Four bulleted points define the purpose of the Racial Justice Committee: 

• To educate ourselves and others about white privilege and systemic racism 
• To become anti-racist in our beliefs and actions 
• To build partnerships to resist systemic racism 
• To advocate for racial justice 

Reading and sharing relevant texts is one important way that we, as individuals and as a justice group, strive to educate ourselves and others. We were alarmed to read that in 2021 the American Library Association reported the highest number of attempts to censor books in decades, and in 2022 challenges to books are nearing that amount already. Most of these targeted books were written by, or were about Black or LGBTQIA+ persons.

Books provide a means of learning about ourselves and others — joys, concerns, historical burdens — so that individual differences can be understood and respected. Understanding and respect can lead to empathy, advocacy, and justice. Thank you for supporting our Banned Book Project!

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we don’t see. 

—Martin Luther King, Jr.