Illinois prohibits book bans. However, the fight continues with activist groups rallying for book bans in schools and libraries.

Last year in Yorkville, Illinois, a parent wrote a complaint about one of the books in the school curriculum: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, which focuses on two Black men who’ve been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death by the U.S. incarceration system. After one parental complaint, the Yorkville Community District 115 School Board removed the book from the curriculum, claiming that it was “too controversial.” 

What happened in Yorkville is no longer uncommon. 

In the past year, there have been 695 attempts to censor library materials across the U.S. between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, 2023, according to the American Library Association (ALA). The attempts cover over 1,915 unique titles, most of which center around issues of race, gender and sexuality. The number of titles being challenged has increased 20 percent since the year 2022, which was previously the year with the most attempted book bans, according to the ALA. 

Supporters of book bans 

PEN America identified over 50 groups across the country advocating for book bans. This includes eight groups with national, state or local chapters, who push for the bans through challenge reforms and school board meetings. 

One of the largest and most influential groups running the book ban campaign is Moms for Liberty. 

In 2021, three parents — Tina Descovich, Tiffany Justice and Bridget Ziegler — were discontent with mask mandates in schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Angered and displeased, they formed Moms for Liberty to combat school and state regulations. 

Three years later, the organization expanded from Brevard County, Florida, to 285 chapters with over 115,000 members across 45 states. Moms for Liberty currently spearheads the book-ban movement through anti-inclusion discourse on social media and local board elections. 

Local board elections 

Aside from long and often angry discussions on message boards, Moms for Liberty endorses candidates for school and library boards who align with their views. In 2022, more than half of the 500 candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty were elected to school boards. 

Local board elections are a key way for organizations like Moms for Liberty to promote their views because voter turnout is historically low. The National School Boards Association cites voter turnout rates to be between 5 and 10 percent. As a result, politicians and organizations can effectively garner support for the candidates who align with their beliefs.

In the Mississippi Valley Library District, which has two libraries, one in Collinsville and one in Fairmont City, Illinois, few people voted in a community of 33,000 residents. The candidates won with less than 2,200 votes. 

Four of the winning candidates were endorsed by Madison County’s Republican Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler. Prenzler created paid flyers that denounced drag queen story time and aligned himself with candidates Jeanne Lomax, Virginia York, Lisa McCormick and Kathy Murphy. 

Last spring, residents of the Collinsville community voted on their new library board members. This is a segment of the ballots with those candidates.

Once in office, elected candidates push the views of moms’ organizations and politicians into motion. Since the election of Lomax, York, McCormick and Murphy in spring of 2023, they have advocated for lower taxes and soft book bans. 

A soft book ban is a form of censorship that often requires parental permission to read books or the book is removed from the library shelves, according to the ACLU. In the case of the Mississippi Valley Library District, it means moving a children’s book to a less-accessible section. 

It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris is about puberty and human sexuality rated for kids 12 and up on Common Sense Media. After receiving complaints from community members, it was reshelved in the Mississippi Valley Library District and placed in the parent’s information section — a section meant for adult books about pregnancy and parenting. 

Cindy Kay, a resident and active member of the Collinsville community, found it difficult to find the book in a local library, even with the help of the staff. 

“If an adolescent wanted that, they’d have a hard time accessing it,” Kay said. 

Endorsed candidates on local boards make book bans achievable. Last spring, Awake IL endorsed 124 candidates and of those candidates, 29 won positions on their school boards. Four of those endorsed candidates – Darren Crawford, Mike Knoll, Jason Demas and Mike Houston – were elected to the Yorkville Community Unit School District 115 board. They voted 4-2 for the removal of Just Mercy.

This map shows the locations of each school district where an Awake IL-endorsed candidate won. The candidates are listed under each location. 

Discourse and rhetoric 

Moms for Liberty uses extremist rhetoric meant to scare parents about what they perceive as dangerous material hidden between the pages of library books. 

Extremist rhetoric has two distinctive characteristics: it’s single-minded, and it expresses certainty about the supremacy of its perspective, according to a speech by Amy Gutmann, former president of the University of Pennsylvania, published in Daedalus, an academic journal. 

On February 26, 2024, co-founder of Moms for Liberty Tiffany Justice tweeted, “Meanwhile, in America, kids are being shown content in elementary school that teaches them how to give blowjobs…” 

Justice’s tweet was in response to an article from NBC about how the age rating for Mary Poppins increased in the UK due to “discriminatory language.” Her post is in reference to the book Gender Queer: A Memoir. 

Characterizing literature as “pornographic” and “sexually explicit” is a rhetorical strategy adopted by politicians and parents who support book bans, according to PEN America. 

Terry Newsome, the leader of the Illinois chapter of U.S. Parents Involved in Education, describes the content in one book called Gender Queer: A Memoir as “pornographic.” 

“You guys are using gay plugs to push this into the schools to try to use gay privilege, to say we can’t call pornography ‘pornography’ because it’s in a gay book. It’s ridiculous, ” Newsome told me, referencing his school board.

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe is the most contested book across the nation, according to the ALA, because it recounts issues of gender identity and includes sexually explicit images. It’s rated for kids 16 and up on Common Sense Media. 

In fact, the book was only recommended by the National Educational Association (NEA) for educators to read. Titled “Great Summer Reads for Educators!” the list included books about literacy, race and learning techniques. A month after the list was released, headlines misinterpreted the list, according to the Poynter Institute.

Fox News host Tomi Lahren published her thoughts in an Outkick article. “First they pushed for school closures, then the masking and forced vaxxing of children and now the largest teachers union — the National Education Association — has come out with a summer reading list that’s less educational and more, soft porn,” wrote Lahren. “Yeah the NEA has recommended teachers include the graphic gay sex novel ‘Gender Queer’ on their students summer reading lists.” 

These same thoughts are mirrored in the language that Moms for Liberty use to mobilize action and incite anger into parents. Often, this anger is pointed towards LGBTQ+ content. 

“You can call it ideology, you can call it whatever you wanna call it. But what got interjected and when, why, why would someone want to teach my 5-year-old that he could be a boy or a girl, neither or both, and they can change,” said co-founder of Moms for Liberty Tina Descovich in a 60 Minutes segment. “That’s not something I believe is true. Let’s stick to the facts.” 

More than 47 percent of books targeted by Moms for Liberty and other groups include LGBTQ themes, according to preliminary data from the ALA. 

Local Illinois chapters of Moms for Liberty did not respond to messages seeking comment. Awake IL declined to comment for this story.

An unfair advantage

Moms for Liberty is registered as a nonprofit organization. For the fiscal year 2022, Moms for Liberty reported just over $2 million in revenue. About 92 percent is from undisclosed contributions, according to the organization’s 990 form. 

“The truth is, those groups are being funded by national  conservative dark money. So this is not a local effort. This is a nationally funded effort to support these groups,” said Ed Yohnka, the director of communications and public policy at the ACLU of Illinois, in an interview. 

Dark money refers to funds raised by nonprofit organizations to influence elections, public policy and political discourse. Organizations that use dark money are not required to identify their donors. 

While dark money is not traceable, nonprofit organizations are required to report grants and other financial contributions of over $5,000. In 2022, Moms for Liberty received two sizable contributions from national anti-LGBTQ nonprofits. The Heritage Foundation, which has campaigned against marriage equality and other LGBTQ policies, awarded $25,000 to Moms for Liberty, according to the organization’s 990 form. The George Jenkins Foundation, whose president contributed $450,000 toward the Jan. 6 insurrection, gave $100,000 to Moms for Liberty.  

In nonpartisan local elections where teachers unions often win, moms’ groups pour money into the local elections to flip control of the seats. This, in effect, also makes local elections partisan, according to Erin Mansfield and Kayla Jimenez from USA Today.   

Illinois’s new law

Illinois is the first state to put a restriction on book bans. In 2023, Gov. Pritzker signed a law, HB 2789, that allows libraries to acquire materials without external restrictions. This legislation requires libraries across the state to adopt the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights, which states that reading materials can’t be removed or restricted based on partisan or personal disapproval. 

“The whole role of education is to teach young people how to learn for themselves. And when you tell them what books they should and should not be reading, that’s not how democracies function. That’s how dictatorships function,” said Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who testified before Congress back in September 2023. “We also have to trust our libraries and our librarians to determine what books should be in circulation.”

Giannoulias drafted and signed the law alongside Gov. Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. 

Groups fighting against book bans

Many parents, teachers and librarians have joined together across the nation to protect books. STOP Moms for Liberty was founded by Liz Kelly Mikitarian, a now-retired teacher in Brevard County, Florida, where Moms for Liberty began.

In 2021, Mikitarian anxiously watched the founding and rapid growth of Moms for Liberty, and her concern quickly grew when curriculum was challenged and regulations scrutinized. Mikitarian created STOP Moms for Liberty to provide a platform for other concerned individuals and today, the group expands across 46 states and includes over 25,000 members. 

“As we are more open in society to things like same-sex couples and interracial things, those that are not comfortable with those pieces, this is their fight,” said Mikitarian. “This is why they are trying to take over and make sure that things are done in a way that they want, as opposed to what all of society actually wants.”

While STOP Moms for Liberty does not have the same financial resources as Moms for Liberty, members in Mikitarian’s group share resources on their Facebook page and regularly attend board meetings to advocate for the protection of school curriculum and books. 

“We think that at least if we can communicate and share information out that we’ll have a fighting chance to stand up to them,” said Mikitarian. 

Across the country, at the Quincy Public Library in Illinois, Rachelle Gage takes a different approach. Gage is a librarian who runs a banned book club, where students meet weekly to read and discuss banned or challenged books. While Moms for Liberty dislikes LGBTQ+ books, Gage fights to keep them in her library and ensure they are read. 

“Everyone has a right to be represented and to see themselves and their family represented in books, ” Gage said.  

Illinois’ new legislation is a good first step, but some feel that is not enough. 

After the book Just Mercy was banned in the Yorkville Community Unit School District 115, high school seniors started attending board meetings and advocating for the reimplementation of the memoir into the sophomore English curriculum. 

“They’re doing it because they were inspired and found value in this book and in this title. And they’re different people, they have different perspectives on the world. They have different aspirations and hopes and dreams for their future,” ACLU’s Yohnka said. “But where they’re unified is in finding just some core curriculum that they want to look at.” 

Through their hard work, dedication and presence, students hope to put Just Mercy back into the course curriculum. 

“The truth is those students in Yorkville are the ones that I’m going to put my money on at the end of the day,” Yohnka said. 

Header by Julia Hester