In Black America; ALA, with Tracie Hall

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. All of those experiences were in libraries, right? And so I came to work in libraries because I had originally, right out of a grad school, when I graduated from Yale University, we'd had the Rodney King uprising. And I was so compelled by that experience that I decided that I would return home. I had thought I would go on and study for a PhD and the uprising happened and I literally felt compelled to return to South Central Los Angeles, where my family lived and where that had occurred. And I along the way, while I was in New Haven for grad school and even before I had become

very interested in supporting people who were unhoused and homeless services. Tracy Howell exactly directed American Library Association. In February, 2020, Howell became the first African American woman executive director. She is the 10th executive director and the 24th Chief Staff Officer of the 146-year-old Association. The American Library Association's the oldest and largest library association in the world was approximately 57,000 members in academia, public, school, government, and special libraries. The mission of the ALA is to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the professional librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all. In recent months, library staffs and every state have faced unprecedented number of attempts to band books.

The most targeted books were or about African Americans or LGBTQIA plus persons. I'm John L. Hanson Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, the American Library Association with Executive Director, Tracy Howell, In Black America. We do believe at ALA that three people read freely, but I want to say to everyone listening that there is something that you can do. As I think our country becomes more diverse, we will see more efforts to silence a rising majority as our country becomes one in which more people try to tell their stories in order for us to reach a certain level of shared experience and build a notion and broaden a notion of belonging. We're going to see more attempts to silence authors and to censor books. So, the American Library Association has launched a campaign to ensure that we protect the right to read, each of us, and that campaign is called Unite Against Book Band.

Tracy Howell is no stranger to libraries or to the American Library Association. Over the years, she has worked at the Seattle Public Library, the New Haven Free Library, Queens Public Library, and Harford Free Public Library. In 1998, she was one of the first ALA spectrum scholars, a grant program to diversified librarianship, and in the early 2000s, she serves at the Director of ALA's Office for Diversity. While bookbams are not a new phenomenon in history, recent bookbams, especially in schools and libraries, are rising at an unprecedented level across the nation. It begs the question, when did books and the acts of reading become dangerous? During the McCarthy era, there was a desire to suppress social change. According to Education Week, at least 42 states have introduced legislation, or have taken steps to redirect the teaching of critical race theory, sexual identity, and sexual orientation. Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, hall halls are MA and International and

Area Studies with an emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa from Yale University, and a dual bachelor's degree in law and society and black studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Recently, in black America, spoke with Tracy Hall. I was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. Give us an idea about your educational experiences. Well, like many black Angelinos, I am a product of the great migration. My grandparents were from the rural south. They met in a little town called Grand Cain, Louisiana, which today still has less than 1,000 people, and it would be closest to, say, Monroe, Louisiana, or Shreeport, those are considered big towns. But because of where they were raised and how they grew up, and the sort of agricultural labor that they were involved in, neither of them as brilliant as they were received much

of formal education. So they were really insistent, especially my grandmother, that I go through and do well in elementary and junior high school and high school, and that the library be a part of that education. So I went to schools in the Los Angeles County area. I graduated from Linwood High, and in Linwood, California, and then I went on to the University of California at Santa Barbara. That's where I did my undergraduate degree, and from there went on and received my first master's degree at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. And after working for a while, I went back to University of Washington, and that's where I received my master's degree in library and information science from the School of Information at the University of Washington in Seattle.

What goes about obtaining that double degree in law and society in black studies? One thing I would say is that anyone were to read Women Race in Class by Angela Davis, at least in her forward in the first edition of the book. She credits the University of California at Santa Barbara for being her intellectual home. When I was there, we had amazing, amazing professors like Cedric Robinson and so many more, so many professors that really meant a lot to our stinking. And I would say that it was there that I really decided that I wanted to, I knew when I went in that I thought I might want to be a lawyer. But because of how I had grown up and my grandparents, I really wanted to get a better education in terms of the African-American experience, the black experience in this country, but also in terms of diasporically. That is where I ran into professors like Claudia Michelle, who was from Haiti and many,

many others, Daniel Douglas, people who were able to give me some insight in terms of the diaspora. And I really started to think about law in terms of what it meant for the lives of black and indigenous and people of color and how we could think about justice. So those were some of the things that sort of led me. By the time I got ready to graduate, my major was law on society, but I had taken so many classes in terms of black studies that I was able to have a full double major. So that's sort of how that happened, but my focus all through was really in terms of law and also thinking about how do we move and shift systems. Talk to us about you work in Seattle, New Haven, and also Hartford and Queens. Talk to us about those experiences. Well, I came, all of those experiences were in libraries, right? And so I came to work in libraries because I had originally right out of a grad school

when I graduated from Yale University, we'd had the Rodney King uprising. And I was so compelled by that experience that I decided that I would return home. I had thought I would go on and study for a PhD and the uprising happened. And I literally, literally felt compelled to return to South Central Los Angeles, where my family lived and where that had occurred. And along the way, while I was in New Haven for grad school and even before, I had become very interested in supporting people who were unhoused and homeless services. And I found myself just carrying that through line. So when it was time to look for a job, being back in LA, among the other things that I really looked at, I was really looking at how could I make a difference in terms of the lives of people who were unhoused.

And as soon as I started working, I started to see a connection between low levels of literacy and precarious housing, that many of the people who had the lowest levels of literacy were not only experiencing poverty, they were also experiencing being unhoused or being homeless. So I think that's one of the main things that sort of began to make me think about this connection between reading an agency or reading a self-determination. So while really in the in part of that position, when the center that I worked in was getting ready to actually shutter because of the lack of funding, I decided to apply for a job at Seattle Public Library and the rest is history. That is what set me flowing in a field that I hadn't really recognized could take me not only all across the world, but could really allow me to really push on some of those ideas of justice and equity that I think had been born in me all along because of my own upraising.

A couple of years ago, you were appointed the executive director of the American Library Association, a 143-year-old institution. What brought you to the association? Well, I'm a boomerang here at ALA. For those of you who have worked in an institution and then left and found yourself called back, in one of you, I started at ALA in the early 2000s directing the Office for Diversity, and I landed at ALA because I had been two things. One, doing a lot of work around outreach and libraries and really focused on some of the issues of equity, I think that resonated for the Office for Diversity role. But also, I had been a recipient of ALA's first inaugural scholarship for black and indigenous and people of color to pursue library studies. So when I had been working in Seattle Public Library, I hadn't yet gotten my degree, but I would go on to complete it.

But it was ALA actually that provided a scholarship that allowed me to complete my second master's degree. And so I found myself very much connected to the association. So when this position came available, not only was I interested, but many people were coaxing me to apply, and I received the job, and I did some work there that I do that I think John may have been one of the reasons why I showed up on the radar for the executive director role years later. And one of those things was actually calling for a study of the number of people of color in the library field, because of course, libraries are charged with collecting the entire record of intellectual production, right, in our case, in the country here. And we need to have a diverse and well-equipped workforce to be able to do that. We're also charged with serving the entire public. And we also need to have library professionals that represent and come from those public. So I was really interested in that question.

I was always interested in the question of literacy and outreach. I was always interested in young adult services. I had been a young adult librarian, so I think that I began to really push on those areas and to write major grants that would be funded at the federal level. And I wasn't afraid to talk to people about why libraries were important, and about why librarianship was a field of real consequence where people could really do things and move systems. And so I think all of those things spoke to a search committee, and here I am, and I am so happy. And I feel very, very blessed, really, honestly, to be in this role at this time. I'm glad you mentioned a point about having a diverse field of librarians that I was lucky enough growing up to all the libraries that I did attend had African-American librarians. What course work, if there is any, in postgraduate work, that leaves a person to become a librarian? Librarians really come from every walk of life. I've met people who were former lawyers.

I've met people who were school teachers. I've met people who were artists and musicians who become librarians. That was my role, my work, I had been a social worker, as I said, but I had also been a poet and a writer and a visual artist, so librarians come from every walk of life. And I think that the thing that really prepares people, or two things, curiosity and service. So I think that desire to serve one's community, whether it's students in a school, our university, or the general public. I think that service ethic has to be there, but also intellectual curiosity, that willingness to go on a journey every time someone asks you for information, to put someone else's information needs first, and also to be an early adopter of technology. And lastly, I think it is to fight for the freedom to read, to fight for intellectual freedom, and to understand that our constituency, our federation as a nation, is only as strong as its components of the people, and that the people have to be well informed in order

to be able to participate in the maintenance of a perfect union. Now, most people, and I am including myself, really didn't think much about libraries. We know they are there, and we know what the purposes are. But talk to us about the association, why is it important and what are its responsibilities and tasks? Yes. Well, the American Library Association, as you said, it was founded in 1876. So at this moment, we're 146 years old, about four years from being 150. And it was really founded to ensure library access and access to information and learning for all, that is really its purpose. We have about 50,000 members, not only all over the country, but all over the world. And we have eight decisions, the American Association of School Libraries, the Public Library Association of America, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and on and on.

We break down into library types, for youth and types of work, whether it's reference or leadership or youth services, et cetera, and even we have United for Libraries, which is a subdivision or association that really focuses on library advocates and trustees. So the work of the association is number one to preserve libraries and to maintain information access and the right to read. That is why we exist. We exist to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to have access to information, which we believe is a human right. If you're just joining us, I'm Johnny Ohansson, Jr., and you're listening to In Black America from KUG Radio. And we're speaking with Tracy Hall Executive Director with the American Library Association. Miss Hall, how has libraries and books come under attack recently and what do you see the downside of these efforts? John is important that we understand the history of book bands and of censorship more broadly. The last time we saw an era even close to what we're seeing now is the McCarthy era, which

ran from about 1947 to 1953, and when Senator McCarthy identified books that he thought were un-American or more pointedly Marxist. Now if you were to go and sort of look at a list of what were the books that were banned at that time, you'll see a through line that points to right where we are today. You will see that books like Civil Disobedience by Henry Thoreau was attacked because it was a primer for the early Civil Rights Movement as people became interested in non-violent protest. You will see books like Robin Hood, which was being banned then because it was seen as an attack on the wealthy. And then you will see people like W.B. Du Bois or Langston Hughes actually on trial for their ideas about black agency and the right of African-Americans to strive to attain middle class standing, etc. All of those things were considered to be Marxist or un-American because they threatened the status

quo. Now we look at the kinds of books that are being banned today, whether it's Tony Morrison, the bluest eye or all boys aren't blue, right? We also see books again that are being challenged because again they threatened the status quo. Look at math books that are being banned in states like Florida at least that were proposed to be banned. Some of those books they contain not only mathematical knowledge and teaching but also social and emotional learning. So instead of someone just learning how to multiply by exponents of three, four or five, they learn things like problem solving or students may learn to listen while their peers actually talk about their problem solving approach. So things like listening quietly, things that yesterday we would have called executive functioning skills are things that are now being considered problematic. So I think that if we connect the dots, what we see today in an era which we have far

eclipsed, the McCarthy era, we are able to see that there is always an effort to try to create a kind of social suppression or social control when new groups are emerging and not only asking for power but moving into power. Do we have a misunderstanding of the term critical rights theory? Absolutely. Right? People will say that critical race theory is actually just critical histories, right? The histories of people who have sometimes been sidelined or marginalized when it comes to the telling of history. But what we do have to understand is that when it comes to censorship many times the terminology, critical race theory is misapplied and misused. Children who are learning to multiply and divide, that's not critical race theory. A memoir by a writer who talks about their experience of growing up, LGBTQIA, that's not critical race theory.

Critical race theory isn't Toni Morrison's bluest eye, which is a very poignant, dory fiction of a young woman who wants to approximate beauty standards that are elusive for her as a dark-skinned young black woman. That's not critical race theory. But it's just the history of what it is to grow up in a country where there are standards and ideals that sometimes others can't attain. So I do think that when we hear critical race theory many, many times it's a misapplication of the term. Here in Texas there is a full frontal assault on a number of books. How can the average citizens push back on what is going on currently here, particularly in the state of Texas, but also nationally? Well, one thing I have to call out is that you have a history of really extraordinary librarians who are standing up for intellectual freedom in the state of Texas. And I want to call out Dr. Rhea Brown-Lawson from the Houston Public Library, who last

year was actually recognized. She actually won the Judith Krueger Award. Judith Krueger was the first person to head our Office of Intellectual Freedom here at the American Library Association, and she won that because she really stood up to protect the right of Houstonians to read freely. We do believe at ALA that free people read freely. But I want to say to everyone listening that there is something that you can do. Because I think our country becomes more diverse, we will see more efforts to silence a rising majority. As our country becomes one in which more people try to tell their stories in order for us to reach a certain level of shared experience and build a notion and broaden a notion of belonging, we're going to see more attempts to silence authors and to censor books. So the American Library Association has launched a campaign to ensure that we protect the

right to read. Each of us, and that campaign is called Unite Against Book Bands. And those of you who are listening and you want to support, you want to stand up against censorship, I invite you to go to simply uniteagainstbookbands.org, uniteagainstbookbands.org. So there is something John that each of us can do, and I would argue that we must do. Because there is a whole history of trying to suppress thought and one that a record of that within the black community per se. So I think this is a fight for all of us. Is there a difference between libraries that are in public schools versus libraries that are in the communities? So we have about 160,000 plus libraries in the country. So that, I think, is the reason why I say that libraries are the bedrock or at the foundation

at the core of our democracy. Because we have ensured that free and unfettered access at multiple service points. We have over 16,000 public libraries that are municipal libraries that are open to anyone, anyone can enter, and anyone can borrow book as long as they have a library card. We have more public libraries in this country than we have McDonald's, okay? So that tells you something. But when it comes to school libraries, the bad number of libraries in this country are in our public schools and also in our private and parochial schools. And so school libraries, when they are well-funded and when they are staffed, because we are also seeing an erosion of support, especially for public libraries. But when those libraries are well-funded and well-stabbed, and when their acknowledges being sort of the crossing or switching station of the school, then they play really an

extraordinary role in terms of school persistence, those who are able to graduate and move on to post-secondary education or careers. So I think that the difference there between public and school libraries are the location and a third area of libraries that we haven't talked about so much is academic libraries, those libraries that you find at community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. School librarians being put on the hot seat, I would assume they were hired to manage libraries. But obviously what's going on now is that authority has been taken away from them? You know, you ask a really great question because where we are seeing the bulk of challenges, especially censorship challenges in this country right now, it's definitely in schools. And you're exactly right. School librarians are being put into positions where they have to defend the right to read for the entire student body.

And of course that's what we're called to do with librarians because what we fight for are foremost is information access, right, and education for all. That is part of our mission at ALA, but that is the call of the profession. And so when you have entities that speak to you, SERP, that agency that speak to dictate to students beyond what their parents are telling and their parents, you know, really supporting them in terms of what their reading journey is going to look like. When you have others dictating that for an entire school, that's really a violation of individual rights and the rights of each student. One detrimental is the politicization of library and books that we're currently seeing. I think that books in many ways in this country have always been somewhat political. I think that just even the notion of a public library that anyone, rather rich or poor, regardless of their background, can go in and enter and find what they like and borrow. I think that's a really a revolutionary idea because not every nation has that. So I think that there has always been something just a little bit, a little bit of charge

from just a notion of free reading. And what we have to remember is that the ability to read and the right to read and even to be instructed in reading was something that for years and years was denied people. It was denied, you know, obviously African-Americans, Black people in the early part of this country. And we see in terms of sometimes schools which aren't adequately or equitably funded. And we see with our very high levels of low adult literacy that still the free right to read is something that in and of itself has become sort of politicized and class and those kinds of things. So I just want to say here that the reason why I do think that we must take advantage of public libraries, the reason why we must support our school libraries, the reason why I mean what must use our academic libraries is that we have to fight for their existence. Many of us might take them for granted, but in the day that we actually need free and reliable access to information, that's when we turn to libraries.

And that's why we have to understand that our political act is ensuring that we keep free libraries available in this country for all to use. Tracy Hall, Executive Director of American Library Association. If you have questions, comments or suggestions asked your future in Black America programs, email us at inblackamerica at kut.org. Also let us know what radio station you heard is open. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can get previous programs online at kut.org. Also you can listen to a special collection of in Black America programs at American Archive of Public Broadcasting. That's AmericanArchives.org. To use and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. Until we have the opportunity again for a technical producer, David Alvarez, I'm John L. Hansen

Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America CDs. KUT Radio 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78712. That's in Black America CDs, KUT Radio 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78712. This has been a production of KUT Radio.