Texas county condemned for recategorizing book on colonization as fiction

Source: The Independent

6 hours ago


A Texas county’s decision to shelve a nonfiction children’s book about colonization in the fiction section is facing backlash. Montgomery County Commission decided to reclassify Linda Coombs’ book Colonization and the Wampanoag Story as fiction in the seven libraries in the county — a move that has sparked criticism from the book’s publisher Penguin Random House and advocacy groups.

Coombs is a historian from the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah. Her book documents the “Indigenous perspective of the tribes of the New England area on the impacts of European colonization,” according to PEN America, a nonprofit group committed to free expression.

In an October 16 letter, the anti-censorship coalition asked the Montgomery County Commission to reverse the decision: “Moving it to the fiction section communicates distrust of material that reflects the truths of our American history. It diminishes the legitimacy of Coombs’ perspective as a member of the Wampanoag Tribe and Indigenous educators who recommend its use.”

Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read Program, said in a statement: “The restriction of the children’s book and subsequent reclassification is a threat to the freedom to read and essentially eliminates the opportunity for a young reader to discover and learn the true story of the discovery of the Americas through an Indigenous perspective.”

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/texas-montgomery-county-colonization-fiction-b2633021.html