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ABFFE's Dance Card Is Full
Sam Weller -- 5/22/00
The First Amendment championing organization is busier than ever protecting booksellers



For most in the book business, a busy itinerary means prosperity. For Chris Finan, the rule is: the slower the business, the better. Finan is the president of American Booksellers for Free Expression. And, recently, with a slew of challenges to free speech, his day planner has been booked solid.

ABFFE was founded by the American Booksellers Association in 1990 in response to a volley of censorship threats fired upon its members. First, there was President Reagan's appointment of the Meese commission on pornography, which, according to Finan, fueled state legislation to control sexually explicit material. Then came death threats directed toward booksellers and others involved in the distribution of Salman Rushdie's TheSatanic Verses.

"There was an increasing amount of pressure being placed on booksellers," said Finan, recalling the genesis of his organization. "And an increasing amount of ABA board time was being devoted to those matters."

That's when ABFFE was born. Its mission: to defend the First Amendment rights of booksellers and their customers. The organization tracks censorship legislation, files amicus briefs in First Amendment cases and acts as a mouthpiece for booksellers on free speech issues. Remember Kenneth Starr's efforts to subp na the records of Monica Lewinsky's purchases at Kramerbooks in Washington, D.C. (News, Apr. 6, 1998)? ABFFE and Finan came to the rescue. As a result of the group's efforts--which cost ABFEE and ABA more than $100,000--the court ruled that Starr's subp na violated the First Amendment. And when book club guru Oprah Winfrey got into a beef with cattle ranchers, ABFFE was there, too. ABFFE, along with the ABA, the American Library Association and the Association of American Publishers, sponsors Banned Book Week each September. Last year, ABFFE mailed more than 700 promotional kits to independent booksellers who participated in the annual anticensorship campaign. But today, ABFFE has more challenges on its slate than ever before.

Finan, for one, d sn't want to be this busy. It portends a long, drawn-out war for free speech in the new millennium. "This is a bad time," Finan told PW. "Since the 1980s, we have just been in one of those cycles."

This cycle includes recent developments in cases across the country. Last week, in Zeeland, Mich., ABFFE celebrated a victory. Last November, Zeeland Public Schools superintendent Gary L. Feenstra issued a memorandum to administrators and teaching staff regarding the Harry Potter book series. Feenstra called for restrictions on the use of the popular books by J.K. Rowling. Feenstra's memo stated that the books would "not be placed on the shelves in Zeeland Public Schools' libraries" and, furthermore, asked that the Harry Potter books "not be used in the classrooms for read-aloud purposes."

In response, ABFFE rallied the troops and, along with eight other national organizations, formed Muggles for Harry Potter. The group launched a Muggles for Harry Potter Web site (mugglesforharrypotter.org) that enrolled over 3,300 members in the United States and in many foreign countries. ABFFE also produced a "Muggles for Harry Potter" button for fans and supporters of the Potter books.

In response to the national outcry, in March, Feenstra established an evaluation committee, consisting of community parents and school district employees, to review his decision.

On May 11, Feenstra held a press conference to announce that he would accept all of the recommendations of an advisory committee, including restoring the books to the shelves of the elementary and middle school libraries. The only remaining restriction is a ban on oral reading in elementary school classrooms.

"We're very pleased that they removed almost of the restrictions that were imposed in November," Finan said. "This was an important victory."

One young adult author who supports ABFFE is the much-challenged Judy Blume. She will discuss the censorship of Harry Potter and other works of children's literature during an ABFFE BookExpo America program, "Wild About Harry: Censorship and Children's Literature in the Year 2000," which will be held on Saturday, June 3, at the McCormick Convention Center. After the program, she will sign copies of a book of contemporary stories she edited called Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers (S&S). All book royalties are being donated to the National Coalition Against Censorship, an alliance of more than 40 national nonprofit organizations.

But while ABFFE may have won its Harry Potter battle in Michigan, the war is far from over. In yet another free speech struggle, in Harrisonburg, Va., ABFFE recently suffered a defeat. On May 2, a federal district court judge in Virginia refused to order Harrisonburg school officials to repost a Banned Books Week list that they forced high school teacher Jeffrey Newton to remove on the eve of Banned Books Week last year. The principal of Spotswood High School ordered Newton to remove the list after a parent complained that it contained several titles that were "inappropriate" for students, including Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies, The Joy of Gay Sex and Understanding Sexual Identity: A Book for Gay Teens and Their Friends. ABFFE, the American Library Association and the other sponsors of Banned Books Week had joined Newton and several students in challenging the order.

"This d sn't end the case," said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. The ACLU provided legal defense for Newton.

There is irony in ABFFE's recent defense of the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, Colo. (News, Apr. 24 ). Tattered Cover owner Joyce Meskis was the chair of the task force that formed ABFFE a decade ago under the auspices of the ABA. She is currently a member of ABFFE's board. "I think ABFFE is a critically important organization for booksellers today," Meskis said. "The First Amendment is continually being challenged, and lest we think things are getting better on the censorship front, all we have to do is look at the incredible number of challenges of the Harry Potter books and examine the cases that the American Library Association turns up every year to see that censorship is very much with us today." She described the organization as "critically important to the well being of booksellers everywhere, as well as the readers they serve."

As the BEA draws near, ABFFE gears up for one of its biggest fund-raising efforts of the year--its Silent Auction, which runs in conjunction with the upcoming BookExpo. ABFFE needs funding to continue its mission. Along with a $2-million grant from the ABA, the group currently operates on funding from its membership of 600 booksellers (who each pay $100 per year).

"We're struggling uphill here in a difficult First Amendment arena," Finan told PW. "It's going to be a long fight."
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