A Texas county has reversed its decision to place a children’s history book about the Native American experience, “Colonization and the Wampanoag Story,” in the fiction category of the local library.
The decision angered the world’s largest publishers, literary freedom organizations, and many community members.
The Texas community of Montgomery County, near Houston, reclassified the book after forming a citizen review committee, keeping committee meetings secret and excluding librarians from deliberations. This change was promoted by conservative Christian groups.
“Recent decisions by commissioner-appointed commissioners have outraged not only our community but the entire nation,” Teresa Kenney, a Montgomery County resident and founder of Village Books, said in a recent interview with county leaders. stated at the meeting.
“Nowhere in the approved policy is the commission’s authority to decide whose history is fact or fiction,” she added.
Texas is the second most book-banned state in the nation, with more than 1,500 books removed from 2021 to 2023, according to PEN America, a nonprofit literary freedom organization. Florida is the only state that has further banned 5,100 titles.
“To claim that this book is fiction is to deny our perspective and our history,” said Debbie Reese, founder of American Indian in Children’s Literature, who wrote about the book’s reclassification. said in a statement when it was revealed.
“Books like Colonization and Wampanoag Stories are important for Native children because they affirm our existence as Native peoples in the modern day. Because those kids are shaped by the information in books. If we all knew history in a more informed way, this country would be better off,” Reese said. Ta.
The decision to reclassify the book became public in mid-October after a free-speech advocacy group’s open records request revealed that the history book had been reshelved in the fiction category.
Michelle Nuckols, a mother who homeschools her children and is one of the advocates for challenging books, told commissioners at the meeting that the recent changes were a success.
“The new policy is working,” Nuckols told the committee in mid-October, according to the Houston Press. “Citizens will serve as jurors appointed by each of you to review the books and consider placements based on community values.”
Nuckols helped found Two Moms and Some Books, a self-proclaimed Christian conservative group. The Press said Nuckols also frequently attends local school board meetings, even though she has no children in the district.
The group advocates for books primarily about sexuality and transgender identity to be moved to more “restrictive” adult sections of libraries, and for more Christian books to be added to bookshelves.
In addition to “putting on hold” all decisions of the Resident Review Board, Montgomery County Commission members said they will form another committee to review library regulations, including those surrounding the Resident Review Board. . According to Lone Star Live, the new commission will be made up of county employees and will receive advice from the county attorney.
