Actor LeVar Burton made a dig at conservative political organization Moms for Liberty in his speech at the 2023 National Book Awards.
The 74th awards ceremony took place in New York City on Wednesday. Before the winners of the National Book Award for young people’s literature, translated literature, poetry, nonfiction, and fiction were announced, Burton gave a speech that included a joke about fighting Moms for Liberty.
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“Before we get going, are there any Moms for Liberty in the house? Moms for Liberty? No? Good,” Burton said. “Then hands will not need to be thrown tonight.”
Moms for Liberty began in 2021 by two Florida mothers and former school board members who were initially concerned about problems surrounding pandemic restrictions. The group has been involved in curating which books end up in school libraries.
Burton referred to conflicts throughout the world and said that in the United States, “we are fighting for control of truth and how we interpret truth.”
“Books are being banned, words are being silenced, and writers and others who champion books are under attack,” Burton said. “And there is a reason, I believe, why books are under attack — it’s because they are so powerful. Stories are the tool that enable us to better understand ourselves and, yes, our history.”
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey also gave a speech condemning book bans.
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Actress Drew Barrymore was originally slated to be the host, but she fell into disfavor when she initially announced last month in a since-deleted Instagram post that her talk show would start up its fourth season. Its third season ended before the Writers Guild of America strike started on May 2. The actress promised not to discuss or promote “film and television that is struck of any kind” and decided to pause the show’s production entirely, but she eventually reversed her decision to wait until the WGA strike was over to start up production again.
Burton was once the host of Reading Rainbow, a show that promoted literacy for children. He now hosts a podcast titled LeVar Burton Reads, which is, as it sounds, clips of him reading short stories. His breakout role was that of Kunta Kinte in the television series Roots, which was based on the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family.
