BOISE, Idaho – Banned Books Week, a national awareness event held by the American Library Association to promote public access to literature, ended Saturday. A sweeping book ban limiting content with Black or LGBTQ+ characters continues to be enforced throughout Idaho.
The book ban, was drafted by the Idaho Family Policy Center to limit student access to books with Black, feminist or queer themes in school libraries.
“Together we will build an Idaho where God is honored, religious freedom flourishes, families thrive, and life is cherished,” a press release from the policy center said when the book ban became law.
The impact of the bans was immediately evident in the At the Donnelly Public Library, before their children are allowed into the building to look at books.
Notably, some Idaho libraries celebrated Banned Books Week with events and prizes. The Idaho Falls Public Library hosted Banned Books Bingo to mark the occasion, and the Library Alliance of North Idaho celebrated banned books Wednesday in Post Falls.
Literary and media figures including Ava DuVernay, George M. Johnson LeVar Burton are associated with Banned Books Week and voiced their opposition to laws targeting Black and LGBTQ+ content.
“Our freedom to read is a cornerstone of democracy,” Burton said via social media Wednesday.
According to PEN America, around 10,000 books were banned in public schools during the 2023-2024 school year, about triple the number from the previous academic calendar.
“The stark increase includes books featuring romance, books about women’s sexual experiences, and books about rape or sexual abuse as well as continued attacks on books with LGBTQ+ characters or themes, or books about race or racism and featuring characters of color,” PEN America’s preliminary 2023-2024 book ban report said.
Book bans have become a popular political issue amongst Republican lawmakers, with Idaho, Utah and Florida joining other predominantly conservative state legislatures in limiting literary access for students.
The first book ban recorded in American history took place in 1650 in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and ended with a pamphlet burning. In more recent national history, the Cold War era brought an onslaught of book bans supported by Senator Joseph McCarthy (R), who argued that books like “Robin Hood” and children’s books about sharing were secretly supporting communism.
Arthur Miller’s landmark play “The Crucible” drew a connection between the anti-literary climate of colonial Massachusetts Bay with the America of the late 1940s after he was questioned by McCarthy’s House Committee on Un-American Activities for his writing.
Some academic leaders have voiced their support for reading limitations in eastern Washington, but a 2024 Legislative Session law restricting book bans across the Evergreen State has made it legally unlikely that a school board could limit literary access anywhere in Washington.
