We on the FORL board are all against this purge and are in full support of the decisions being made by the Board of Trustees for the library. We understand that some of the contents of the library are not for everyone but the library is there to support the community as a whole, not just certain groups or ideologies.

At this point though we don’t have a lot more information. The next steps that were approved by the Board of Trustees is that Tonja Johnson will work to get a hearing with the Board of Aldermen and plead our case. Tonja will also be reaching out to the Mayor to get a list of books that he is wanting removed. We are also strongly urging everyone to reach out to their Aldermen and encourage them to support the library and help them get their funding coming in again.

There is a good article here (https://www.mississippifreepress.org/…/ridgeland-mayor-dem…/) that has more details.

Also a few people have reached out about making donations. If you want to make donations a few options are available:

Checks can be made payable to Friends of the Ridgeland Library with Ridgeland Funding in the memo. These checks can be sent to Friends of the Ridgeland Library / 397 Highway 51 / Ridgeland, MS 39157

Everylibrary.org a library advocacy organization has also set up an online donation/fundraiser that can be found here https://www.fundlibraries.org/ridgelandbookbanning

As more information becomes available, especially dates with the meeting with the Board of Aldermen, I will make updates here. Feel free to send messages here and I will do my best to answer any questions.

Thank all of you for all of your support for the Friends and the Library!