Named one ofTime’s most influential people this year and the first black woman to head the American Library Association,Hall has overseen the group at a time when more challenges have been made to books in public and school libraries than ever before.
All but four states in the US have introduced pro-censorship laws. “We are now outpacing even the McCarthy era in terms of censorship,” she says. “This should be a global concern because we are seeing other nations who are copy-catting the clamping down on freedom of speech.”
Just under 2000 unique titles were targeted for banning across schools and public libraries in the US between January and August this year,almost double the number in 2021,according to the American Library Association. More than100 titles were challenged in 11 states,with Texas and Florida leading the charge.
Most of the books in question are about race,gender identity and sexual orientation. Non-fiction books about menstruation,or dealing with sexual assault and rape,have been labelled pornography by those wanting to ban them,says Hall. “For those books to be called pornographic,it is a heinous and egregious misuse of those terms,” she says.
The challenged list also includes classics such asThe Color Purple,The Handmaid’s Tale,Catcher in the Rye,andBrave New World.