John Wahl, the Alabama Republican Party Chairman, was elected Thursday as the head of the board of directors for the state agency that administers government library funding and has found itself at the center of one of Alabama’s culture war battles.
In a 4-3 vote during its Thursday meeting, the Alabama Public Library Service’s board elected Wahl, who represents District 5, as chairman, with District 7 member Jerria Martin elected vice chairwoman, said APLS spokesman Ryan Godfrey.
The board is appointed by the governor and are residents of the state’s seven congressional districts.
Board members Amy Minton of District 3 and District 4 member Debra Windsor joined Wahl and Martin in voting for the new leaders; Angelia Strokes of District 2, Michelle Hughes of District 6 and Ron Snider of District 1 opposed Wahl’s and Martin’s elections.
Wahl, who has served on the library board since 2022, could not be reached for comment.
His elevation from board member to chairman was criticized by Read Freely Alabama, a group organized to combat book banning efforts across the state by the nonprofit Clean Up Alabama.
Clean Up Alabama, which could not be reached for comment, claims libraries throughout the state “are giving children access to pornography and other sexual content.”
“Today, anti-library extremist John Wahl took over as chair of the Alabama Public Library Service. For the past year, Mr. Wahl abused his position as Alabama GOP chair and APLS board member to collude with extremist groups Moms For Liberty and Clean Up Alabama in attacking libraries for books about LGBTQ communities and racial justice, as well as books written by Black and Indigenous authors in Alabama,” the group said in a statement to AL.com.
Late last year, Wahl disputed any conflicts of interest in an interview with AL.com and said it is a “healthy process” to have political officials on public boards.
“I am a strong believer in the First Amendment and the idea that we should have freedom of thought we should have freedom of dialogue,” Wahl said in October 2023. “However, that doesn’t mean that we should have pornography or sexually explicit material in children’s sections where innocent children can stumble upon it accidentally.” During the interview, Wahl couldn’t share an example of a book in a children’s section that contained such content.
In January, the library service board left the American Library Association, which offers grants and training to libraries around the country; since 2021, it has provided $293,200 in grants to 36 Alabama libraries.
Alabama was one of several states to leave the ALA, citing complaints with training, material and how the organization handles sexually explicit content.
