Pennsylvania currently ranks 3rd nationwide in hateful book bans focused on sexual identity and racism, behind Florida and Texas.
Extremist school boards are restricting access to literature as an attempt to silence the diverse perspectives and voices vital to understanding the challenges and complexities of living in a democracy.
According to the literary advocacy group PEN America, books are being banned in an “unprecedented fashion” through the coordinated efforts of extreme right-wing interest groups, including Moms for Liberty.
Book bans have turned public schools into political battlegrounds, divided communities, targeted teachers and librarians, and chilled the spirit of open inquiry and intellectual freedom needed for a flourishing democracy.
Extremist groups who want to literally whitewash history and censor ideas in schools have banned 459 books in eleven districts in Pennsylvania. TPAB will be there to fight them every step of the way.
The most banned authors include Nobel laureates, winners of the Booker Prize, the Newberry Award, the Caldecott, and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.
Students from historically marginalized backgrounds are disproportionately impacted as the stories that validate their lives are disappearing from classrooms and libraries.