American History from an Indigenous Perspective: Nonfiction or Fiction?

Montgomery County Memorial Public Library Citizens Review Committee- not librarians- to decide.

Here at Texas Freedom to Read Project we often feel disappointed and dismayed at the censorship attempts we see across the state, but we rarely feel surprised. However, this week, we learned about an incident that floored us. Thanks to the work of a concerned citizen, we discovered that the Montgomery County Citizens Review Committee (completely void of librarians) has ordered a juvenile nonfiction book- that documents American history from the perspective of the Wampanoag tribe-to be moved from the Juvenile Nonfiction Collection to the Fiction Collection of the Montgomery County Memorial Public Library.


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Background: Montgomery County Commissioner’s Court

The shocking mandate to relocate and reclassify a nonfiction book about indigenous and American history, from the Juvenile Nonfiction Collection to the Fiction Collection comes months after significant changes to the Reconsideration of Library Materials Policy were approved and adopted by the Montgomery County Commissioner’s Court in March of 2024. At the time, proponents of the changes emphasized their goals were to ensure “sexually explicit” library books were made inaccessible to minors. Opponents to the changes warned that removing librarians from the majority of reconsideration decisions and deputizing citizens to make decisions about access to library books without any oversight or opportunity to overrule their decisions would result in censorship of ideas, stories and information the government officials, or their politically appointed citizen surrogates, disagreed with. 

Montgomery County resident, avid library supporter and friend of Texas Freedom to Read Project Teresa Kenney has been monitoring the implementation and impact of the recently revised Reconsideration of Library Materials Policy. Teresa recently submitted a public information request to inquire about what books had been challenged in 2024, and the outcomes of those challenges. The response to her inquiry shocked us. The public information Teresa received, states that the children’s book, Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs was challenged on September 10, 2024, and that the Citizens Review Committee “directed that it be moved from the Juvenile Nonfiction Collection to the Fiction Collection by October 17, 2024.”

About the Book

Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs was published by Penguin Random House in September 2023 as part of the “Race to the Truth” series. The “Race to the Truth” series includes other children’s middle grade titles like Slavery and the African American Story by Patricia Williams Dockery, Exclusion and the Chinese American Story by Sarah-Soonlin Blackburn, and Borderlands and the American Story by David Dorado Romo. 

All of these titles are categorized by Penguin Random House as “children’s nonfiction.” They are also housed in the nonfiction collections (using 900 Dewey Decimal call numbers) in other reputable Texas libraries, including the Houston Public Library, the Austin Public Library, and the Fort Worth Public Library. The classification of Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs has been changed from Juvenile Nonfiction, to Juvenile Fiction in the Montgomery County Memorial Public Library catalog. 

Deputizing Political Appointees to Determine Fiction vs. Nonfiction Disrupts Democracy

Allowing the decision by the Montgomery County Memorial Library’s Citizens Review Committee to arbitrarily relocate a nonfiction book to the fiction collection risks undeniable consequences for Montgomery County and beyond. The public library serves as a sacred institutional haven in our democracy, where citizens can turn to find resources and information based on centuries of collection curation and maintenance practices guided by library science- not the latest viral internet-based conspiracy theories rooted in misinformation. What would stop the committee from reclassifying nonfiction books about politics, religion, child development, sexuality, gender, vaccine efficacy, health, economics, the government, climate change or racism to the fiction section? What is to stop them from deeming any perspectives with which they disagree as fiction?

On the morning of Tuesday, October 8, 2024, Teresa Kenney brought her concerns to the Montgomery County Commissioner's Court during the public comment portion of the meeting. Here's what she said:

"I’m asking you to reassess your Library Reconsideration Committee and its complete lack of oversight and transparency.

The policy as it was approved earlier this year states that “Meetings of the Citizens Review Committee are closed to the public except for the Resident who made the formal request for review.” That individual by the way doesn’t even need to prove that they ARE a resident. So the complainant may attend the citizens review committee meeting to discuss why they would like the book removed or restricted but the public is not given information on the complaint or when the meeting to discuss the complaint is held, nor can they attend the meeting to defend the book.

The policy also states that the board’s decisions are final. No discussion, no review of what may have been misinterpreted or misjudged. There are no checks or balances on a committee made up of individuals who are not in library sciences, and perhaps not even with education or research background.

Thanks to a Freedom of Information Request, I discovered that your reconsideration committee, made up of citizens with no background on the subject, has chosen to recategorize a nonfiction book as fiction, and I can only assume it is because it is a telling of the history of indigenous people that they do not approve of. The book is Colonization and the Wampanoag. The author, Linda Coombs, is a well respected historian within that tribe and on that subject.

Is this type of decision—to recategorize a published book by a major respected publisher—under their scope of work in the reconsideration policy? Determining what history can and cannot be told? Whose story is fact or fiction?

I ask that you return librarian oversight to the review process and open the meetings to the public for complete transparency."

You can watch Teresa’s public comment here: 


ACT NOW

Email the Montgomery County Commissioners and Judge Keough to request they take action to protect the freedom to read in the Montgomery County Memorial Public Library. 

We urge the Montgomery County Commissioner's Court to return librarian oversight and authority to all Review Committee decisions, increase transparency and public access to the reconsideration process and decisions made by the Citizens Review Committee, and return the nonfiction book Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs to its rightful home in the Juvenile Nonfiction Collection of the Montgomery County Memorial Public Library. 

The arbitrary decision by the government officials, or appointed citizens acting as their surrogates, to recategorize a nonfiction library book to fiction is censorship. Relocating books in an effort to restrict access to, or diminish the credibility of, the ideas and perspectives they contain is a violation of the first amendment and the potential implications of this act for Montgomery County, for Texas, and our entire country are extremely serious. A healthy democracy is based upon access to ideas and a well-informed citizenry.

About Texas Freedom to Read Project

Texas Freedom to Read Project supports, connects, and mobilizes parent and community led initiatives fighting for student rights and against censorship and book bans in Texas. Texas Freedom to Read Project strives to defend, protect, and preserve the rights of every Texan, especially public school students, to freely read and access information and ideas. Learn more about us here

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