Nine UUCLC members turned out for the Bans Off The Books Read-in in Mount Dora, organized for National Freedom to Read day by All About the Ballots and the Black Women’s Roundtable. All About The Ballots is one of UUCLC’s conservation partners, and their leader Cassandra Brown served as a judge in our recent EcoEssay conservation essay contest.

It was a stirring event, held at Mount Dora Mayor Chrissy Stile’s Barrel Of Books bookstore. Ruth King

sang, and numerous audience members read passages from their favorite banned book. A generous donor had provided piles of new banned books for attendees to select from. It was shocking to see the classics on the tables – who knew that “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “KiteRunner” are now on the banned books list in Florida?

We were asked to bring signs to the event, and we did.   One photo shows several of us with our signs.   A second photo shows Jane Hepting reading a passage from “How To Be an Anti-Racist”.

Thank you to Dawn Reed, Karen Frank, Jane Hepting, Susan Zingale-Baird, Sandy and Bill Davenhall, Jane O’Connor, Karen Woolhouse and Katherine Woolhouse for attending to show our concern on this important social issue.