From art to books to protest, we are witnessing an unparalleled era of censorship and propaganda in 2025. We – the staff, board, supporters, and allies of the National Coalition Against Censorship – are working hard to ensure our free expression principles survive this moment and thrive in the next generation and beyond. Your support of the NCAC is essential and gives us the purpose and resources to fight this onslaught. 

With your help, the National Coalition Against Censorship has been leading the charge against the censors with our public voice, arts advocacy, investment in community leaders, youth programming, legal strategy, coalition-building, and direct intervention in reports of censorship. And wherever possible, we do this work in coalition: this is a moment for collective action.  

“If the founding history of this country is any guide, those who stood up in court to vindicate constitutional rights and, by so doing, served to promote the rule of law, will be the models lauded when this period of American history is written.”

- Judge Beryl A. Howell
Perkins Coie LLP v. U.S. Dep't of Just., 2025 WL 1276857 (D.D.C. May 2, 2025)

On May 6, our Executive Director, Lee Rowland participated in an episode of The Moynihan Report,"Means to an End: A conversation about free speech under Trump 2.0" featuring Michael Moynihan (The Fifth Column, VICE), Nico Perrino, (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, So to Speak podcast), David Kaufman (New York Post), and Charles Fain Lehman (Manhattan Institute)

We have one talk left in our UNBANNED event series. On June 1st, our Executive Director Lee Rowland will host a Q&A on Censorship and the First Amendment, and Mike Curato, author of Flamer, will lead two readings of his books. Registration for this event is free! Come for the event and stay to look through our banned books library! 

Youth Free

Expression Program

This month, we launched  Teen Advocacy Institute: Power to the Readers in collaboration with Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned Initiative.

Power to the Readers is a free, online, eight-session summer training institute for high school and college students ready to take a stand for free speech, intellectual freedom, and the right to read.

Through a dynamic mix of presentations, workshops, and peer collaboration, participants will explore the First Amendment, sharpen their advocacy skills, and develop the tools needed to combat censorship and push for change in their schools, libraries, and communities.

Application deadline June 16, 2025. 

Arts & Culture

Advocacy Program

On May 17, Arts & Culture Advocacy Program Director Elizabeth Larison led a talk on recent incidents of art censorship in the U.S. Audiences and taught more about how to define censorship in the U.S. context, identify its mechanisms, and understand factors that lead to self-censorship. This talk was part of Unbanned, a series of events on censorship in art, culture, and media. There is one more event left in this series, featuring our Executive Director Lee Rowland and author Mike Curato, taking place on

Earlier this month Elizabeth Larison, Director of NCAC’s Arts & Culture Advocacy Program, contributed to Full Bleed Issue 8: The Censorship Issue. Her piece discusses curatorial strategies for presenting challenging artworks.

Published by the Maryland Institute College of Art, Full Bleed brings together powerful writing and visual art to explore how creativity responds to today’s cultural and political challenges—including censorship.

We cannot fight the censors alone. In moments of repression, moral courage is essential…and contagious. We are standing up to this moment of censorship because you stand with us.