Book Bans Are Surging In Iowa. So Nikole Hannah-Jones Is Bringing Banned Authors to the State for a Free Read-In
For the second year in a row, "The 1619 Project" author returns to her hometown to host Black authors whose books have been targeted by Iowa's anti-DEI laws.
Nikole Hannah-Jones is headed back to Iowa to host an African American Read-In event, but she won’t be coming alone. The 1619 Project author is bringing three of the most frequently banned young adult authors in the country as book bans surge in the state.
Jason Reynolds, Angie Thomas and Renée Watson are set to join Hannah-Jones for the African American Read-In on Saturday at Waterloo West High School. The event will be hosted by the 1619 Freedom School, an after-school literacy program founded in Hannah-Jones’ hometown of Waterloo in 2021.
Last year, Hannah-Jones drew hundreds to Waterloo for the first Read-In event after Waterloo Community Schools—Iowa’s Blackest school district—and the University of Northern Iowa pulled out of hosting the program over fears of losing federal funding amid the Trump administration’s crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
For Hannah-Jones, bringing Black authors whose books are being pulled from shelves to the state behind only Florida in book banning is an “act of resistance.”
“Access to books featuring Black characters and about Black history transformed my life as a young reader, and books about different types of people and from cultures I did not belong to opened my mind and fueled my empathy. That is why reading has always been an act of liberation and, in this political moment, it is also an act of resistance,” she explained.
A graduate of Waterloo West, Hannah-Jones often attributes her love of Black history to Mr. Dial, her only Black male teacher throughout her K-12 studies. He introduced her to Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America by Lerone Bennett Jr, a book she called “transformative” and the reason she chose to pursue history and African-American studies as a college student.
In Mr. Dial’s African-American Experience course, Hannah-Jones said she learned more about the “history and contributions of Black Americans than I had learned in my first 10 years of education.”
“Taking that class, I realized people made choices, that it wasn’t that Black people hadn’t done anything of note, it was that people had made a choice to exclude these histories and these stories,” she told Iowa Public Radio in 2021.
In today’s America, Before the Mayflower is a book that, if state GOP legislators had their way, may have never touched Hannah-Jones’ hands. In May, a Tennessee school district briefly pulled Alex Haley’s seminal work Roots from school shelves under the state’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. It has since reversed that decision following national outrage.
“Our community deserves access to the greatest literary minds and Black stories deserve to be told and shared in a community where Black students struggle to succeed academically and seldom see themselves in literature,” Hannah-Jones said.
In April, an appellate court allowed Iowa to enforce Senate File 496—a broad state law that bans books with LGBTQ+ content. Over 3,000 books were removed from schools as a result of the law, including Angie Thomas’ popular novel The Hate U Give. In the 2023-2024 school year, the free-expression nonprofit PEN America found that Iowa accounts for about 37% of bans nationwide.
Sheritta Stokes, 1619 Freedom School executive director and longtime teacher in the district, co-founded the after-school literacy program with Hannah-Jones. Even though the district pulled out of the Read-In, residents leaped at the opportunity to support.
“Last year, there were so many people who also work for the district who reached out to say they wanted to volunteer. Even this year, the superintendent said it was a great opportunity to help,” explained Stokes, who has been best friends with Hannah-Jones since high school. “I have 20 people from the district who are helping out.”
“So yes, while the state has laws that they are pushing, the people of Waterloo are very supportive of the freedom of speech and the belief people should be able to read things that they want to read,” she said.
The 1619 Freedom School will hand out thousands of books at the Read-In so that no state law can prohibit students from reading what they want.
“The same authors whose books are being pulled from school libraries across Iowa and across this country are coming to Waterloo to put those books directly into the hands of our children. No law, no executive order, and no school board vote can stop a child from reading a book they already own,” Hannah-Jones said.
Stokes aims for this year’s Read-In to be even bigger than last year.
“It’s going to be a huge event. We have books coming in every day that we’re ready to give away and put in the hands of everyone who shows up.”
Register for the African American Read-In event on Saturday, July 18 at Kersenbrock Auditorium at Waterloo West High School from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. here.
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