triggering outrage, according to a recent Washington Post report, including one about gay activist Harvey Milk, and another that depicted a Black child’s reaction to a police killing. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are leading efforts to defund public libraries in Missouri, Texas, Louisiana and other states. 

The American Library Association is standing up to these censorship campaigns by supporting libraries and librarians and educating the public, and recently received a $1 million gift from Solidarity Giving in support of its efforts. According to the recent announcement, “ALA will use the funds to provide a major boost for its current efforts to support its members, library workers and libraries everywhere, as well as the communities they serve.” 

Solidarity Giving was co-founded in 2016 by billionaires Brian and Tegan Acton. Brian Acton co-founded WhatsApp, which Facebook purchased in 2014 for $20 billion in cash and stock, a move described by Forbes as “one of the most stunning acquisitions of the century.” 

Solidarity Giving, along with two sister funds, Sunlight Giving and Acton Family Giving, are all part of Wildcard Giving, which the Actons co-chair, as my colleague Ade Adeniji explained in 2021. According to its website, Solidarity Giving was created “to support and defend America’s civic values. It distributes approximately $10 million annually in flexible funding to organizations that advance social justice while centering Black, Indigenous, people of color, immigrants, women and families, and people experiencing poverty.” Other grantees include the ACLU, the Immigration Legal Resource Center, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Actons are among of a handful of funders currently working to combat book bans, including the Dohle Book Defense Fund, part of PEN America; Endeavor Foundation, a New York-based funder backing higher ed and the arts; and the Long Ridge Foundation, a family foundation based in California whose causes include the environment, immigrant rights and gun safety. Open Society Foundations and author Margaret Atwood have also supported such efforts, as IP reported last fall. They join a somewhat larger group of funders taking a stand against the broader education culture wars underway, and are themselves up against a set of conservative funders adding fuel to the fire.

Asked about Solidarity Giving’s support for ALA, Tegan Acton responded in an emailed statement: “Book bans restrict the flow of information and ideas that are essential to a strong democracy and our collective sense of belonging,” she wrote. “Stories play a critical role in creating understanding and connection across communities. At a time when diverse voices and perspectives are being censored, we are grateful to the American Library Association and librarians everywhere, for their work to fight book bans and protect the right to read.”

Threats, intimidation, and organized opposition

The current wave of censorship may have prompted the latest gift, but Brian and Tegan Acton have supported libraries in the past — the Alameda County Library Association has been a grantee, for example. Tegan Acton grew up as a self-described “library kid,” as Adeniji reported. In that interview, Acton recalled going to the library as a child and “poring over books and developing a sort of ‘Kennedy-esque’ commitment to civic responsibility.”

The funding from Solidarity Giving will allow the ALA to, among other things, double the staffing of its Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), which was established in 1969, and “provides a complete program in support of defending the freedom to read in America’s libraries,” according to OIF Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone. OIF advocates for libraries, librarians and the right to read; supports libraries and library staff who are facing censorship demands; and provides library workers and professionals with information about the rights of readers under the First Amendment.

OIF has been tracking data on book censorship for three decades, and has seen calls for censorship quadruple since 2019, with a growing number of books being targeted. One distinctive change Caldwell-Stone has observed in recent years is that instead of complaints from individual parents about a specific book, organized groups are approaching libraries to demand that many books be removed from the shelves.

“What we’re seeing now are demands to remove sometimes hundreds of books all at once,” she said. “We have political advocacy groups trying to remove books that don’t fit their moral or political agenda — without ever having read the book. It’s truly frightening.”

The groups organizing the book challenges include some of the same groups that are behind recent attacks on schools and school boards: Moms for Liberty (and the spin off organization, Moms for Libraries), US Parents Involved in Education, MassResistance, No Left Turn in Education and Parents Defending Education, as well as an number of state and local groups, according to a 2022 report by PEN America. The organization identified “at least 50 groups involved in pushing for book bans across the country operating at the national, state or local levels.” 

Some of these organizations work together and have links to the network of conservative groups and funders backing attacks on public education. The Guardian has reported on some of these links; Parents Defending Education, for example, is headed by Nicole Neily, the former executive director of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF). IWF has received backing from the conservative DAF platform DonorsTrust and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, among other conservative donors. She also worked at the Cato Institute, which was co-founded by Charles Koch.

Moms For Liberty, meanwhile, presents itself as a grassroots group of committed parents, but it has powerful conservative boosters; Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley all spoke at the group’s recent Joyful Warriors Summit in Philadelphia. Publix grocery heiress and Republican donor Julie Fancelli contributed $50,000o to the Moms for Liberty-affiliated PAC in 2022, according to Politico. The Florida PAC supported candidates in local school board races. Fancelli also provided financial support for the Trump rally that preceded the January 6 attack on the U.S. capitol.

Moms for Liberty is a relatively young organization and its 2021 tax forms reveal revenues in the low six figures, but Tina Descovich, the group’s cofounder and executive director, recently told the American Enterprise Institute that its next filings “will show that our revenue sources have grown from merchandise sales and small donors to include large donors, too.”

Unite Against Book Bans

Caldwell-Stone wants people to know that librarians are sympathetic to parents who have concerns about the information their children are exposed to, and there is a process to address such concerns. “Librarians don’t believe they’re perfect,” she said. “They’re dedicated to working with collection development policies they have on the books, to curate collections that serve the information needs of everyone in the community and assures everyone access to those ideas. And of course, everyone has a right to raise a concern about a book, and there are processes and policies in place to allow them to do that. But what we’re seeing instead is the use of threats and intimidation instead of engaging in that deliberative process of civic engagement.” 

Caldwell-Stone herself has received death threats, but she downplays them; she is more concerned about her colleagues around the country. She worries about their safety; she is also afraid that some may be so intimidated by complaints that they won’t make controversial material available.

The ALA, boosted by the funding from Solidarity Giving, is working to provide support for librarians so they don’t feel besieged and isolated. The organization’s Fight Censorship web page offers confidential guidance for librarians facing book challenges, legal support, financial support for those who face termination or are threatened with job loss, and safety resources. ALA’s affiliate site, Unite Against Book Bans, tracks book challenges, provides advocacy materials and toolkits — including guides for attending library and school board meetings —and organizes an annual Right to Read Day. 

Every book, its reader

For Caldwell-Stone, the book challenges aren’t just attempts to restrict information, but to silence diverse voices. ALA’s list of the Top 13 Most Challenged Books of 2022 includes newer books like “Gender Queer,” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” as well as titles that are staples of middle and high school reading lists, including Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” and Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.”

“These groups are targeting books that deal with the lives and experiences of marginalized groups — LGBTQ people, people of color, Indigenous people — and trying to take those stories, those voices off the shelves and out of the library,” Caldwell-Stone said. “That sends a message of exclusion to those to whom those stories are important.” 

Librarians have a reputation for being reserved and soft-spoken, but ALA isn’t shy in its determination to defend the rights of all readers — and to provide backing for those working on the front lines. 

“You know, there’s a phrase in librarianship: ‘every book, its reader,’” Caldwell-Stone said. “The role of the librarian is to make sure every reader finds that book — maybe its the book that helps that reader understand there’s a wider world out there, and gives them the support and guidance they need to persevere in their life. It happens that we’re in a time when some find that precept controversial, which I find incredibly saddening and tragic. But we’re going to do our best to equip our members with the ability to meet those information needs, no matter what they are.”