Illinois is Now the First State in America to Outlaw Book Banning

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a bill into law making the state the first in the country to prohibit the banning of books in public schools and libraries.

Today is one of those days that I'm proud of my state and I'm thrilled that our state government is standing up to the groups that aim to take away our opportunity to choose what we want to read. We the people, get to think for ourselves and choose whose story matters.

New Illinois Book Banning Law

On Monday, Governor Pritzker signed a bill into law that is the first of its kind in America. As other states continue to challenge and ban literature from public schools and libraries. Nobody gets to decide whose history we get to read about but ourselves

RELATED: 20 Hidden Gem Spots from Across Illinois You Must Visit

Book bans are about censorship, marginalizing people, and marginalizing ideas and facts. Regimes banned books, not democracies.

That's part of Governor Pritzker's statement Monday as he signed the book-banning prohibition bill into law, He added,

We refuse to let a vitriolic strain of White nationalism coursing through our country determine whose histories are told, not in Illinois.

Get our free mobile app

SEE: The 10 Largest Landowners in the State of Illinois Might Surprise You

The new law takes effect on January 1, and it states that public libraries must adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights or their own statement prohibiting book banning to be eligible for state money.

Here is the key part of the Library Bill of Rights:

Reading materials “should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval” or “excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation."

[H/T CNN]

Speaking of books...