In a closed meeting on 5 June the City Council replaced all but two of the fifteen members of the library board. By the middle of June the entire nation was watching San Antonio. The Washington Post published an editorial supporting the library and condemning those Americans who “have departed from the fundamental beliefs on which this country grew and prospered now has come from San Antonio…” Even President Eisenhower in an address at Dartmouth College on 14 June brought up the issue.
“It isn’t enough to say ‘I love America’ and to salute the flag and to cheer as it goes by. Don’t be afraid to go to the library and read the books…That’s how we will defeat Communism-by knowing what it is. We’ve got to fight it by doing something better, and not just by hiding it.”
On 11 February 1954 the new Library Board of Trustees sought to end the controversy by adopting the American Library Association’s “Bill of Rights for Public Libraries.” The vote was six to five.
In May the City Council again ousted all but two library board members. By September the library board was split again. This time the issue was the titles of books to be purchased for the library. Tanner Freeman objected to the purchase of Iron Curtain over America as being anti-Semitic. Book committee chairwoman, Mrs. Roy Beitel, admitted that committee members had added 88 titles with strong right-wing slants to the proposed purchases recommended by library staff. Ramon Galindo asked, “Are you speaking for thought control or freedom of information?”
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