Letter from a Reader 8.27.25
Our library just won a crucial victory against book banners that shows how to defeat groups like Moms for Liberty
In a citywide election yesterday, our embattled small-town library won a crucial victory in its fight against book banners. It also showed others nationwide what it takes to defeat groups like Moms for Liberty that want to limit the freedom to read. In three words: “Resist. Organize. Vote.”
A headline on a political news site here in Alabama summed up what happened last night: “Fairhope Council Candidates Backed by Book Banners Go 1 for 5.”
Or, as a friend put it in the first text that landed on my phone today: “Good morning. Library survives to fight another day.” That was exactly right. While our library won its latest battle, more lie ahead.
Earlier this year, the Alabama library board cut off funding for the Fairhope Public Library because its staff had refused to move some books to the sections it demanded. It could do this because the board had adopted new guidelines it saw as intended to protect minors from "sexually explicit" material. These allow it to deny funds to violators. As the New York Times reported a few months ago, ours is believed to be the first U.S. library defunded by a state.
The Alabama library board had cut off our money under pressure from groups like Moms for Liberty about certain books, typically involving sex or LGBTQ issues. Our library reviewed the challenged books and moved some to different sections but kept others on shelves its staff found appropriate. Elected council members backed the library at public meetings, and a crowd-funding campaign by residents immediately raised the $42,000 the state had withheld.
Moms for Liberty and other groups weren’t satisfied by our library’s willingness to compromise by moving some books. So they fielded a slate of candidates to oppose council members who wouldn’t kowtow to the ruby-red pols in Montgomery.
Supporters of the library organized and got out the vote, and last night we learned the results. As al.com diplomatically put it in a headline this morning: Moms for Liberty didn’t “fare well” in the election, even in a conservative town where more than 75% of residents for voted for Trump in November.
Why libraries need local control
You might wonder: Why did our library’s fight matter? Why not just bow to the Moms, move a few books, and avoid costly and time-consuming battles?
The fight mattered because it was at heart about more than a few books. It was about something bigger: Libraries need local control to meet the needs of their communities.
Cities and towns in the same state can differ vastly in their demographics. A suburb with a lot of children usually needs to carry every book on school reading lists, often in multiple copies. One with a heavy population of retirees or snowbirds may need few or none. Local politics matter, too. Even here in redder-than-red Alabama, cities and towns differ in what their residents need. Baldwin County, where I live, is more conservative than nearby Mobile County.
Librarians are in the best position to know how differences like these may affect what their communities need. Tying their hands hurts adults and children alike.
What happened in Fairhope has made cities and towns elsewhere in the state fearful that they could lose funding, too, and may not be able to replace it as quickly as ours did with crowd-funding. Our money had been approved. But the state could legally withhold it after Alabama Public Library Services adopted new guidelines last year that they see as intended to protect minors from "sexually explicit" material. These allow it to deny funds to violators.
We’re already seeing the absurd results. Take what’s happened in nearby Spanish Fort, Alabama. It had carried Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human in the young adult section before complaints led to moving it to the adult section.
Even more bizarre is what happened there to two board books for babies: Daddy, Papa, and Me and Mommy, Mama, and Me about same-sex parents. The library had them in the children’s section, but after complaints, moved them to the young adult section.
By happenstance, I stopped by our library on Monday to pick up a book about Hurricane Katrina before its 20th anniversary on Aug. 29. On the way out, I paid a 90-cent fine on an overdue book billed as “a field guide to all things Southern,” which explains the expression, “Bein’ ugly.” The phrase, it notes, isn’t about how you look but about the choices you make: “Talking back to your momma? Bein’ ugly.”
If I were to add an example, I might say to our politicians: “Depriving babies of board books? That’s bein’ ugly.” And putting them in a young adult section where no self-respecting teen would pick them up? That’s bein’ really ugly.
Jan Harayda is an award-winning critic and journalist in South Alabama who has written for many national media. Jan has been the book editor of a large newspaper and a vice president of the National Book Critics Circle.
Help me pay my next library fine:
Selected Notes:
https://www.alreporter.com/2025/08/27/fairhope-council-candidates-backed-by-book-banners-go-1-for-5/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/us/fairhope-alabama-books-libraries.html
https://www.al.com/news/2025/08/see-results-from-this-alabama-citys-library-centric-elections.html
https://gulfcoastmedia.com/stories/spanish-fort-public-library-adopts-new-policies-restricting-material-from-youth,265676
If I were to do it all over again, I think I would be a librarian. The older I get the more I see them as the indispensable resource they are, not just for learning but for community especially. At the branch closest to me books are almost secondary to everything else that is going on, all of it important.
Fairhope has such a wonderful library; I'll actually be covering it next month. I'm scheduling interviews with Fairhope residents about how the library has made their lives better. Folks are really eager to talk about how much this library means to them!