Literacy & Justice Project

The American Library Association said a reported 273 books were the subject of attempted censorship in 2020, the majority of which centered on issues of race, gender, and sexuality. 

In January 2022, the Wentzville School District removed copies of The Bluest Eye, the debut novel by Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison, from its school libraries along with three memoirs: All Boys Aren't Blue, Heavy, and Fun Home. 

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, a school board pulled Maus, the Pulitzer Prize winning graphic cat-and-mouse retelling of the Holocaust from the school curriculum. Looking nationally, Gender Queer is #1 on the American Library Association's list of 10 most challenged books in 2021.

Race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, and apparently even history are taboo subjects in the eyes of an extreme minority. While the efforts to resist the rightward turn away from the democratic principle of free expression are multi-faceted and ongoing, we thought we would try to make a difference in real time for folks who lack access to the material being challenged.