Meet the FReadom Fighters Taking On Book Bans and Online Abuse: 'Books Are Not Contraband' 

Longtime friends Becky Calzada and Carolyn Foote couldn't sit on the sidelines anymore listening to people undermine librarians. All over the country, a narrative played out at school board meetings claiming that diverse titles are harmful, librarians are "groomers" and children are exposed to pornographic material in school libraries.

After a Texas lawmaker, Rep. Matt Krause, targeted 850 books for removal from the state's libraries, Calzada and Foote, joined by other silent partners, started the group's Twitter account and website, Freadom.us, which offers support for embattled librarian colleagues and guides for action campaigns. Texas lawmakers threatened to ban titles that tackled issues of race, racism and LGBTQ themes—or that merely featured kids whose identities reflected them. Calzada, 57, and Foote, 63, formed FReadom Fighters in November 2021 to rally an army of book lovers on social media and in their communities. Using the hashtag #txlege to gain the attention of the Texas legislature, the group started sharing their counter-message. A tweetstorm of 13,000 tweets went out with this hashtag, including personal stories of books positively changing lives.

"Books shouldn't be contraband," says Foote, a retired librarian from Austin. "We've lost our way in this contentious environment. We forgot what's at the core of libraries: getting kids excited about reading and seeing stories that reflect their lives."

Calzada was in her late 20s before she first came across a children's book about a family that looked like hers. When she read Gary Soto's Too Many Tamales, the story of a Hispanic family coming together to make the traditional dish, "I remember thinking, 'Gosh, we do that,'" says Calzada, a library coordinator for an Austin-area school district. "Sometimes you need a book to bring reassurance and validate."

Most school libraries typically have 8,000 to 20,000 books. Foote says a librarian's job is to partner with the child and families to find the right book that works for them. Libraries, as she describes, are places of choice. "One of the powerful things about books is they are tools for understanding complex issues," says Foote. "If you look up the same issues on the internet, there isn't a container for it. You could end up reading anything anywhere, so books are safe places to understand complex issues."

Both women have faced online attacks ("We've been called everything under the sun," Foote says. "It's scary.") and they admit it can feel like a losing battle—last year, more than 1,600 titles were banned in schools across the country, with Texas leading the nation. Much of the harassment happens on social media or in private Facebook groups. Librarians are hesitant to speak up publicly and discuss the challenges of what's happening around them. Calzada recalls an incident when a parent, unsatisfied with how a librarian handled an issue, escalated with a threat to contact Texas Gov. Abbott.

"It's not just adults—kids are speaking up about how books [on the banned lists] helped them," says Calzada. The pair believe most people value libraries and disagree with book banning. "We're at an unprecedented moment. We had no idea censorship would get this bad—I hope we inspire others to get involved," says Foote.