Newark Library Director Named a 'Free Speech Defender'

Pictured is Wilma Grey, the director of the Newark Public Library, after being named a "Free Speech Defender" by the National Coalition Against Censorship during its awards dinner Thursday in Manhattan. 

Last year Grey, despite public pressure not to do so, decided to display a drawing by artist Kara Walker at the library that used controversial imagery to depict the horrors of racism in America. 

"It's important for people to be able to take the images and voices out of their heads and put them out into the world in a way that other people can see and understand," said Walker, "and I think with education and conversation we can actually understand how we are, as people, in the world."

"Free speech is required to produce some of the greatest and most creative ideas to humankind" said Grey. "If we try to stop free speech, then we really dealing with nothing more than the status quo, and that will get us nowhere as a human race."