The fight against book bans by public school librarians shown in new documentary

John Yang:

Public school libraries across America have become battlegrounds in the culture wars. In a coordinated nationwide effort, groups are pushing bans on books they consider to be inappropriate for school age children. A new report from Pen America, the literature and human rights group, says that in the 2024-'25 school year, there were more than 6,800 book bans in U.S. public schools. 80% of them were in just three states, Florida, Texas and Tennessee.

A new documentary called "The Librarians" examines the experiences of school librarians who found themselves on the front lines in this battle against censorship, often at the cost of their well-being and their jobs.

Woman:

Part of the ethics of our profession to support the First Amendment and fight censorship.

Woman:

I've had former students reach out to me that have told me books have saved them. I'm going to speak out about it.

Woman:

This is not a communist nation. You do not get to pick our reading material.

John Yang:

The film will be shown in more than 50 cities across the country beginning today, which is the start of Banned Books Week, sponsored by the American Library Association and the Banned Books Week Coalition. Kim Snyder is the director of The Librarians, and Audrey Wilson-Youngblood is one of the librarians featured in the film. Kim, what drew you to tell this story and also tell it through librarians?

Kim Snyder, Director, "The Librarians": Well, back in the fall of 21. I had seen news about something that was called the Kraus List, when a state senator in Texas issued a list of 850 books to be removed from school shelves. And they were mainly targeting books that had LGBTQ characters, race, and sexuality.

And I then learned about a small group of librarians in Texas calling themselves the Freedom Fighters, who were speaking out and connecting with librarians, including Audrey, who I soon after became connected to and really hearing from librarians all across the country that were facing attacks. And, you know, we've been hearing about the book bans, but this siege on librarians was something I felt that was really important to document. And so for the past four years, that's what we've done.

John Yang:

We should say that in the film, you show a number of the threats that are being made against librarians who are opposing these book bans. Let's take a look.

Man:

I'm doing a criminal investigation into some of your staff.

Woman:

I cannot imagine my face on the wanted poster and my friends being taken away in handcuffs.

Woman:

You're coming for teachers and librarians, and they know it.

John Yang:

Audrey, we heard you in a little bit of you in that clip. We don't see you because you were shot in silhouette, but then later in the film, you do show your face. What made you decide that you wanted to stand up and be seen and be known?

Audrey Wilson-Youngblood, Librarian:

The urgency behind the message and the call to action in the film required me to be brave like the other collaborators in the film. And my hope is that just that one act of resilience and courage might inspire other librarians to speak up and to tell their stories and tell the stories of their students whose reading materials are being pulled from the shelves. And it really wasn't a choice from there.

John Yang:

Audrey, why is it important for people who live in states and communities where there aren't these book ban campaigns to be aware of this and to be aware of what's going on in other places?

Audrey Wilson-Youngblood:

I don't think there's many places that are really immune to what is happening. And the more that it spreads, the more it's likely to come to your community and to impact where you are as well. We hope that no matter where people are in their communities, whether it's impacting them directly, that they will turn around and tell someone the story and bring the films to their communities so that when and if this does begin to happen, they'll know how to respond and they'll form a network and they'll form their own movement so that they can counter it.

John Yang:

Kim, how did the communities where you filmed react to you? And I don't know if they've seen the film or not and react to the film.

Kim Snyder:

It's been really heartening to see the nerve. This is striking. There's certainly a really alarming, I think, reaction to the film, but also really hopeful because you see people like Audrey and some of these other, not just librarians, but people in places where they really have a lot to lose, there's a lot of risk, and they're doing it to really uphold some of the most fundamentally American values.

John Yang:

Audrey, what do students, the students you work with, tell you about the effect these bans are having on them?

Audrey Wilson-Youngblood:

In their own words, they would tell me that they felt like when people wanted to remove books that featured characters with similar experiences to them, that they felt like it meant that those same people wanted them removed from schools.

One student said, they don't want books like this in the library. They must believe that I don't belong here either. So they absolutely saved a connection between the censoring of these stories and an intolerance, a violence against their own lived and personal experiences.

John Yang:

Kim, these, as Pen America says, this has become normalized, these book bans. What is it that you want audiences to walk away with?

Kim Snyder:

I think what we want audiences to walk away with is that we see in the film, the hope in the film is not only the courage, but the agency that there is a certain agency in standing up for what right, what you believe in these values, in protecting kids rights and to really get involved. School board races really matter. Elections not in such in the sense of a partisan fight, but just in the sense of knowing how policies in your town and the library board, how they affect your librarians, your libraries. And we want people to, you know, take cues from our courageous characters in standing up for what's right.

John Yang:

Director Kim Snyder, School librarian Audrey Wilson-Youngblood, thank you both very much.

Audrey Wilson-Youngblood:

Thank you.

John Yang:

Thank you.