Waterloo schools withdrew 1st graders from a Black History Month book event, citing Trump orders. So locals organized an even bigger version.

Acclaimed authors and readers of all ages are gathering in Waterloo for an event on Saturday, but it’s not a new book festival. It’s “a liberatory act of reading as resistance,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Nikole Hannah-Jones, a co-organizer of Saturday’s read-in, explained on Talk of Iowa last week. “And we’re going to do it together as a community.”

The read-in, which is being hosted by Waterloo’s 1619 Freedom School, is a response to Waterloo Community Schools withdrawing its students from last month’s annual National African-American Read-In. 

The National African-American Read-In was founded in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Conference of English Teachers to celebrate and emphasize the importance of literacy for 1st grade students during Black History Month. As in previous years, the College of Education at the University of Northern Iowa hosted a virtual read-in for Iowa students shared in 1st grade classrooms across the state. This year’s one-hour program was going to focus on All Because You Matter by Tami Charles. It’s a widely praised bestseller book for early readers, described by its publisher as a “lyrical, heart-lifting love letter to black and brown children everywhere: reminding them how much they matter.” Each child participating in the virtual read-in received a copy of the book for free. 

Seventy-three public and private schools across the state participated in this year’s read-in on Feb. 20, with nearly 3,500 1st graders reading along and engaging in other fun activities, such as a draw-along with Caldecott-winning artist Bryon Collier, who illustrated All Because You Matter, and watching a performance by Zeon the Magician. This year’s attendance for the virtual read-in broke the record of 65 schools and 3,100 students set last year. 

But this year, 1st graders in the Waterloo Community Schools didn’t participate, despite the fact the district has the largest percentage of Black students in the state. The day before the read-in, 1st grade teachers in Waterloo received an email from the district’s director of elementary education informing them the district was withdrawing from the read-in, because it had “been advised that this activity and discussion of the book may not comply with the federal mandate” and that could potentially cut off federal funding for the school district, which is already facing massive budget cuts. 

The email was referring to President Trump’s executive orders aimed at eliminating all diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government and in any agency receiving federal dollars. The district had consulted its law firm, which advised withdrawing from the read-in due to the uncertainty created by the Trump administration’s actions.

“We know that that’s the intention of these book bans and curriculum bans, and devise concept laws in Iowa, in states across the country and the recent anti-DEI executive order,” Hannah-Jones said on Talk of Iowa. “It is to make communities afraid to teach the truth, to teach histories about Black Americans and to teach Black books. I can’t say I was that surprised, but I was bothered by it.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a native of Waterloo and attended the city’s public schools. It’s where she developed an interest in writing and journalism. As she built her career outside Iowa and her work attracted international attention — especially The 1619 Project, which explored the central role of Black Americans in the country’s history and efforts to obscure it — Hannah-Jones always remained involved with her hometown. 

In 2023, she and Sheritta Stokes, a longtime Waterloo public school teacher, co-founded the 1619 Freedom School in the city. It’s a free afterschool literacy program that aims “to help children develop a love of reading and books through liberating instruction centered on Black American history and will serve low-income students with the widest disparity in their reading scores.” 

Stokes, who still teaches in the Waterloo school district,  is the 1619 Freedom School’s executive director and curriculum coordinator. It was Stokes who told Hannah-Jones about the decision not to participate in this year’s African-American Read-In, and the two immediately began discussing what to do in response, starting with making sure Waterloo 1st graders got the copies of All Because You Matter they would have received from the read-in. 

“It just started as a small seed, a text conversation about how could we distribute the books, and then we just decided we could make it something much bigger,” Hannah-Jones said. 

They decided that the 1619 Freedom School would create it own African-American Read-In this year, not just for 1st graders, but for the entire Waterloo community. Hannah-Jones reached out to authors she knows to invite them to participate. Tami Charles and Bryon Collier will be at the read-in, and All Because You Matter will be given to young readers for free. And it’s not just that book — hundreds of books for readers of all ages, from beginners through adults, will be distributed for free. 

The African-American Read-In will be held in Kersenbrock Auditorium at Waterloo West High School (425 E Ridgeway Ave) on Saturday. The two-hour event is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. It is free and open to the public, but people planning on attending are asked to register online in advance.