12 Thursday, August 1, 2024 BATTLE CREEK SHOPPER NEWS http://www.thebattlecreekshopper.com
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It’s a trend that Battle Creek’s
R.I.S.E. Corp. founder Damon Brown
finds alarming and as the director of
the summer Children’s Defense Fund
(CDF) Freedom School, he led his 30
students in a July 17 National Day of
Social Action in the form of a “fREA-
Dom to read” demonstration at Willard
Library in downtown Battle Creek.
The library, he said, has not banned
books but the location was used as the
protest site because it represents books
in general.
“I contacted them in advance, so the
library knew we were coming,” said
Brown. “It’s only for symbolic reasons
that we’re here.”
The youths ranging in age from
kindergarten through grade 12 carried
hand made signs with messages from
“Don’t ban a book you haven’t read”
to “Ban liars and crooks not history
books.”
They chanted many of those sameBANS
Continued from Page 1messages as they walked in a circle
in the parking lot.
“The purpose of this march is to
bring awareness that the freedom to
read is under attack in our country,”
reads a media advisory, “and that
book banning is happening through-
out our country. CDF scholars have
been learning why the freedom to
read is necessary to democracy and
emphasizing importance of being
able to protest.”
The students wore “Freadom to
Read” tee shirts with “Read Banned
Books” emblazoned across the back.
Willard Library Director Matt
Willis said he also supports the pub-
lic’s freedom to read.
“Willard Library champions every-
one’s right to read freely and encour-
ages families to make their own
choices regarding suitable reading
material,” he said after the protest.
“This commitment aligns with our
‘Purpose Statement: Discover, Grow,
Connect’, which reflects our dedica-
tion to maintaining an inclusive envi-
ronment for all.”
Though Brown is not aware of
anyone who has been denied a book,
he is concerned about the censorship
being pushed by book critics.
“Once I got to see what books are
being banned, it really was concern-
ing to me,” he said. “Again, a lot of
these books have nothing as far as
violence or an assaultive nature...it’s
really a lot of history books and posi-
tive imagery type books, understand-ing the history we all come from. So
we want to make sure things aren’t
systematically being done to try
to discourage kids from reading or
learning about themselves and their
culture so they can, again, be proud.”
In fact, the experience taught many
of his students that books are being
banned in other communities.
“A lot of kids didn’t know there
were such things as banned books,
why there are banned books and let-
ting them know what social action
is,” he said. “Last year, we did it
around gun violence. The year before
that was global warming. So these
kids are starting to learn, again, about
things that affect their everyday
lives and starting to partake in it and
understand, again, that it is a social
issue.”
Freedom School is a six-week sum-
mer literacy program that R.I.S.E.
took over three years ago at Kellogg
Community College.
R.I.S.E. stands for ReIntegration to
Support and Empower, a non-profit
that formerly held youth programs
at Washington Heights United
Methodist Church.
Now, besides operating the free
Freedom School, R.I.S.E. oper-
ates in-school cognitive behavioral
therapy and social emotional learning
programs at Northwestern Middle
School and at Ann J. Kellogg and
Verona elementary schools.
Co-organizer is Jacqueline Patrick-
James.Nearly 30 youths from the CDF Freedom School drew attention to their
objections to book banning by staging a protest in downtown Battle Creek
July 17, their Day of Social Action. (Shopper News photo by Shelly Kehrle-Sulser)