Book bans are expanding all across the country. Since 2021, there have been 34,000 books banned in over 40 states. The 2025-26 school year alone saw nearly 12,000 books banned, with red states like Florida and Texas leading the way. This is a record year for bans since the organization PEN began tracking them in 2021.

The proponents of these book bans claim that they are “protecting children” from explicit material and preventing them from indoctrination, but the truth is that book bans are a form of censorship that encourages indoctrination. The authors of banned books are most often from marginalized communities, and by limiting access to these works they are trying to tell a single story of this nation, its history and its people.

Writers that speak truth to power, that dissent against systems of oppression, that force us to take a closer look at our past and map out our future, writers that tell a story about their experiences that counter the story America wants to tell about itself are not only necessary, but they are in many ways a lifeline—because nothing changes in this nation without our ability to name it and face it. These books challenge our perspectives and offer us new ones, giving us the capacity for empathy and change.

Author James Baldwin famously said in conversation with the poet Nikki Giovanni that “no tyrant in history was able to read, but every single one of them burned the books.” Banned books silence voices that have long been silenced in America and follow a disturbing pattern of governments in world history that have tried to silence voices seeking to enlighten the public and effect social change.

As oft banned, world renown writer Toni Morrison once said, “A writer’s life and work are not gift to mankind. A writer’s life and work are its necessity.” Our children and the public shouldn’t be shielded from perspectives that make them uncomfortable, we should lean into this discomfort to learn, grow, and dream of the kind of country we want to live in.

Let’s join together to show the public that we are against book bans and change the public narrative around the banning of essential texts. The censorship of books is one of the early signs of the stripping of our rights and freedom of speech.

Sign this petition to help continue raising awareness about the banning of books in America and put pressure on our elected officials to push legislation that combats this travesty.

Thank you.