The Montgomery County Commissioners Court in Texas recently stunned the Texas Freedom to Read Project by forcing libraries to reclassify a Wampanoag history book as “fiction.”
The book in question is a nonfiction history book by Linda Coombs titled Colonization and the Wampanoag Story. Coombs is an author and historian from the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah. She has worked to preserve Indigenous history, spending over 30 years with the Wampanoag Indigenous Program (WIP) of Plimoth Plantation. Last year, she published Colonization and the Wampanoag Story, a children’s nonfiction book that tells American history through the perspective of the Indigenous people. The book’s synopsis on Penguin Random House’s website notes America’s discovery is often misrepresented as Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims arriving on empty land. Hence, the book seeks to tell the “true story of how America as we know it today began.”
Recently, the Montgomery County Commissioners Court made the perplexing decision to quietly reclassify Coombs’ history book as fiction.
Texas County Commissioners Court decides history book is fiction
On October 19, Texas Freedom to Read Project co-founder Anne Russey penned a piece for MSNBC, highlighting the Montgomery Commissioners Court’s shocking actions. As the co-founder of an organization dedicated to protecting children’s right to read, Russey thought she had seen it all regarding the right-wing book banning and censorship movement sweeping across Texas. After all, Texas is right behind Florida as the state with the most book bans in America. Concerns have already arisen over Texas school districts and counties potentially abusing their power, considering major decisions, like redacting entire textbook chapters, are often done behind closed doors.
Still, Russey wasn’t expecting the Montgomery Commissioners Court’s latest move. It ordered Montgomery librarians to reclassify Colonization and the Wampanoag Story as fiction. The decision is quite perplexing, considering every major Texas library system has classified the book as non-fiction. On top of that, the court refuses to share any information about this sudden change. Earlier this year, conservatives began pushing to remove librarians from the review process of challenged books, leading to the formation of the Montgomery County “Citizens Review Committee.” Upon receiving an anonymous complaint about Coombs’ book, the committee reviewed the book behind closed doors through an undisclosed process and somehow decided to reclassify it as fiction. The decision cannot be appealed.
Colonization and the Wampanoag Story is not fiction. Its publisher, Penguin Random House, accepted it as nonfiction, and every major bookseller and school district that has chosen to distribute and carry it has classified it as nonfiction. Yet, the Montgomery Commissioners Court was permitted to override this classification and designation to arbitrarily claim the book was fiction. In doing so, it disregards a well-researched and historically accurate book from a credible author as pure fiction. It’s hard to imagine a greater insult to an esteemed historian than claiming her historical publication is a made-up story.
Again, one must ask how the court is permitted to do this without reason or explanation and without the possibility of challenging its decision. The review committee’s own policies include no mention of the committee having the power to randomly reclassify books as it pleases. Its decision was clearly an abuse of power. It locked out librarians and the public from its decision and decided it had the right to determine whose history is fact or fiction based on which history appeals to its agenda the most. The incident is a startling reminder of how committees, school boards, and county courts may be overstepping their power and infringing on citizens’ rights by taking it upon themselves to dish out bans, censorship, and reclassifications of books based on their personal opinions and feelings.
