When Moms for Liberty came to Philadelphia to hold their annual summit, they met the kind of resistance you could only find here, in the very city where the American library was invented. As MSNBC anchor and Citizen Board Member Ali Velshi notes of his Banned Book Club’s motto: Reading is Resistance. Reading is half the battle, and the other half is creative initiatives designed to fight back.

Books by Black authors with Black protagonists are targeted for book bans at a much higher rate than other books. That’s why the Free Library of Philadelphia, Visit Philadelphia, and Little Free Libraries joined forces to launch “Little Freedom Libraries” in February. These unmistakably decorated boxes were placed in 13 locations across the city to share 1500 crucial books written by Black authors about Black lives.

Velshi interviews Visit Philadelphia’s CEO and fellow Citizen Board Member Angela Val, who explains how important learning about each other is to the nation. “We get to know one another by reading stories that show us a different person that we might not know, a culture we might not be familiar with, and that lets those barriers between people and different cares and different ethnicities kind of come down a little bit. It is important, here in Philadelphia, that we are not only a welcoming place, but that you have a true sense of belonging.”

Citizens and visitors can take a book, leave a book, and learn essential stories of American history worth telling and sharing. 

Listen to Velshi’s interview with Angela Val on Little Freedom Libraries:

Watch Velshi and Val discuss making Black stories accessible:

Velshi on banned books on MSNBC:

MORE ON BANNED BOOKS FROM THE CITIZEN