{"id":1012,"date":"2026-09-08T14:09:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2026-09-08T14:09:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:09:58","slug":"angie-nixon-is-fighting-for-the-right-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=1012","title":{"rendered":"Angie Nixon Is Fighting for the Right to Read"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For many years, Angie Nixon has led the charge against the nefarious schemes of Florida Republicans to ban books that present an unfiltered history of the United States. This fight is just a part of what makes the Democratic state legislator an inspiring candidate for the US Senate. But it strikes us as a qualification that deserves special note at a time when the right to read is under attack. As we publish The Nation<\/em>\u2019s Fall Books issue, we\u2019re thinking a lot about the role that books play in opening up this country\u2019s discourse.<\/p>\n

Read more Can We Save Democracy?<\/a><\/p>\n

We value texts that reflect on the injustices of the past and the present\u2014and that amplify activism to remedy those injustices. But there are plenty of right-wing politicians who see a threat in books that provide a full picture of the struggle for a more perfect union.<\/p>\n

Florida has in recent years been ground zero in the battle over the freedom to read. And Angie Nixon has bravely stood on the right side of history. Long before she won a surprise victory in the Florida Democratic Senate primary on August 19\u2014and, because of her progressive positions and membership in the Democratic Socialists of America, suddenly became a national figure\u2014Nixon started a bookstore in her hometown of Jacksonville that puts banned books front and center on the shelves. In so doing, she offered a contemporary expression of what Frederick Douglass described as \u201ca sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom\u201d that has always animated the greatest of American activists and leaders. The story of her bookstore, Caf\u00e9 Resistance, is one of courage and words-into-deeds action, and it gets to the heart of how Democrats should position themselves in the so-called culture wars that Republicans always gin up at election time. Instead of cowering, Democrats should take a cue from Nixon\u2019s inspired efforts to embrace and celebrate historically marginalized and oppressed peoples.<\/p>\n

Nixon stepped up four years ago, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was laying the groundwork for his failed 2024 presidential campaign with initiatives designed to position him as his party\u2019s most ardent critic of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Florida branch of the ACLU complained that DeSantis \u201csought to censor Black history in classrooms and called slavery \u2018beneficial\u2019 for Black people.\u201d The governor\u2019s assault on the truth included advocacy for legislation that empowered local book-banning schemes and what PEN America Florida has described as \u201crampant free expression infringements in Florida.\u201d These \u201cspeech-constricting laws, policies, and book bans,\u201d PEN argues, advance an agenda with \u201cvery real consequences for students, educators, and the freedom to read in this state\u201d and \u201chave become a template for conservative activists and lawmakers behind the movement that has led to nearly 6,000 instances of book bans since 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Rutherford B. Hayes (but Forgot To Ask)<\/a><\/p>\n

Nixon offered an alternative template that defended, as she puts it, \u201cthe freedom for our children to learn true history and not have books banned for political purposes.\u201d She was an outspoken foe of the book-banning legislation on the floor of the state House of Representatives, to which she was elected in 2020. And when the Republican majority rejected her arguments, Nixon started the bookstore and community hub. \u201cIn 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 1467, and Florida became the state with the most book bans in the country,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I stocked the books they tried to pull off the shelves. And Caf\u00e9 Resistance was born. They banned the truth, so we put it right here in the community: free tutoring, coffee, and the books they don\u2019t want kids to read.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the owners of independent bookstores do in urban neighborhoods and small cities and towns all over the country. They make their shops havens not merely for books and their authors (including Nixon, who has cowritten a children\u2019s book with her daughter) but also for young readers, many of whom find a sense of possibility in books by and about Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm, Angela Davis, and the 1619 Project. The same goes for public libraries and school libraries, where so many librarians have bravely stood up to the red-state politicians who attack the right to read\u2014and the honest discourse that extends from that reading.<\/p>\n

We imagine a good many shop clerks and librarians will be cheering Angie Nixon on, because the US Senate has enough establishment politicians. It could use a bookstore owner.<\/p>\n

Read more What\u2019s Behind the Dubai-ification of America\u2019s Yemeni Cafes?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nAngie Nixon Is Fighting for the Right to Read - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=1012\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Angie Nixon Is Fighting for the Right to Read - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=1012\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-08T14:09:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=1012#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=1012\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Angie Nixon Is Fighting for the Right to Read\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-08T14:09:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=1012\"},\"wordCount\":778,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=1012#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/da013ecb9fda9dddbeed8427761384a3.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Editorial\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=1012#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=1012\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=1012\",\"name\":\"Angie Nixon Is Fighting for the Right to Read - 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