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Moms for Liberty cried foul last year when the Huntsville-Madison Public Library briefly canceled their planned Brave Books story hour.
Organizers claimed the library canceled the event due to the views of the organizers and the content of the presentation. Library officials said the projected attendance of the event ballooned far outside the initial projection of about 30 people and became more than the library could handle.
After threat of a lawsuit from Brave Books author Kirk Cameron, the library ultimately allowed the event to be held with an overflow room.
Moms for Liberty is now bringing a similar event back in numerous areas across the state on August 24, including the Huntsville library.
According to Brave Books, See You at the Library is a national day where thousands of families come together at public libraries to host wholesome story hours that celebrate a return to American, Constitutional, and Biblical values.
The event is used as a juxtaposition to books for youth that include sexual content and LGBTQ themes, which have been heavily targeted by Moms for Liberty, Clean Up Alabama and Eagle Forum over the past year.
The events will be taking place in Huntsville and multiple branches in Mobile and Baldwin County, the two areas of the state with Moms for Liberty chapters.
There will also be an event at the Mt. Laurel Public Library, where the controversy led to a takeover of the library board by the all-Republican state legislative delegation.
Events will be held in a couple other libraries that have not made headlines thus far, with story hours at the Demopolis and Phenix City libraries.
The Autauga-Prattville Public Library is also hosting a “See You at the Library” event, which initially appeared to be a distinct event despite sharing the same name and date, with a focus on honoring local first responders.
Late Thursday, however, the library was added to the Brave Books map of events in Alabama. Each event on that map includes a disclaimer that the event is not promoted or sponsored by the library, and it makes that claim about the APPL event as well.
But the APPL is the host and sponsor of this event, as evidenced by Facebook posts promoting the event. APR could not reach APPL officials before publishing time for clarification.
The APPL board is currently embroiled in a lawsuit over policies that patrons allege are overbroad, vague and discriminate based on viewpoint. The board has changed its policy in hopes of having the suit dismissed, but will have to withstand a decision by a federal judge on whether to enjoin those policies.
