The number of books banned in schools across America has escalated in recent years.
That’s according to the group PEN America, which monitors efforts to remove books from shelves. Their research found 30% of the titles being banned are “books about race, racism, or feature characters of color.”
In an effort to reverse that trend and get more books by Black authors and about Black history into readers’ hands, Visit Philadelphia has launched the Little Free(dom) Library initiative. Little libraries have been around for years, often found on street corners offering passersby a chance to pick up (or leave) a book. (Some little libraries even offer other items like yarn.)
The Little Free(dom) Library project will stock 13 libraries with 1,500 books featuring a dozen titles.
Here’s the list of books and where you can find them.
- “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- This New York Times bestseller and NAACP Image Award winner is a dramatic expansion of the New York Times’ project focused on the very beginnings of American slavery.
- “All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds
- This young adult novel that looks at a specific instance of police brutality from the perspectives of two high school classmates.
- “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson
- NPR calls George M. Johnson’s young-adult memoir one of the most banned books in the U.S. The book is about growing up Black and queer, and always feeling different but not having the words to express it.
- “Beloved” by Toni Morrison
- Morrison won a Pulitzer in 1988 for the novel inspired by the true story of runaway slave Margaret Garner. It’s dedicated “to the 60 million who died as a result of slavery.”
- “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Coates wrote this non-fiction book formatted as a letter to his then-teenage son, focused on the different forms of violence young African Americans face on the street, in school and from the police.
- “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin
- Published in 1963, Baldwin’s book “gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement” as he writes about his early life in Harlem with a “disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice.”
- “Ghost Boys” by Jewell Parker Rhodes
- This young adult book is described as a “heartbreaking and powerful novel about a black boy killed by a police officer, drawing connections through history.”
- “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot” by Mikki Kendall
- “A potent and electrifying critique of today’s feminist movement announcing a fresh new voice in black feminism.” (Penguin Random House)
- “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor
- Winner of the children’s lit Newbery Medal in 1977, Taylor’s book explores African American history and the painful burden of racism through the lens of one Black family living in Mississippi.
- “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
- The New York Times says “Stamped” is “engaging, clear prose” that “shines a light on difficult and confusing subjects, including anti-blackness and the creation of racial capitalism.” It’s definition of terms “segregationist” and “anti-racist” in “direct, accessible language” become “real tools for a reader to take from the book.”
- “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston
- This is a deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly,” writes Zadie Smith on Oprah.com.
- “The Undefeated” by Kwame Alexander
- Alexander’s work is a “love letter to Black life in the United States,” writes the Anti-Defamation League. “It highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world’s greatest heroes.”
Books will be available at locations throughout the city. Visit Philadelphia is also highlighting Black-owned businesses close to the little library locations that book-seekers can visit while they’re in the area.
- Betsy Ross House, 239 Arch Street
- Columbia North YMCA, 1400 N. Broad Street
- Eastern State Penitentiary,2027 Fairmount Avenue
- Faheem’s Hand of Precision, 2100 S. 20th Street
- Frankford Community Development Corporation, 4667 Paul Street
- Franklin Square, 200 N. 6th Street
- Historic Germantown, 5501 Germantown Avenue
- Independence Visitor Center, 599 Market Street
- Johnson House Historic Site, 6306 Germantown Avenue
- Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 S. Broad Street
- Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 419 S. 6th Street
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
- South Street Off Center, 407 South Street
If your curiosity is further piqued, there’s also the several Black-owned bookstores across the city to support, including Black and Nobel, Hakim’s Bookstore & Gift Shop, Harriett’s Bookshop, Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books, and The Black Reserve Bookstore.
