Books that have been banned in places are displayed on a table in the Cleveland Main Library during the Teach Truth Rally on Saturday.CLEVELAND, Ohio – Meryl Johnson, education committee chair of the NAACP Cleveland Branch, believes that both knowledge and truth in education gives people power. But when lawmakers write legislation that takes both away, it’s because they don’t want anyone to know the truth and be powerful, she said.
Rocky River author Julia Finley Mosca speaks during the Teach Truth Rally at Cleveland Main Library on Saturday about one of her books that has been banned in places.“Teach Truth Day of Action came to be as a result of the censorship bills that different legislators started pushing forward. They pushed those forward because they wanted to go after our young people and make sure that they’re not learning the truth about their history,” Johnson said.
The rally kicked off with a flash reading mob in the Reading Garden outside of the library, where attendees read books that are on the national banned list, Johnson said. The books showcased at the event are on the nation banned list, Johnson said. Some of the books included “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Hate U Give,” “I am Ruby Bridges” and more.
Her book, “The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin,” is about an autistic inventor and “The Astronaut With a Song for the Stars: The Story of Dr. Ellen Ochoa” is about a Latina astronaut, one of the few women who went into the field at that time. President Richard Nixon told the Navy that he needed a ship immediately. She did not receive an invitation to come aboard the ship that she designed,“She invented the computer software program to design the very first ship by computer,” Mosca said. “Imagine my shock when I came across these two books, only these two, out of the four, these two were being banned.”