Texas criticized for placing a colonial book in the library’s fiction section

Anti-censorship advocates have joined book publisher Penguin Random House in criticizing a Texas state that has debunked a record of European colonization of Native Americans as fiction.

The riot in Montgomery County – near Houston – follows the decision of a population review group, at the behest of rights activists, to place Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs in the fiction section of children’s libraries.

The book aims to introduce young readers to a look at history from the perspective of New Englanders, according to PEN America, a nonprofit advocacy group for free expression in literature.

It was published in September 2023 as one of five titles in Penguin Random House’s Race to the Truth series of stories with similar themes aimed at middle grades. Other books include Slavery and the African American Story by Patricia Williams Dockery and This Land by Ashley Fairbanks.

“To say this book is fiction is to deny our vision and our history,” said a statement from Debbie Reese, founder of American Indian Children’s Literature.

“Books like Colonization and the story of the Wampanoag are important to Native American children because they confirm our existence as Native people today. But they are also for non-Native children, because those children are shaped by the content in the books. This country would be better off if we all know history in an informed way.”

The Houston Public Library, the Austin Public Library, the Fort Worth Public Library and the Library of Congress all consider it a fake job, according to the San Antonio Current newspaper.

The decision to reorder the book was made without input from any of the librarians, Current reports. It sparked outrage when the resident review board approved the redistricting after a challenge in September by a resident of an east Texas state.

Montgomery officials, following public policy, bowed to pressure from conservatives to create a system to ban books that some members of the public found objectionable. According to the Texas Freedom to Read Project, the committee was originally intended to be empowered to censor books deemed “sexually explicit”, but has expanded its scope.

The project, after filing a public information request to find out which books were challenged, launched a petition that has so far gathered more than 34,000 signatures demanding that the commissioners return the book “to the home of It’s right in the Montgomery County Children’s Memorial Collection.

“As Texas parents, we oppose the actions of the citizen review committee to turn a non-fiction book into fiction,” said Anne Russey, co-founder of the group.

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after the news release

If this decision is allowed to stand, what will prevent elected officials, or their politically appointed supporters, from publishing other non-fiction books that contain opinions, facts, or ideas they don’t like or don’t agree with?”

The Montgomery Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to PEN America, Texas is second in the country for banning books, with 1,567 titles removed between July 2021 and December 2023. Only Florida, with 5,107, has banned more.

Texas Native Council member Antonio Diaz told Now that the state has a long history of “whitewashing” indigenous history.

“While it’s sad that any government agency would allow people to use such an unfair policy, it’s not surprising in Texas,” he said. “Racism is rampant.”