Banned Books Week: Stories of Censorship
Students in the bridge experience course LI 202, Free to All: Public Libraries in U.S. Society, researched cases of censorships in public libraries over the last two centuries. Using primary sources they wrote short reports about these cases and designed corresponding posters for Banned Books Week. Browse this guide to learn about the variety of cases in libraries.
Course Instructor: Johanna MacKay
Poster and Report by Gretchen Gwitt '26
Update: The Rockwell Falls Library had a grand reopening in April 2024.
The Rockwell Falls library, part of the Southern Adirondack Library System, sits in a small mountain town on Lake Luzerne, New York. It is a crucial part of the town, hosting events and offering resources for those in its community. One of the events it holds is two weekly story hours for children. In April 2023, the library announced a one-time event: Drag Queen Story Hour. Library staff expected it would be controversial, but they could not have been prepared for what happened next. Bomb threats. Fist fights at board meetings. Nationwide Press. Hospitalizations. And the temporary closing of the Rockwell Falls library. The backlash to Drag Queen Story Hours is a nationwide occurrence. There have been bomb threats in Brooklyn and protests by the Proud Boys in California, Ohio, and Maryland. However, all these contentious nationwide issues grew under a microscope in Rockwell Falls, a town of only 1,400 people. After posting the Drag Queen Story hour on Facebook a week before the event, Rockwell Falls’ social media page was flooded with comments, both supporting and protesting.
At the board meeting following the announcement, Josh Jacquard, a father of three and a leader at Victory Bible Baptist Church in Porter Corners, a town near the Rockwell Falls, came prepared with statistics and arguments against the story hour, calling the event a “transvestite story hour," and said the library board was trying to impose the values of New York City or Portland on Rockwell Falls (Leland, “How a Drag”). Many parents supported Jacquard’s arguments. Less than two days later, the library canceled the event, but the anger of the parents lingered. The normally empty board meetings were now attended by angry parents and community members, led by Jacquard. There were often arguments with Jacquard standing off against library managers and those who were outspoken in support of the event. Slowly, library staff resigned until it was impossible to keep the library open. In September 2023, after 53 years of serving the community, the Rockwell Falls Library closed.
The kids are affected the most by the closure, one taped a handwritten sign on the door reading: “I Miss the Library” (Leland, "Opposition to Drag"). Reopening is in the works, but there is still much tension. Jacquard, now on the board, is seeking board presidency, even though he does not get along with some of his board members. Anger still spills over and the children, who some claim they want to protect, are hurt the most. The community needs to build trust again, but no one can predict how long that will take. As for now, they are not sure when the library will reopen.
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