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The following U.S. organizations track censorship and advocate for the freedom to read.*
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAB)
Founded in 1974, NCAC is an alliance of more than 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups, united in their support of freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression. NCAC works with teachers, educators, writers, artists, and others around the country dealing with censorship debates in their own communities. It educates its members and the public at large about the dangers of censorship, and it advances policies that promote and protect freedom of expression and democratic values. NCAC’s Kids’ Right to Read Project (KRRP), a key initiative of its Youth Free Expression Program, is a unique advocacy project that works at the grassroots level to protect students’ right to read in schools, libraries, and bookstores across the country.
The National Council of Teachers of English
The NCTE supports intellectual freedom at all educational levels. An 80,000-member organization devoted to improving the teaching and learning of English and faced with challenges to teaching materials or methods, the NCTE offers support, advice, and resources to teachers and schools faced with challenges to teaching materials or methods. The NCTE has developed a Statement on Censorship and Professional Guidelines in recognition that English and language arts teachers face daily decisions about teaching materials and methods.
The American Library Association for Intellectual Freedom
Established in 1967, the Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials. The goal of the office is to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.
The American Booksellers Organization
ABFE is the bookseller’s voice in the fight against censorship. Founded by the American Booksellers Association in 1990, ABFE’s mission is to promote and protect the free exchange of ideas, particularly those contained in books, by opposing restrictions on the freedom of speech; issuing statements on significant free expression controversies; participating in legal cases involving First Amendment rights; collaborating with other groups with an interest in free speech; and providing education about the importance of free expression to booksellers, other members of the book industry, politicians, the press, and the public.
CBLDF is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comic art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, and readers. The CBLDF provides legal referrals, representation, advice, assistance, and education in furtherance of these goals. The CBLDF assists libraries in challenges to comics and graphic novels by providing letters of support, and access to resources to defend graphic novels when they are challenged.
*From Arizona State University LibGuide
Article 19 is a human rights organization with a specific mandate and focus on the defense and promotion of freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide.
Blue Ribbon Campaign (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Display the blue ribbon to support the essential human right of free speech, a fundamental building block of free society, affirmed by the U.S. Bill of Rights in 1791 and by the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Committee on Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) The overall objective of IFLA/FAIFE is to raise awareness of the essential correlation between the library concept and the values of intellectual freedom.
International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) runs the world’s most comprehensive free expression information service through its daily Alerts, weekly IFEX Communiqué newsletter, free expression headlines Digest and website.
FREEMUSE – The World Forum on Music and Censorship is an independent international organization which advocates freedom of expression for musicians and composers worldwide.
Network of Concerned Historians (NCH) wants to provide a bridge between international human rights organizations campaigning for censored or persecuted historians (and others concerned with the past) and the global community of historians.
The American Library Association – Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) receives reports from libraries, schools, and the media on attempts to ban books in communities across the USA. It compiles lists of challenged books in order to inform the public about censorship efforts that affect libraries and schools in the United States.
The International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) is an association of cities around the world dedicated to the value of Freedom of Expression. Each ICORN city focuses on one writer at a time, each writer representing the countless others in hiding, in prison or silenced forever.
The Literature Police website and database are supplements to Peter D. McDonald’s book The Literature Police: Apartheid Censorship and its Cultural Consequences, which was first published by Oxford University Press in February 2009. It is intended for anyone curious to know more about the subject and for those interested in doing further research into the vast topic of apartheid censorship.
PEN America (PEN), an international group of writers, follows the censorship and oppression of writers in the U.S. and internationally.
Both the ALA and PEN America offer resources and direct support to communities facing book challenges.
