Banned Books

story by Hope Cox, photos by Keaton Weyers, design by Faith Johnson

According to the American Library Association (ALA), there were 821 attempts to censor library books and materials in 2024, with 2,452 unique titles targeted. Book bans have been around for centuries, but in recent years these attempts have been steadily rising in number.

This ever-increasing list of challenges and bans is causing concerns and frustrations in not just the CWU community, but the nation as a whole. PULSE spoke to both students and campus faculty to gauge their thoughts and feelings on this matter. 

Anna Gillihan, an English language arts teaching major, says she feels afraid and frustrated. “It does scare me a lot, just as someone who is going into English education and going into library science… I know how important having diverse books is for students, but I also know that it has the potential to put me at risk,” says Gillihan.

The acts of challenging and banning books greatly impact our country, especially future generations. According to Gillihan, banning books hinders our ability to connect with others who differ from us by limiting our access to different perspectives. Gillihan says, “I think a lot of problems we have in society are a lack of generalized empathy because people just won’t see the world from different points of view.”

Chapter 1: Censorship and the Push to Ban Books 

According to Gillihan, the push to censor and ban books is an effort to silence our voices and alienate minorities. Gillihan says, “This is an attempt to silence our free speech. It is an attempt to push us even more into those divided bubbles where we are not talking to each other and we are not listening to each other. It is an attempt to silence anyone who is in the minority.”

Senior Lecturer of Archives and Special Collections Marty Blackson speculates that desire for control and a divide amongst people could be contributing factors. According to Blackson, the control aspect of banning books comes from people wanting to “push their views on everyone.” This is amplified by the media encouraging these divisions, causing what Blackson considers to be a “feedback loop,” where a person’s views stay within their own circle and don’t broaden to let in other perspectives.

Similarly, Elizabeth Brown, a senior lecturer in the library sciences department, says she feels that banning books is connected to the restriction of freedoms. “I feel concerned. I think that this is indicative of our changing democracy or unraveling of freedoms, because your freedom to read is intertwined and wrapped into your freedom to think.” According to Brown, the freedom to read any book of a person’s choice is gradually being taken away as books are being removed from public libraries and schools. “I think that the freedom to read is directly tied to your freedom to self-educate, to pursue your interests, to self-actualize, to be yourself,” says Brown. 

Chapter 2: Publishers Respond

In 2024, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, Sourcebooks and Simon & Schuster joined forces to file a lawsuit against Florida state public officials. The lawsuit aims to challenge unconstitutional provisions of House Bill 1069 and return the judgment of evaluating books to trained educators.

HB 1069 has the power to remove books deemed as depicting “sexual conduct” from public school libraries, without considering their educational value. As stated by the HarperCollins Publishers press release, this violates the Supreme Court verdict expressed in the cases of Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 [1973] ... and Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205 [1975], in which the court established a test for determining obscene material. 

According to the ALA, the Trump Administration issued Executive Order 14238 in March which aimed to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This put nearly all of the staff on leave and ended grants issued by the agency, which halted data collection and research. 

In response to this executive order, the ALA and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed a lawsuit. According to the ALA, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a temporary restraining order to block the executive order. 

Brown speculates that this executive order could be related to the book bans. Brown says, “I think that the current moves to try to dismantle the IMLS are trying to create a less educated populace, because libraries and museums are there for people … as a free source of education, as a free source of Internet access.” 

Epilogue: How You Can Help

Gillihan's advice to readers is to support the community when there is a book challenge. Gillihan says, “Support your libraries. Support your schools. Be on their side during these arguments because they are getting a lot of pushback, and it is up to us to prevent that.” This is a crucial time for people to come together in support of the freedom to read any book.

Blackson emphasizes that this form of censorship weakens people’s rights to freedom of expression and speech. “If you can tell people what they can and cannot read, you can tell people what they can and cannot say or do.”