Editorial: The book ban movement grows. Illinois is right to fight back.
“Fahrenheit 451″ is fiction, but America’s dangerous dalliance with censorship reminiscent of Ray Bradbury’s novel is becoming increasingly precarious.
The Chicago-based American Library Association reports that attempts to ban books across the country nearly doubled in 2022 compared with the previous year. The association logged at least 1,200 book challenges last year. In 2021, the group reported 729 challenges. Illinois saw 67 attempts to ban books in 2022, a jump from 41 the previous year.
Illinois Secretary of State Alexiagainst this disturbing trend. He’s behind legislation that punishes book banning by cutting off state grant funds to public libraries and libraries at schools that ban books for “partisan or doctrinal” reasons — or, put another way, succumbing to bullying.
