“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book…”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower
I think, as a librarian, one of the things that upsets me most about the state we find ourselves in as a nation, is the sheer contradiction of something we have heard since we were young.
The idea that the voices of the many outweigh the voices of the few.
It is something we are taught way back in Elementary School. When you vote, the majority of votes wins. It is the basic tenet of a democratic society. For this to no longer be the case, it means you have veered away from a true democracy.
Unfortunately, this seems to be where we are right now.
I am not speaking about our voting system. Rather, I am speaking about many of the instances we have seen in these blog posts alone. Instances of the majority of voices speaking out against book banning and/or censoring, and being ignored in favor of the minority speaking in favor of it.
That is again on full display in our report today.
Today, we are traveling to Alamance County and their recent dealings with book censoring.
Alamance County is located directly east of Guilford County, in the Piedmont Region of NC. It is home to several cities and towns, including most of Burlington and Graham.
The county has seen its fair share of controversy before. Reports of racist policies and discriminatory practices against minorities have circulated.
The picture here comes from a protest by the Black Lives Matter movement, and other similar movements, as they protested a confederate statue in the town of Graham, as well as the racist practices of the police and other officials. Counter-protestors came, waving their confederate flags, to show their support of the “status quo”.
We can see there is already turmoil in this county, so it is no wonder that it found its way into the libraries as well.
As far back as 2022, the Alamance County school system has seen numerous book challenges and banning.
As many of you may remember, former Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson had created what he called his “F.A.C.T.S. Task Force”. This task force was his supposed attempt to investigate and uncover “bias” and “indoctrination” in the state’s schools and libraries. In reality, this was an extremely controversial move that caused certain right-wing groups to form and rise to more prominence.
One such group calling themselves “FACTS Task Force 2.0” formed in Alamance County and brought forth complaints in 2022 about several books. Two of these books, Lawn Boy and Gender Queer, we have seen banned in other counties in these posts.
As I am sure will be no surprise to anyone, the “Task Force” found its list of books from the Pavement Education Project (PEP). The PEP is well-known for being a right-wing conservative group of people who want the removal of books they disagree with from schools and libraries. They have lists of books in various school systems that they have curated based on the content. All the books are labeled as to what their objection to them is and is maintained by a group of volunteers searching publicly accessible databases. The link to the page can be found here.
The Task Force claimed that their eventual goal was/is to “get the obscene books issue into the state courts” as they feel having access to what they consider “obscene” books is against state laws.
As we have seen many times in these posts, these groups often do not go through the proper channels to challenge materials, nor do they actually read the material in its entirety, choosing instead to read the snippets found on websites, such as the PEP website, out loud at board meetings, as it “proves their point.”
In this case, I could not find any information that said the school district actually banned the books initially.
However, about a month after the initial reporting of the Task Force complaint, the superintendent, Dr. Dain Butler (pictured here), removed Gender Queer from one of the high schools in the district. According to the school system, Dr. Butler did this of his own accord, and it had nothing to do with the prior complaints from the Task Force.
It is possible he did this without any provocation, but the timing is suspicious.
Nonetheless, the end result was the book being removed due to “explicit images”.
Fast forwarding through time, we come to April 2025 and a decision that was extremely controversial, but not in the school system…
We shift now to the public libraries…
The Alamance County Commissioners voted to adopt parental guidance stickers on items found in the Juvenile and Young Adult sections of libraries. These stickers will “warn” parents of content in various books. Content such as “violence, sexual content, or underage drinking and drugs”.
At the meetings leading up to the decision being voted on, community members spoke out, most in favor of not labeling items.
The fear by many is that by labeling items, it will discourage children and parents from accessing books that may reflect their own struggles. It creates an “other” and a fear around those books, as they are seen as “different” and “dangerous”.
We have also seen this in various ways before. Policies put into place that are supposedly to stop children and parents from being exposed to things beyond their understanding, but it mostly targets items that are about the LGBTQIA+ community, people of color, women, and other minorities.
Unfortunately, the vote passed despite the very few who spoke in favor of them. Again, the idea that the minority somehow leads over the majority is the antithesis of what our society is supposed to be.
However, in this case, we do have a silver lining…
The labels are not automatically added to items. Rather, people can fill out a form that requests a Parental Guidance sticker be added to a book. Then a review committee will look at the item and evaluate it for content before deciding to add a sticker or not. They also will add a note to the item in the catalog for searching purposes.
A complaint was made by a board member that the process was not being done correctly, months after the decision was made, as supposedly the form was hard to find and people should be able to just go to the website and quickly electronically submit a form.
According to the Director, the form was easy to find and unfortunately, there is no capability on the current website to have a fillable form that can be electronically submitted.
Interestingly, the first form to be submitted (and the only form to have been submitted as of October of last year), was for The Action Bible: New Testament, a graphic novel depiction of the New Testament of the Bible. A form was submitted due to the content including “domestic violence, patricide, genocide, familial violence, implied nudity, murder, and infanticide” (Bailey, 2025).
Again, adding labels to items despite the objections of the majority of people sends a different message than I hope the county wanted.
These objections to materials are always couched in terms of being fearful of what the children will access before they are emotionally or mentally ready.
But the books targeted are generally about those communities that need to see themselves reflected most. Marginalized communities such as those listed above. And, almost as importantly, by others so that they can develop empathy and understanding of their peers.
It’s a natural part of the growth process. But by limiting access to these materials, we are guaranteeing that children will not grow up with the ability to empathize with others who are different from themselves.
Life is often chaotic, and unfortunately for many, has pitfalls and hardships that affect them in negative ways. To not allow children and teens access to items that depict those hardships, limits their understanding of the world around them, and can make those who are going through similar struggles feel isolated and alone.
We must continue to fight for the right of everyone to have access to materials. In the end, it is up to each individual parent what their child has access to, but no one has the right to tell anyone else what they and their child can and cannot read.
Reach out to us with any questions or thoughts on things you may be seeing and struggling with in your library. We can connect you with resources to help you in your fight for Intellectual Freedom.
If you have not heard it today, thank you for everything you do for your community!
Resources:
Bailey, Kristy. (2025, October 2). “Library committee vice chairman says library officials are slow-walking new labeling system county commissioners adopted in April”. The Alamance News. https://alamancenews.com/library-committee-vice-chairman-says-library-officials-are-slow-walking-new-labeling-system-county-commissioners-adopted-in-april/
Hayford, Miles. (2025, May 8). “Alamance County approves warning label for books with sensitive content”. Elon News Network. https://www.elonnewsnetwork.com/article/2025/05/alamance-county-approves-warning-label-books-with-sensitive-content
Holub-Moorman, Grant & Rao, Anita. (2020, July 13). “First Amendment Rights Challenged in Alamance County”. WUNC News. https://www.wunc.org/law/2020-07-13/first-amendment-rights-challenged-in-alamance-county
Mikkleson, Emily. (2022, August 12). “Group wants ‘obscene’ books removed from Alamance-Burlington schools, echoing similar moves across nation”. Fox 8 News. https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/piedmont-triad/facts-task-force-2-abss-complaints/
Mikkelsen, Emily. (2022, September 8). “ABSS superintendent has ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ removed from high school library”. Fox 8 News. https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/piedmont-triad/abss-superintendent-has-gender-queer-a-memoir-removed-from-high-school-library/
Sloan, Avery & Hobbs, Abigail. (2025, February 26). “New Alamance County library label brings LGBTQ+ controversy”. Elon News Network. https://www.elonnewsnetwork.com/article/2025/02/new-alamance-county-library-label-brings-lgbtq-controversy
Stephens, Dean-Paul. (2022, January 11). “”It’s a time of light”: Local Black writers and literacy advocates react to book banning”. Blue Ridge Now. https://www.blueridgenow.com/story/news/2022/01/03/local-literacy-advocates-react-book-banning-library-equity-concerned-parents-black-authors-alamance/9026252002/