‘Banned in Iowa — Read in Waterloo’: 1619 Freedom School hosts Read-In featuring Black authors, book giveaways

The 1619 Freedom School, a free after-school literacy program for students, will host its second Read-In on July 18, inviting Black authors whose books have been banned in Iowa.

The event will feature New York Times bestselling authors Angie Thomas, “The Hate U Give,” Iowa native Renée Watson, “Born on the Water,” Jason Reynolds, “All American Boys,” and Nikole Hannah-Jones, founder of 1619 Freedom School and Pulitzer Prize winner. They will read excerpts from their stories and participate in an organized question-and-answer session by 1619 Freedom School scholars, who will also host book giveaways and book signings to encourage literacy.

According to The 19th, in 2024, Iowa ranked second in states with the most book bans in schools, pushed by SF 496, a state law that requires schools to remove books from shelves that are not deemed age-appropriate. This resulted in more than 3,000 books being removed from Iowa shelves in public schools, including Thomas’s novel The Hate U Give, as well as titles by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and many other esteemed Black voices in literature. That is why the nonprofit is hosting this event for the second year in a row: to push back against censorship and teach students that their voices matter within books.

“The same authors whose books are being pulled from school libraries across Iowa and across this country are coming to Waterloo to put those books directly into the hands of our children. No law, no executive order, and no school board vote can stop a child from reading a book they already own,” Hannah-Jones said in a press release.

In 2025, 1619 Freedom School hosted its first Read-In in response to the school district’s withdrawal from a statewide African American Read-In, in accordance with SF 496, after noting that one of the selected books did not comply with federal anti-diversity laws. The event brought over 800 attendees and distributed nearly 3,000 books.

Sheritta Stokes, the organization’s executive director and curriculum coordinator, said that change needs to happen.

“I hope we are able to put books in a lot of people in the community’s hands,” Stokes said. “I am hoping that once again, the authors are breaking those stereotypes of what Black books are about.”

Doors open at 10:30 a.m. for the event at Waterloo West High School, Kersenbrock Auditorium, 425 E. Ridgeway Ave., in Waterloo. The Read-In begins at 11 a.m.