Asbook bans targeting Black andLGBTQ+ authors escalate across the U.S.,DemocraticMassachusetts U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley hosted a discussion on protecting marginalized stories Friday at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 53rd Annual Legislative Conference inWashington, D.C. Titled “Books Save Lives: The Power of Black Storytellers,” the panel brought together leading voices in literature, education, and civil rights to confront the growing crisis of censorship and offer solutions to safeguard intellectual freedom.
The event featured a dynamic group of panelists: George M. Johnson, author of the frequently banned memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue; Kimberlé Crenshaw, a legal scholar and cofounder of the African American Policy Forum; Devin Morris, cofounder of the Teachers Lounge; and Leonard Egerton, co-owner of Frugal Bookstore inBoston. Together, they addressed the sweeping consequences of book bans, which disproportionately target works centered on race, gender, and sexuality. In her opening remarks, Pressley laid the issue bare, saying that the surge in bans is part of a “calculated and deliberate white supremacist attack to silence Black voices.”
Related: Ayanna Pressley Introduces Bill to Counter Book Bans Nationwide
At the heart of the discussion was the Books Save Lives Act, legislation Pressleyintroduced in December. The bill is designed to combat the rise in censorship by mandating that public and school libraries maintain diverse collections, especially works by marginalized authors. It would also classify discriminatory bans as violations of civil rights laws. Pressley’s motivation for the bill stems from a broader concern: Book bans are not just about limiting what students read, they represent an attack on fundamental freedoms.
Christopher Wiggins for The Advocate
“We have to fight for our freedom to read,” she told the audience. In an interview with The Advocate after the panel, she added, “Project 2025, written by Trump’s friends for a Trump White House, is causing harm to everyone who calls this country home. They want to ban bodies, they want to ban our books.”
The panelists said they deeply felt these bans’ personal and political stakes; notably, Johnson, whose memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue has been the second most banned book nationwide. Johnson’s upcoming book Flamboyants revisits the stories of 14 Black and queer figures from the Harlem Renaissance, many of whom have been erased from mainstream narratives.
Reflecting on the erasure of queer Black voices, Johnson remarked, “They were all Black and queer, but we all learned about them as being Black, not queer. It’s important that when we’re doing storytelling, that we write about the totality of what a person’s existence is.”
Johnson’s frustration with the limited narratives offered to students of color was palpable. They recounted their experience being assigned books like The Catcher in the Rye in school — stories that did not reflect their reality. “I have to find empathy for people who don’t look like me, who don’t feel like me, who don’t understand my lived experience,” Johnson said. However, the current wave of censorship only strengthens their resolve. In their interview with The Advocate, Johnson described being on banned book lists as “an honor” and invoked literary icon Toni Morrison as inspiration. “You could ban our books, but you can’t ban the story,” they said. “Every time you come at me, I’m just going to come back with another story of queerness that you’re going to have to come at again.”
The panel also explored the broader societal and historical context of book bans. Crenshaw, a leading figure in civil rights law and the originator of the concept of intersectionality, connected the recent bans to long-standing efforts to suppress the experiences of marginalized communities. She pointed out that 23 states have passed “divisive concept bans” to prevent the teaching of materials that cause discomfort or challenge the myth of meritocracy.
“These are substantive ideas that they are trying to erase because they’re trying to erase the power,” Crenshaw explained. “Education is supposed to make people feel uncomfortable. They’re supposed to challenge what they’ve accepted as real.” For Crenshaw, the book bans are part of a broader cultural and political effort to suppress conversations about race, structural inequality, and intersectionality. She told The Advocate, “Fundamentally, the common humanity of all of us is what’s a banned concept. That’s the reason why teachers and parents need to come together, retake school boards, retake our future.”
Christopher Wiggins for The Advocate
The panelists also emphasized the cultural importance of access to diverse literature, especially for children. Egerton, who co-owns the only Black-owned bookstore in Boston, shared how the demand for books by Black authors surged in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, with Frugal Bookstore receiving 22,000 orders in one night. “People were buying every kind of book,” Egerton said, “whether it was young people’s books, autobiographies, social science, racism — they just wanted to learn.”
For Egerton, bookstores like his serve as essential resources for communities cut off from stories reflecting their experiences. “To have this bookstore and to be able to cater to children and young adults, and even adults who are just learning how to read, it’s a special thing,” he said.
Morris, an educator and cofounder of the Teachers Lounge, emphasized teachers’ critical role in creating environments where students can think critically and develop empathy. In a climate where book bans are increasingly shaping curricula, Morris warned that all children — not just Black and brown students — are being deprived of the full spectrum of learning. “Our white babies need the same learning experience,” Morris said. “They need to learn about other cultures. We need to learn about our own cultures if we’re going to have the future that we deserve.”
Morris also stressed the importance of community involvement, particularly in local school boards, which have become battlegrounds in the fight over banned books. “If you value an equitable and high-quality education for our babies, you need to run,” Morris urged.
The panelists repeatedly emphasized that book bans represent not only an assault on intellectual freedom but also an attempt to erase the humanity of marginalized communities. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” Pressley remarked during the panel.
In her interview with The Advocate, Pressley echoed this sentiment, stating that stories from Black and LGBTQ+ authors are essential to understanding the full scope of human experience. “It is so important to have that affirmative representation of your lived experience, of your family model, of your cultural and gender expression,” she said. “It saves lives.”
As the panelists left the stage, the message was clear: While the forces of censorship may be powerful, the stories of marginalized communities will not be silenced. Johnson concluded, “You could ban our books, but you can’t ban the story.”
