CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A self-described ‘radical’ Chicago-based publishing company is sending books to Florida in response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ push to remove some from school shelves.
Haymarket Books said it has given away about 6,000 free digital copies and 650 printed copies of books about racism and Black history to people in Florida and beyond.
The giveaway is in response to efforts by DeSantis and other conservatives to limit books on racism and Black history.
Dana Blanchard, program coordinator for Haymarket, sees the potential presidential candidate’s visit to Elmhurst Monday as an opportunity to make the discussion into a national issue.
"This isn't just about Florida," she explained. "They wanna shut down these conversations. They don't want people reading these books."
DeSantis received applause for his comments to law enforcement during his visit about how “parents should be able to send their kids to school knowing that they’re going to get an education not a political indoctrination."
Blanchard believes the Republican and others feel threatened by “people organizing around radical ideas, learning their own history, getting together to study and read and build movements."
The move comes after what she calls a moment of reckoning with the racial justice protests of 2020.
The titles they’re giving away are 1919, which is about the race riot that took place in Chicago that year, From BLM to Black Liberation, and Black Lives Matter at School.
Those books have not been explicitly banned, but are in the crosshairs, according to Blanchard.
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