Karie Fugett is a military widow, author, mother, and southerner. She is the author of the memoir “Alive Day,” about her experience as a military spouse.
Born and raised in Alabama, and intimately familiar with the inner workings of the United States military, she knows war. And she has watched what she calls “a war on knowledge” unfold in her community.
In March of this year, an Alabama board voted to defund a local library under a new book ban law, removing state funds from the Fairhope branch after parents criticized the library for carrying “sexually explicit books” that depict LGBTQ+ stories.
“Something about it happening so close to home struck a chord with me,” she told the Alabama Political Reporter.
“Now, Alabama is tossing around the idea of banning books portraying trans folks. It’s just wrong. Reading about perspective and ideas and lives of people different than us is what builds empathy. And, my goodness, we need so much more of that in this country right now.”
Fugett said she knows first-hand how this kind of censorship can impact someone’s life.
“As a kid, the adults in my life didn’t want me exposed to certain information, and I did and believed things out of ignorance that were so harmful to others,” she wrote in a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for her new project.
“It wasn’t until I got to college that I experienced the kind of awakening that only comes from being exposed to stories and truths told from perspectives beyond my own. That experience changed my life. It made me a better human, and that experience fuels the work I’m doing now.”
The work she’s doing now? Converting a rusty 1940 Ford pickup truck into a traveling banned bookstore. She calls it “The Banned Wagon.”
“I was originally thinking of opening a regular bookstore, but after the fight over banning books in Fairhope, I was inspired to go this route instead,” Fugett shared with the Alabama Political Reporter.
Her goal with The Banned Wagon is to put banned and challenged books “back into the hands of the people who need them the most.” That includes LGBTQ+ youth, and other marginalized communities. But Fugett also knows that everyone needs access to books that challenge their worldview.
“Every American deserves the chance to learn and grow into empathetic, thoughtful citizens,” she wrote. “And that begins with access to voices, stories, and histories that expand their understanding of the world and the people in it, especially in today’s polarized political climate.”
With a background in teaching high school and college students, as well as her work as a writer, she also hopes the truck will serve as a meeting point for workshops and events.
She envisions book discussions, open mics, and chats about censorship meant to “show people [these books] aren’t as scary as some want them to believe.”
Fugett also plans to stock plants and antiques to curate a full bookstore experience.
She admits in a Facebook post that it’s a risky idea, especially in the South.
“That proves just how much it’s needed here,” she said. “It’s worth the risk, especially right now.”
In addition to the especially precarious nature of book ban policies in Alabama, challenges to books in schools and public libraries is on the rise nationwide.
The latest data from the American Library Association tracked 821 attempts to censor library materials and services in 2024. In those cases, a total of 2,452 unique titles were challenged.
In schools, PEN America tracked over 10,000 instances of book bans in the 2023-2024 school year, including challenges to 4,231 unique titles.
In that same year, the states that saw the most challenges included Iowa, Florida, and Texas, but southern states also show a large concentration of efforts to remove books from schools.
“Over the last three school years, book bans occurred in 43 states and 415 public school districts,” PEN America concluded.
These numbers add fuel to Fugett’s fire.
“Bless their hearts. They thought banning books in the South would keep folks from reading them,” Fugett wrote on her personal Instagram page. “Well, they’re wrong. All it’s done is make me want to fight back.”
She added that the project is bigger than just her.
“It’s a rebellion against the war on knowledge, right in the heart of the South where it’s needed the most,” she wrote. “It’s a rebellion against censorship. Against ignorance. Against apathy. And against the erasure of voices and histories.”
Right now, Fugett is working to raise funds to restore the truck and get the operation up and running. At the time of this writing, her GoFundMe campaign is a little over a quarter of the way to her $4,000 goal.
“I believe reading diverse stories is essential if we want to move toward a kinder, more peaceful world. Banning books is simply moving in the wrong direction as a species, and this is my small way of fighting back,” Fugett wrote in her call to action.
“My dream? A little truck full of banned books, rolling through the South, spreading truth, freedom, and hope — one story at a time.”
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Header images courtesy of Karie Fugett
