By Kevin Murphy Wilson • Photos by Matt Johnson
According to Carmichael’s Bookstore manager Sam Miller, book banning is not a new phenomenon. “It’s been going on at least since the 1921 obscenity trial for James Joyce’s Ulysses,” she said. “But the latest wave is more organized, with a shared playbook being implemented.”
That reality makes the current situation rather worrisome.
To counter such a concerted form of censorship, “we at Carmichael’s have observed Banned Book Week every September since it was founded by the American Library Association in 1982,” Miller told the VOICE-TRIBUNE. This annual flurry of celebratory activities seemed sufficient until recently. In fact, it wasn’t until Miller was attending Winter Institute—a conference for independent booksellers — in 2023 that she heard enough horrifying firsthand accounts from other booksellers to make Miller and her Louisville colleagues want to double down on their support of literary free speech.
Upon returning from that conference and as a response to the disturbing intimidation tactics (public criticism, protests, doxxing, personal threats and the like) carried out against fellow booksellers and librarians across the country, Miller and her co-workers instituted a Banned Book Club that began to meet once a month here in Louisville at the Frankfort Avenue location of Carmichael’s Bookstore, welcoming anyone who was interested in exploring and protecting our cultural treasures. “It’s a drop in club with no sign up required. We love to see new faces,” Miller said.
When this group was mentioned to Angela Cooper, Communications Director for the ACLU of Kentucky, she was more than happy to link arms, so to speak, with Miller and her cohorts at Carmichael’s in order to add some breadth and depth to the resistance movement locally.
Such an alliance makes perfect sense to Cooper who explained that her own organization exists to empower all Kentuckians all the time. “Every person is entitled to the protections of our federal and state constitutions—not just those who have the loudest voices or the deepest pockets,” Cooper said.
Ultimately, Cooper’s involvement in the Banned Book Club allowed for a mutually beneficial exchange. “It became an opportunity to not only talk about the books we read,” she said, “but for me to also offer updates on what is happening during legislative sessions and to keep members of the club apprised of potentially harmful laws.”
“The implications of book bans go far beyond just access to a single book and negatively impact free speech as a whole,” Cooper said. “Limiting the books available in public and school libraries shrinks the world for Kentucky kids. Our children deserve to see what exists beyond the borders of our communities, counties, and our Commonwealth.”
Miller couldn’t agree more. “We use the term book ‘banning’ because it’s attention grabbing—and alliterative— but it can take other forms besides an outright ban,” she said. Regardless of what you call it, in Miller’s estimation, this situation creates a real loss for our society.
“We read to be entertained and when we read our empathy grows. When we read a story that features characters like us we feel seen and we know we are not alone. When we read characters unlike us we learn and realize that other people, with experiences far different from our own, can be the heroes of a story too,” Miller said. “Reading as a young person hopefully prepares students to be better citizens as well as better people. Because of that it’s important to always be making additions to the canon of what is taught so it reflects the diversity of the 21st century world we all live in. If a parent doesn’t want their child to read a book they have an objection to, that’s their choice. If a parent doesn’t want any child to read that book because of their personal objection, that’s an overreach and an infringement in my opinion.”
Although there are no plans to wind things down any time soon, Miller wishes that the club could phase itself out some day. “My fondest hope would be that it would become irrelevant because book banning wouldn’t be a problem anymore,” she said. “Short of that, we’ll keep having meetings and doing the work.”
Cooper concurred, adding that, “It’s 2024, and the government is trying to control what we read. I’ll fight to protect freedom of speech and expression until there is no longer a need to fight.”
More information about club meetings, trivia night, and other banned book events can be found at www.carmichaelsbookstore.com.
For more information on the ACLU of Kentucky’s work and how you can get involved, visit www.aclu-ky.org