subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties held a hearing on attempts to ban books in k through 12 school libraries and curriculums witnesses include high school students school employees and civil rights activists. ruby bridges beginning now on book tv portions of this hearing good morning. thank you to all of our witnesses for joining us today. thanks to all of the members participating. we're in the middle of votes. so there's going to be a little bit back and forth in classic congressional style in in a very happy to be here with the wonderful ranking member of this committee, ms. nancy mace. in 1943 in west virginia versus burnet the supreme court struck down compulsory flag salutes as a violation of the first amendment stating if there's any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it's that no official no matter how higher petty shall prescribe what shall be worthodox and matters of politics religion nationalism or other matters of opinion or for citizens to confess by word or act their faith. they're in then in 1969 in the case called tinker versus des moines school district, which struck down mary beth tinker suspension from middle school for remusing for refusing to remove her black armband in protest of the vietnam war the court-affirmed that neither teachers nor students shed their first amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate. in 1982 most relevant to our hearing today in board of education versus pico the supreme court rejected the effort by a town school board in new york state to strip. objectionable books from public school libraries. the members had gone to a conference promoting censorship of offensive and vulgar books and came back with a target hit list the kind of hit list, which is now familiar to us including slaughterhouse-five by kurt vonnegut beth short stories of -- writers edited by langston hughes go ask alice by an anonymous author black boy by richard wright and after widely brandishing a compilation of the most prurient and luried and profane passages the board actually over-road its own censorship committee, which he recommended purging only two books from the schools and went ahead and sent her nine of them when the case made it to the supreme court the majority sided with the students who recing that the removal of books from the school library affected a form of political and ideological thought control totally anesthetical to the first amendment of the constitution just as brendan who had into the court by republican president eisenhower announced the judgment of the court and delivered an opinion that was joined by justice john paul stevens who had been nominated by president ford justice harry blackman who had been nominated to the court by president nixon and justice thurgood marshall who had been nominated the court by president johnson. so this was a decision dominated by supreme court justices who had been nominated to the court by gop presidents, which is something that we need to think about because i hope ms that everything we talk about today will transcend the traditional party lines in board of education versus pico justice brennan found that the constitution protects not just the right to speak and to write but the right to receive information and ideas the first amendment plays the central role in affording the public access to discussion debate and the dissemination of information and ideas freedom of inquiry the court ruled. to school libraries and the selective removal of books from school libraries because someone considers the content offensive. directly and sharply implicate students' free speech and thought and school libraries the regime of voluntary inquiry holds sway the answer to books whose content or viewpoint you oppose or even deplore check out this powerful logic is to not read them or to write a negative review or even shades of voltaire here to write your own book and answer the first amendment. i used to tell my constitutional law students is like abraham lincoln's golden apple of liberty. it's like an apple and everybody just wants to take one bite out of it. somebody hates left-wing speech and somebody hates right-wing speech and wants to sense or in somebody hates hate speech about gay people and someone wants to censor speech about the love lives of gay people and someone wants to sense or mark twain's huckleberry finn because it uses the n word and someone else wants to censor ebraham. kennedy's anti racist baby because they think it means that babies can be racists. everybody wants to take just one or two bites. apple but if we allow all those bites, there's no apple left the freedom of speech disappears the way to save the apple for all of us is to learn to tolerate the speech you abore as well as the speech you agree with it's not always easy, but this is incumbent upon people living in a free democratic society if we cancel or sensor everything that people find offensive. nothing will be left. everybody is offended by something and that's why other people's level of offense cannot be the metric for defining whether your rights or my rights are vaporized. there's a famous story about lenny bruce the somewhat risque comedian from the middle of the last century and someone said his show should be shut down because it offended him and lenny bruce said from the stage. my parents came to america in order to be offensive and not to be thrown in jail for it. now during national library week a time to celebrate intellectual curiosity scholarship freedom of inquiry and free expression basic intellectual freedoms are under attack again in 2021 the american library associations office for intellectual freedom recorded the highest numbers of sensorious challenges to library books in its 20 years of tracking this data 729 efforts to censor nearly 1600 books and in texas, just one of these attempts to censor books implemented by state legislator has initiated the systematic review of at least 850 books in every school district in the state. there are over a thousand school districts in 8,000 public schools in the lone star state. this challenge will require tens of thousands of teachers librarians and administrators to spend hundreds of thousands of hours reviewing the books to implement a regime of censorship at a time when school resources are already stretched thin and states across the country are facing teacher and staff shortages. the vast majority of books being targeted are not mandatory or part of the curriculum. they are books of choice students can pull them off the shelves if they want to and check them out or they can ignore them entirely. what books are being targeted. well, some old favorite targets are back like catra in the rye native sun huckleberry finn, i would also let's see what they're also a bunch of these books. i brought here seahorse. we're gonna hear today from the great ruby bridges whose book ruby bridges goes to school has been the target of censorship moves the bluest eye by tony morrison, which is a who is a nobel prize-winning author kids book about racism has been targeted for censorship a book called hair love. the infamous anti-racist baby book little legends exceptional men in black history and finally little dreamers visionary women around the world. so these are some of the most common books that are being targeted right now. obviously, it's a legitimate subject for parents teachers principles and school boards to discuss which books are the best and most age-appropriate curricular choices for different age groups and grades. this is what educators do and the best ones include families parents and experts in the decision making process all across the country, but that normal curricular and library selection process is completely different from whipping people up into a moral panic over the use of this or that word or passage in a book and then demanding it's removal from a school library fashions and censorship change for a great deal of our history books were censored because they were considered indecent or politically subversive. for example the slavery system like uncle tom uncle tom's cabin, which was seized censored and burned in many southern states as propaganda many books are being targeted for censorship these days simply because they address racism or white supremacy as historical or sociological realities or address human sexuality or lgbtq issues because the protagonist or author is gay or a person of color or for some other allegedly objectionable reason, finally. quite sure where this is if you can. give me this i wrote a book which was censored called. we the students or i'm sorry, forgive me. i correct myself. it has not been censored yet, but it's being targeted for removal from the schools in texas. we the students was amazingly sponsored by the supreme court's own historical society it analyzes the constitutional freedoms of young people in public schools. it looks at a whole bunch of cases that affect kids in public schools like censorship of newspapers in your books and locker searches and drug testing and i am certain now that it must be the first book ever sponsored by the supreme court's own historical society, which is now being targeted for censorship. i only wish that the aspiring sensors would read my discussion of board of education versus pico at page 59 in my book before they censor it because it tells them everything they need to know about how it is illegitimate to strip books from school libraries because somebody disagrees with it. okay, so the books on the poster boards have all been targeted for censorship. we're actually banned from schools. this is your time by ruby bridges a remarkable figure in the american civil rights movement who we have donor of hearing from today has been challenged and targeted for censorship a censorship why simply because it said that a book describing the story of how little girl who was one of the first to integrate public schools in her native, louisiana in the midst of racist. backlash may make white children feel uncomfortable and this i think radically understates the powers of empathy compassion and solidarity that all children or most children have in our capable of developing it also suggests that the actual lived experiences of people should be suppressed if learning of their experiences would make other people uncomfortable a far-fetched unworkable and on just principle that cuts against the fundamental american idea of free. expression. all right with that i'm going to turn it over to ms. mace for your opening statement. thank you, mr. chairman. i should have brought my book in the company of men a woman at the citadel this morning. i brag about your book all the time. yeah, but thank you mr. chairman, and please have the opportunity today to highlight the importance of freedom of speech in our country as well as the important work to ensure that k through 12 curriculums and public schools serve our students. well the first amendment to the constitution guarantees the right of freedom of speech to all americans in the first amendment states that congress shall make no law a bridging the freedom of speech the government mainly set reasonable time place and manner restrictions in very limited circumstances. the government cannot police a speech of its citizens, even when that speech is disagreeable or rigpugnant when they say it aloud. sometimes we want to know what what they have to say. we don't punish that criminals in this country unless of course, you're maybe a main character in orwell's 1984 freedom of speech isn't just illegal mandate and strained in our constitution. it's essential element to democracy. fundamental freedom insures all views across the spectrum are debated within the marketplace of ideas and public institutions of higher education are bound to abide by the first amendments prohibition on restrictions on freedom of speech yet often in this country. we see attacks on that very freedom public universities and colleges frequently run a foul the first amendment freedom by enforcing broad or overly broad speech codes or by chilling speech across college campuses using bias response teams to investigate thought criminals. there have been disturbing campaigns on these campuses to expel students fire faculty or dis invite speakers who hold views that are considered to go against the progressive consensus or group think these universities and colleges are unlawfully stifling speech to coddle young adults at a time when they're educational careers in their educational careers where they should be exposed to a variety of ideas and perspectives while progressive activists shut down speech on college campuses. they're trying to hyper expose young children who are still learning to read. right ad and subtract and i can personally remember a story when my kids were in elementary school, and i was driving them home pick them up from the carpool line school that day and they had a government lesson on government democracy versus socialism versus communism and i asked them which ones best and they said socialism so i pulled over on the closest exit off the interstate and had a conversation about the differences and then they walked out of that conversing says no mommy democracy is the best form of government for the united states of america in an effort to indoctrinate our young students progressives are burdening curricula with devices and radical ideology such as race essentialism racial scapegoating and content of a sexual nature. that's not appropriate oftentimes for very young children. all children should be taught the academic skills. they need to succeed along with the history of our country the good the bad and the ugly we must also teach our children about the problematic chapters in our history. and we must also teach them about the heroes who lead us and have led us to a more perfect union. in fact one of those heroes today is joining our hearing today ruby bridges. you mentioned earlier a civil rights icon and author who made history as a six year old girl courageously braving a hostile crowd to integrate and all white elementary school in louisiana and in my home state of south carolina, we have so many of those heroic stories. that should be taught in our schools from harriet tubman who rescued 750 slaves in one night in buford county, south carolina to joseph p rainey who was the first african american represent in the us house of representatives who represented by the way, south carolina's first congressional district seat that i sit in today paul book school should exercise discretion with parental input and oversight to decide what is included in their curricula and what books to include in their libraries especially for young elementary school students, but no child attending our public schools should be subject to government and doctrination or exposed to radical. allergies while they're still building the foundations of their education instead. we ought to be teaching critical thinking skills. so college-age students can discern argue and act on those values when faced with open and frank academic discourse, and of course our high school students, even if they aren't going to college should be prepared to enter the workforce when they graduate i think all the witnesses for appearing today and looking forward to robust discussion on the first amendment freedom of speech and how we can together work together to preserve that freedom for every single american. thank you chairman raskin and i yield back. thank you miss for very thoughtful opening statement before i introduce our witnesses and swear them in. i just want to state that penn america just released a report this morning finding that from july 1st of last year to march 31st of this year. there were 1,586 book bands that were implemented across 86 school districts in 26 different states 41% of the band. had protagonists or prominent secondary characters of color 22% directly address race and racism and 33% explicitly address lgbtq issues so though, that's not a majority. that's a lot of where the action is. and of course there are the traditional targets that we know of like catra in the rye and huckleberry finn and george orwell's 1984 and so on now i want to introduce our first panel of witnesses who are all high school students olivia patook who is a student from york county pennsylvania. finally. we'll hear from christina ellis. who's also a student from york county pa. the witnesses will be unmuted so we can swear them in please stand and raise your right hands if you can do that. do you swear firm? the testimony you're about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god. let the record reflect the witnesses of all answered in the affirmative. thank you. good morning. and thank you chairman raskin ranking member mace and members of the subcommittee for this amazing opportunity. i'm olivia patouk. i'm a senior at century york high school a member of the lgbtq+ community and activist and the secretary and social media advisor of the panther anti-racist union known as peru of century oak school district in pennsylvania. in late august an article published by a local news source revealed of the century york school board had banned an extensive list of resources including books articles movies and more all written by by poker lgbtq+ authors containing bipolc or lgbtq+ characters or about bipolar lgbtq+ awareness in history. the book list specifically included materials such as i am enough or yeah, i'm enough by grace byers. i am rosa parks by brad meltzer and malala my story of standing up for girls rights by malala. all of these resources would help to not only aid buy pocket in lgbtq+ students and embracing themselves in their identity, but would also spread awareness and educate all students on the importance of diversity. when this list was pushed out as a banned book list. i was appalled central being the most second most diverse district in the county preded itself on diversity, but this band silenced by punk voices and frankly announced that their identity was were not welcome. with the help of my fellow students christina ellis the vice president of peru idagupta the president of peru renee ellis our communications director and rebecca delgada are our artistic director and our amazing advisors ben hodge and patricia jackson. we stood up to this act of discrimination. in the beginning we organized small peaceful protests that were located outside of the high school ending 15 minutes before the school day began. these caught the eye of local press and news outlets. this was no longer between a few students our story voices and messages were broadcast on many local channels and expressed an articles through interviews and coverage of the peaceful protests. media coverage helped the community receive 3,000 books from the list to hand out for free to community members and helps two community protests take place. it has been a hard journey in loving myself as a member of the lgbtq+ community. i've been surrounded by amazing people who help me through and offered advice friends who are also members of the community, but not everyone is this lucky? many kids find refuge and going to school and being within an inclusive community but as education on inclusion slips away that safe haven does too. i have heard slurs being thrown around lgbtq+ kids being made fun of verbally her abused and more. ignorance is very real. it is important to teach inclusion and equality. it is important to have representation. i deserve to walk into my school library and find a book with someone like me. this is why education on inclusion is important and necessary. without it those kids who came to school for safety and acceptance will no longer have that safe spot. too many kids have attempted suicide harmed them