Birmingham Needs Another MLK Moment; No Justice for Sexually Harassed Librarians

Martin Luther King

Jr. in Jail

Birmingham, AL, needs another MLK moment.  Martin Luther King, Jr., in his famous Letter From Birmingham Jail, 16 April 1963, said, "We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.'"

Compare that with the Birmingham Public Library as led by Director Renee Blalock.  Justice is not only delayed, but it is simply absent.  For years.  And librarian after librarian suffers with no help from the library, the city, nor from the American Library Association [ALA].

Dr. Gina
Loudon

When I was offered a chance to speak to Birmingham, I jumped at the chance to get people there to wake up and restore justice where others have not.

I was interviewed by Dr. Gina Loudon on the "The Dr. Gina Show" on 101 WYDE FM.  Listen here for the specific information I provided Birmingham that also applies to many other communities whose libraries are infected by the ALA's anything-goes policy:

• Dr. Gina Show - Guest Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries - 17 August 2011 Hr 2 Seg 3

"If you don't like it leave."
Did Sandi Lee say that?

Imagine if you were repeatedly sexually harassed while on your job, you complained to your boss, and your boss said if you don't like it, you can leave.  Imagine if this happened to multiple employees over multiple years and no one did anything about the boss or the policy that allowed this.  Imagine if your employer repeatedly defrauded the federal government by submitting falsified documents and accepting ill-gotten gains.  Where's the justice?  How would you feel?

Just because it's a library, you get to get away with this?  The ALA sure thinks so.  As Cory Doctorow said at an ALA George Soros funded, "youth privacy" conference before advising the ALA to teach children to defy their parents, jailbreak devices, etc., "And frankly, you can't get say bad things about a librarian without sounding like kind of a jerk."  Does Birmingham think so?

I've written about Birmingham before—now it is time for the Birmingham community to consider what I said on the Dr. Gina Show then demand the truth, and justice for the librarians, not unlike the justice demanded in a Birmingham jail in 1963, almost 50 years ago.  Here are my previous posts on the topic:

• "Porn and Sex Abuse In Our Public Libraries: Public Library Porn Harms Children, Patrons, Librarians, and Porn Industry Actors"
• "Library Employee Harassment Continues As Second Suit for Unabated Porn is Filed in Birmingham Alabama"
• "Library Hostile Environment Lawsuits in St Cloud, MN, and Birmingham, AL, for Title VII Sexual Harassment; Wilson v. Birmingham Public Library Foundation; ALA May Be At Fault and Should Be Sued"  (Since writing this story, I have learned the library may have obtained even more money fraudulently under the CIPA program.)

If anyone wants my help or simply has questions about my opinions, please let me know.

If this were my community, I would not stand for this and I would insist my government take action to stop the library from acting outside the law.  The government's previous failure to act has led to the second incident and has left it exposed to potential escalating legal liability.  Does the library's adherence to ALA policy really intimidate you so much you will continue to allow the library to act outside the law?  What would MLK do?


NOTE ADDED 23 AUGUST 2011:

Thanks to me, the library community is starting to take note of the injustice in Birmingham and elsewhere, and this email resulted in hundreds of page visits:

"[lita-l] 2nd Federal 'Sexual Hostilities in Worplace' Lawsuit Filed by Library Workers," by LaVerne Poussaint, DeepMed Library, 22 August 2011.

From: LaVerne Poussaint 
To: lita-l@ala.org
Subject: [lita-l] 2nd Federal 'Sexual Hostilities in Worplace' Lawsuit Filed by Library Workers
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:41:52 -0700 (PDT)

For the clueless [regarding ALA members attacking LaVerne and calling for censoring her: http://connect.ala.org/node/150744 - definitely an eye-opening read]:

Why are you still sending e-mails to me on civil discourse?

How has it transpired that my opposition to the crude and illegal fellatio uploads [to an ALA message board] now turns on the false fulcrum of my lack of "civility" and not upon a focus of the heterosexual male prerogative [yes, I must "go there"] which considered it suitable to penetrate and push pass the boundaries of professionalism in such a way?

I would not deign to upload a cunnilingus graphic on ALAConnect.  Why?  Because there should be boundaries.  My private propensities are mine alone - and those with whom I share particular pleasures.

The selfsame dynamic evidenced on ALAConnect is what has been now forced before the Bench and Bar.  The Library Foundations are now party to the suits as enablers and facilitators; those mandated with representing the interests of the library workers are defendants, not plaintiffs.

http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2011/07/library-employee-harassment-continues.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20100911112509/http://www.theblaze.com/stories/librarian-suit-computer-porn-use-lead-to-groping-while-children-present/

Let us no longer pretend that this is about lack of my manners; there's something far more subtle and malicious going on here.

...And if you think what was written is lacking in civility, your ears would burn if you heard what I'm actually thinking.

-LLP

NOTE ADDED 26 JANUARY 2019:

Updated link to recording with Dr. Gina Loudon (as well as other older links):

• https://www.dropbox.com/s/rugr4lonppg0r3j/DrGinaShow17August2011Hr2Seg3withDanKleinmanofSafeLibraries.mp3?dl=0 

I also note @BPL blocked me on Twitter for my reporting on this, and only in 2019 did it finally unblock me.  See:

• "Public Libraries Must Unblock Social Media Participants"

Follow @SafeLibraries