Becky Calzada, Jamie Gregory and Leila Green Little Photo courtesy of Jamie Gregory

On Thursday, June 22, the evening before the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago officially began, Unite Against Book Bans hosted Rally for the Right to Read: Uniting for Libraries and Intellectual Freedom and an intellectual freedom award ceremony, attended by about 600 conferencegoers.

The event celebrated individuals and organizations who have been courageous in their work to protect the right to read. Among those honored were Pat Scales, former chair of ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, with the Freedom to Read Foundation Roll of Honor Award; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor Dr. Emily Knox, with the Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award; and Louisiana school librarian Amanda Jones, with the John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award. The Michigan Library Association was presented with the Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award.

Scales described a moment during her time as a school librarian when she encountered a woman separating out magazines that she felt were “not appropriate,” for the school, and who had circled her address on one with an arrow pointing to her name and the message, “This is the reason [for ‘inappropriate material’ being included in the school library]”. Scales reminded the crowd that she loves “being the reason.” Students and patrons need us all to “be the reason” they want to come to the library, she said; they need us to “be the reason” there are books on the shelves where they can positively see themselves and their lived experiences. All award winners spoke about the need to continue the good work library workers and advocates are doing to advocate for the freedom to read.

A panel discussion about fighting for the freedom to read—even when the battles get personal— featured Leander, TX school librarian Becky Calzada, a founder of the #FReadomFighters; 2022 South Carolina school librarian of the year Jamie Gregory, who was the target of attacks after she defended Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer on social media; and Leila Green Little, the lead plaintiff in Little v. Llano County, a lawsuit challenging book banning by public officials in Llano County, TX . For a room full of librarians, listening to the panelists’ share their stories of fighting for the freedom to read and winning was inspirational. One takeaway (of many) was Calzada’s suggestion of keeping a “joy journal.” If you are doing the hard work of protecting student’s right to read, she noted, you must take time to remember the good that happens each day.

Keynote speaker Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author of 14 books for adults and children, including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America—one of the country’s top banned/challenged titles—encouraged rally attendees to keep protecting intellectual freedom, reminding them that “the freedom fight chose you.”

The rally was an inspiring kickoff to the ALA Annual conference, and a reminder to keep fighting and making, in the words of the late politician and civil rights activist John Lewis, “good trouble.”