The New York State Assembly and Senate had each approved the Freedom To Read Act, sending it to Gov. Kathy Hochul for her signature. The bill would have written into law what are now just recommendations from the state Education Department about dealing with challenges to library and text books.
Across the country, individuals and conservative organizations are working to remove certain books from libraries as part of a backlash against inclusion and against history that shows the negative aspects of American history. Thousands of books nationwide have been removed from library shelves as a result.
State Sen. Rachel May (D-Syracuse) sponsored the bill in the Senate. It had support from organizations like the ACLU and from the publisher Random House. So she was surprised to find out the Governor had vetoed the bill.
“We worked very hard on that and getting anything through both houses of the legislature is a lot of work,” May said. “And I was proud that we got that through. So, yeah, it's frustrating.”
It was particularly frustrating because the Governor could have signed the bill into law after getting legislators to agree to make some changes to the bill, a process called a chapter amendment. Hochul, however, simply vetoed the bill and said it needed better wording.
A revised version of the bill has already been introduced in the state Senate and has been referred to a committee to restart its path back to the Governor’s desk.
For May, the issue of censorship is personal. Her grandparents and her father collaborated on an 8th grade history textbook in California that drew the public outrage of far-right group The John Birch Society, which claimed that teaching anything negative about America’s history would affect students’ patriotism.
“It was brutal. My grandparents got death threats. I was about 10 years old, and this made a huge impression on me,” May said. “And the fact that the same fights are being fought now, 50 years later, 60 years later, it's pretty terrifying that we haven't been able to resolve this. And so I just feel very strongly that kids need to have access to ideas that challenge them and maybe challenge what they've learned at home.”
