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Article: "I'm a Black Librarian. We're Being Threatened"

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Article: "I'm a Black Librarian. We're Being Threatened"

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The article was written by Rodney Freeman, a Black librarian.

This relates to UDL by:

Access to Information: The librarian’s dedication to making information accessible through digitization and pushing back against the censorship of certain books aligns with UDL’s principle of offering multiple means of representation.

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My first library job was in the Kankakee, Illinois public library. Back then, I thought I was going to go to law school-I just needed a job.

Then, I saw how the library engaged the community with youth and adult classes. I saw a bunch of World War II veterans come together to share their story with the community. I became very interested in digitization-making information widely available, and in helping people find information.

I ended up going to library school instead of law school, and became a full-fledged librarian in 2010. Since then, I've been a branch manager, and I've been an administrator in the Chicago Public Library system, but I found out I don't like the politics. That's not me. I know who I am now.

Now, I'm an archivist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I do some research and writing, and work on digitization to make information accessible and help people find information. Opening access to information is my passion.

I was the manager of a small branch library in Indianapolis, and at the time, "street lit" books were really popular at that library. The language was as rough as the books' mean-streets settings. Since so many patrons were interested in reading books of that genre, my team and I moved street lit it to the front of the adult section.

One day, a patron complained. I liked her-she'd come in with her kids a lot. But she was a person who thought literature that's given shelf space in the library had to be more formal, and use certain grammatical structures. And yes, the library is for classic, formally written novels. But the library is for street lit, too.

Our executive director told us we had to move the street literature from the front to the back of the adult section. At first, I protested, and told my superiors that what they were doing was a form of censorship. Besides, just because one person doesn't like a book, it doesn't mean you should inconvenience all the other patrons that come in to our branch to get this material. But in the end, we had to move it.

This National Librarian Day, our country is dealing with misinformation and disinformation that threaten democracy and make crystal clear the need for the free flow of accurate information.

But instead of standing up for the robust exchange of ideas, lawmakers in state after state are pushing bills that would criminalize librarians for putting certain books on the shelves. Nuisance lawsuits and fights over book bans are draining librarians' time, energy, and resources.

Nobody becomes a librarian to become a pawn in the culture wars. But from book bans to bomb threats, we librarians are on the front lines of critical battles over who gets to control information.

The pursuit of happiness goes hand in hand with the pursuit of knowledge and information, which, in turn, is central to what libraries are all about. This goes to the heart of our jobs as librarians. We will keep up the fight, because it is access to information, not censorship, that fuels a healthy democracy.

I am proud to be a librarian-and rare. Less than 7 percent of librarians in the U.S. are Black. For Black librarians like me, libraries also symbolize the literacy that was denied to so many of our ancestors.

For our enslaved forebears, something as fundamental as learning to read was illegal and dangerous, but they did it anyway. After the Civil War, separate but "equal" schools that weren't equal and "colored" libraries whose books were filled with cast-offs from white libraries were key features of the Jim Crow era.

A whites-only public library in Alexandria, Virginia, saw one of the country's first Civil Rights sit-ins. In 1939, five Black men were arrested for asking to sign up for a library card and, upon being refused, sitting quietly and reading books until the police arrived.

Twenty years later, in Greenville, South Carolina, college students, including Jesse Jackson, held a sit-in at a white library that had a book they needed for an assignment but wasn't available at the library they were allowed to use. A year after that, Black students staged a library sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi. Three years later, Black students tried to enter a library in Greensburg, Louisiana, only to be locked out, day after day.

The methods are different, but today we are seeing the same impulse to distort access to information into a tool to suppress and control, and to make some people "other." Librarians are being fired for refusing to remove books about racism and the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community.

The American Library Association reports a record 4,240 book titles targeted for censorship in libraries and schools last year, from The Kite Runner by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini and the Pulitzer-prize-winning novel by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, to the Wizard of Oz retelling and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which was the inspiration for Hulu's critically acclaimed television series.

Black librarians pushed back against that evil during segregation and throughout the Civil Rights era, and continue to do so today. It's a history not even people in the profession know about, which is why I'm working on a documentary called Are You a Librarian? The Untold Story of Black Librarians.

I hope our documentary will inspire young Black people to consider becoming librarians, and I hope it will inspire all librarians struggling with today's hostile climate by showing them that librarians have a long record of defending the rights of every person to seek the information they want.

We librarians take pride in unearthing and sharing information. We work to engage young people in reading, offer internet access to those who need it, and guide people when a Google search is not enough to get to the heart of a matter.

My hope for this Librarian Day is that someday soon, we can stop worrying about politically motivated attacks on libraries - and instead, focus on the fundamental principle of free access to information, which should be at the heart of any healthy democracy.
Rodney Freeman Jr. is an archivist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who has been a librarian since 2010. He is the producer of "Are You a Librarian: The Untold Story of Black Librarians." All views expressed in this article are the author's own. Do you have a unique experience or personal story to share? See our Reader Submissions Guide and then email the My Turn team at myturn@newsweek.com.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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I'm a Black librarian. We're being threatened

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For Black librarians like me, libraries also symbolize the literacy that was denied.

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Article: "Teacher put on leave for holding mock slave auction, using racial slur" 

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Article: "Teacher put on leave for holding mock slave auction, using racial slur" 

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The article was written by Niha Masih.

This relates to UDL by:

Multiple Means of Engagement: She emphasizes the need for inclusive teaching methods that avoid re-traumatizing students, fostering equity, and ensuring that diverse perspectives are considered in curriculum development.

This principle stresses the need for diverse engagement methods that consider students' emotional and cultural backgrounds.

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A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center on how slavery is taught in U.S. schools pointed to simulations - such as mock slave auctions - as particularly problematic. (Julie Bennett/For The Washington Post)
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A teacher in Massachusetts has been placed on leave for holding a mock slave auction during a history lesson and using a racial slur in a fifth-grade classroom, bringing fresh attention to how slavery is taught in U.S. schools.

The incidents occurred this year at the Margaret A. Neary Elementary School in Southborough, Superintendent Gregory L. Martineau said in a letter to parents.

The teacher, who is not identified in the letter, held "an impromptu slave auction" in January where two children of color were made to stand as the class discussed their physical attributes, the letter said. The incident happened during a history lesson on the economy of Southern colonies.

"Simulations or role plays when teaching about historical atrocities or trauma are not appropriate, and these teaching methods are not to be used," Martineau wrote, adding that students of color are disproportionately impacted by such "unsound" teaching methods.

A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center published in 2018 on the challenges of teaching the history of slavery in the United States identified simulations as part of the problem.

Such techniques, the report said, "cannot begin to convey the horror of slavery and risk trivializing the subject in the minds of students."

But similar incidents have been reported in recent years from multiple states. In North Carolina, a Black student was " sold" for $350 during a mock slave auction at a majority-White school in 2022. A fifth-grade teacher in New York state in 2019 instructed Black students to raise their hands and placed the students in imaginary chains before proceeding to conduct a mock auction in class.

The Massachusetts teacher also used the n-word in a fifth-grade classroom in April while reading and discussinga book that was not included in the school's curriculum, superintendent Martineau said in the letter. The book also did not contain the n-word, according to Martineau's letter. After the matter was brought to the school's attention, the teacher called out the student who reported the incident in class, which Martineau said was "not acceptable."

Shortly after, the Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough launched an investigation and put the educator on paid leave, the letter said, adding that personnel matters will remain confidential. The school's principal was also put on 10-day administrative leave in May.

Martineau apologized to the parents and acknowledged "missteps." The school will implement a series of reforms, he said, including a professional development plan focusing on culturally competent teaching methods.

"Many American schools and educators continue to have difficulty teaching the history of American slavery in an empathetic and sensitive way because our nation has not reckoned with this history in any meaningful way," said Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, a professor of history at University of California at Berkeley.

The teaching of the history of slavery, she added, has come under attack from some politicians who have sought to limit the content or legislate the ways it can be taught.

It is not surprising, she said, that "some educators either take their cue from these individuals or choose to teach the history of slavery in ways that neglect its traumatic impact on African Americans, especially children."

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Teacher put on leave for holding mock slave auction, using racial slur

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Two children of color were made to stand up as the class discussed their physical attributes at Margaret A. Neary School in Southborough, Mass., the superintendent said.

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Article: "How an 8-year-old Hispanic girl paved the way for desegregation"

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Article: "How an 8-year-old Hispanic girl paved the way for desegregation"

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The article was written by Gillian Brockell.

This relates to UDL by:

Multiple Means of Representation: It emphasizes the need to represent diverse historical perspectives, such as Sylvia Mendez's contributions to desegregation, which can enhance understanding and appreciation of multicultural history.

From an antiracism standpoint, this inclusion challenges dominant narratives, promotes equity, and acknowledges the struggles of marginalized communities. It advocates for a curriculum that empowers all students, reinforcing the idea that diverse histories are integral to American identity.

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President Barack Obama presents human rights activist Sylvia Mendez with the 2010 Medal of Freedom in the White House on Feb. 15, 2011. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Gonzalo Mendez's testimony in a California courtroom was brief, but within it were layers of American history - of segregation, incarceration and inequality.

It was also the straightforward testimony of a dad who loved his daughter.

It was a Tuesday morning in the summer of 1945, and Mendez was explaining to a judge how, the previous fall, he had tried to enroll 8-year-old Sylvia and her little brothers in an Orange County public school near their home in Westminster, Ca. They were denied because they were Hispanic, he said.

Though the case never went to the Supreme Court, Mendez v. Westminster would have far-reaching consequences and help pave the way for Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 ruling that ended legal school segregation nationwide.

Mendez explained to the judge that he had been born in Mexico, come to the United States as a child and become a naturalized citizen two years earlier, when he was about 30.

Why hadn't he tried to become a citizen earlier? the judge asked him.

He had, Mendez replied, but there were long wait times. Even once he married a U.S. citizen - a Puerto Rican woman named Felicitas - which should have sped up the process, government officials kept finding problems with his application. The photos he submitted were the wrong size, or an answer to a question wasn't thorough enough. Hence, the delay.

Mendez was an asparagus farmer, the judge noted. Did he own his own farm?

No, he replied, he rented 40 acres from a Japanese man who was being incarcerated during the ongoing world war. He also ran a neighboring farm owned by a White man, which included keeping accounting, payroll and scheduling for dozens of employees, plus selling the harvest at market.

You speak very good English, the judge told him.

Mendez explained that he and his wife spoke mostly English at home with their kids, and at work he went back and forth between English and Spanish all day long. As a child, he had attended public school through fifth grade with native English speakers. In fact, he had gone to the same Westminster school he was fighting to get his daughter into now; the district had created a segregated "American school" and an inferior "Mexican school" after he left.

Mendez had united with other Hispanic parents in Orange County whose children had been denied entry to public schools, hired the Jewish American civil rights attorney David Marcus and sued in federal district court, leading to the Los Angeles hearing that morning in 1945.

A few days earlier, Marcus had questioned the superintendent of the Westminster school district. At first, the superintendent claimed the school district planned to merge the two schools, and the problem would besolved - it was just that it was too expensive to build a newer, bigger school at the moment, wartime and all. Marcus questioned the superintendent until it became clear that there was no actual merger in the works.

Next, the superintendent claimed the schools were separated based on English-language ability, which he determined by a brief conversation on the first day of school; there were neither written tests nor records kept on how the children's English abilities were assessed. It was true, Marcus forced him to admit, that lessons at the Spanish-language school were "retarded" - that is, not as challenging as at the main school - but if a parent thought their child's English was good enough for the main school, they were welcome to request a transfer, he claimed. It just so happened that all such requests, like Sylvia's, had been rejected.

Other superintendents named in the lawsuit were less subtle. One testified that regardless of English-language proficiency, Hispanic children had to be segregated because they needed additional instructions on hygiene, that they carried "lice, impetigo, tuberculosis," and they had "generally dirty hands, face, neck, ears." He called bilingualism a "handicap," and said Hispanic people had inferior "ability" and "economic outlook."

The judge didn't buy any of those arguments, ruling in 1946 for Mendez and the plaintiffs on 14th Amendment equal-protection grounds. "Segregation prevalent in the defendant school districts foster [sic] antagonisms in the children and suggest inferiority among them where none exists," Judge Paul McCormick wrote. "The equal protection of the laws pertaining to the public school system in California is not provided by furnishing in separate schools the same technical facilities, textbooks, and courses of instruction to children of Mexican ancestry that are available to other public-school children regardless of their ancestry."

The school districts appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, catching the attention of civil rights groups nationwide. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in support of Mendez, as did the American Jewish Congress and the Japanese American Citizens League. Another brief from the NAACP previewed arguments it would use a few years later in Brown v. Board of Education. The brief was written by Thurgood Marshall, the lawyer who would defend the Brown family before the Supreme Court.

In 1947, the 9th Circuit upheld the lower court's decision, forcing the desegregation of White and Hispanic students in Orange County schools. In January 1948, Sylvia Mendez, now 11, and her siblings were finally allowed to enroll in the main school.

Monumental as the decision was, it came with some big caveats. Because the school districts decided not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the ruling had no effect on other states. Plus, the 9th Circuit ruled on different grounds from the previous court, saying the segregation was unconstitutional only because California did not have a state law specifically segregating Hispanic children. An existing state law formally segregating Asian and Indigenous students remained in effect.

"There is argument in two of the amicus curiae briefs that we should strike out independently on the whole question of segregation, on the ground that recent world-stirring events have set men to the reexamination of concepts considered fixed," the appeals court said. "We are not tempted by the siren who calls to us that the sometimes slow and tedious ways of democratic legislation is no longer respected in a progressive society."

California's governor, a son of Scandinavian immigrants and an unremarkable law student who had slowly risen in Republican politics all the way to the governor's mansion, took notice. A few years earlier, he had been a strong advocate of the incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II, but now he was beginning to have a change of heart, and he'd instructed his attorney general's office to write a brief supporting Mendez before the circuit court.

Now, in the wake of the court's ruling, he pushed the legislature to repeal the state law segregating Asian and Indigenous children.

That governor was Earl Warren. Six years later, and despite Warren's lack of judicial experience, President Dwight D. Eisenhower named him chief justice of theUnited States. His Supreme Court considered Brown v. Board of Education in its first session.

In the unanimous decision written by Warren to end school segregation nationwide, there is no mention of Sylvia Mendez or her parents, but the case's echoes are there, in Warren's contention that even ifschool districts claim the schools are equally good, the existence of separate schools hinderslearning and "is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group."

"Separate education facilities are inherently unequal," he declared.

The Mendez family was soon forgotten in the annals of law and official history. Sylvia Mendez went on to become a nurse and cared for her mother after Gonzalo's sudden death in 1964. She also worked tirelessly to revive the story of her parents' love and commitment to her education. In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded her with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

"Being honored today," she said after the ceremony, "means that my parents are being honored, my mother and father. And I feel their spirit today."

Now 87, Mendez still lives in Orange County and regularly speaks about her family's legacy.

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How an 8-year-old Hispanic girl paved the way for desegregation

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As the country celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month, Sylvia Mendez's role in setting the stage for Brown v. Board of Education has been forgotten and overlooked.

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I can’t breathe: feeling suffocated by the polite racism in Canada’s graduate schools — University Affairs

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Only through our collective efforts to recruit and retain Black and racialized faculty members can we fully ensure the success of Black and racialized students in higher education.

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Decolonising the curriculum hasn’t closed the gap between Black and white students – here’s what might

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The problem lies in how assessments are set and carried out.

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American Association for the Advancement of Science

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AI makes racist decisions based on dialect

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Large language models strongly associated negative stereotypes with African American English