7 Tips for Mobilizing Your Community to Secure an Event With Chelsia Rice, Montana Book Company

This article is an excerpt from The ABA Right to Read Toolkit: How Booksellers and Readers Can Resist Book Bans. Check out the full Toolkit on BookWeb!

Montana Book Company is a self-described “defender of equality, women, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC folks” and is avowedly anti-racist and anti-fascist. It is also in a red state. They’ve had their fair share of protesters, and co-owner Chelsia Rice has some tips on how to handle them.

1. Look for advance signs of trouble.

“We anticipated that we would have protesters long before we were notified that they were coming [because of what] was happening around the nation with other drag events. Then it was posted on Facebook that people were making comments about disrupting us, all the typical things that you would expect from people who are homophobic. [At first,] we were thinking about just not alerting our customers so that we didn't have people too afraid to come. Then we were contacted by the FBI and told the Oathkeepers were going to be coming to our events. A local organization that has tracked hate groups for a long time notified us as well.”

2. Have the right people in place for de-escalation.

“We had a meeting about what the best and worst case scenarios would be, our fears, our skills, our strengths, where we felt we would each be most useful, and where we would potentially be more problematic. My people who are comfortable with potential conflict [volunteered] to be up front with Charlie, one of the owners, who is a veteran and doesn't have the kind of fear that I have about [conflict]. These were people who were not interested in escalating. They were intent on not not engaging and making sure that the crowd who came out didn't engage either. They were out front.

“We gave [deescalation] responsibility to four people who stood away from the front of the store, in between the crowd that had gathered and the protesters. If somebody got excited and started yelling back, one of those people would turn back and say, ‘No, we're not doing this, we're not escalating, we're not making eye contact, we're not doing any of that stuff.’ Really a no-conflict approach.

“One of the people who tends to be more reactionary got charged with keeping the children in the back of the store, in the children's section, safe if something was to happen, including having an alternate exit so people could be moved if they needed to be. I, as one of the owners, was in charge of the event, making sure that people were safely seated and organized and that there was a clear path for that as well.”

3. Contact allies strategically.

“Before we put it out publicly, I contacted some white, cisgender, heterosexual men in the community who are our allies. I said, ‘This is an important opportunity for allyship, and we would be so happy if you could come help keep everyone safe during this event.’ And that was a really important move, because all of them committed to it. Most of them had military experience. One of them was a retired sheriff's deputy. So the people I was tapping into, I was tapping into strategically. They have experience with these things.

“And then we asked the public [via social media] to turn out. That was how we got our blockade of allies who stood outside in 100 degree weather and made sure that the protesters across the street weren't [causing trouble]. We didn't escalate them, and they stayed where they were.

“And even though there's some contention about whether or not the police should be allowed at Pride events, I contacted our local police. A police officer came down to talk to me about what I was afraid of, what they’d heard, what they needed, what they knew. Two police were present on each side of the crowd. This was during Pride and the organizers also coordinated with law enforcement for extra support. I also contacted my mayor and my city commissioners, told them what was going on, and asked them to come out publicly and denounce it. A city commissioner said that they'd show up to protect the store, too. And so, it was really calling on the community to get people to come out.”

4. Coordinate with neighbors.

“Both years, I talked to my neighboring retailers to make sure they understood what was going on and see if they had any questions. We share a pass-through door with a boutique [next door], and I asked them if we had a problem if we could exit through their store. So kind of a neighborhood collaboration just to make sure everybody understood what was going on. And everybody on our block is an ally.”

5. Interrupt.

“This was an unintentional tactic, but on the way to work that morning, I said, ‘Hey, we should stop and get an air horn.’ It was just an idea. And when one of the men decided to pull out their bullhorn and start yelling at us towards the end, my spouse, who was in the middle of the street — when he tried to yell something through it, they hit the airhorn a couple of times to interrupt it, and every time he tried to yell, did it again. Again, they did not escalate by looking him in the face, but looked back over their shoulder at the store when they did it, and the crowd kind of laughed and cheered and clapped. It was quite joyful.”

6. Keep open lines of communications.

“We had walkie talkies. I had one with the event, which is upstairs. My spouse had one in the front. We had one at the front counter. And I think one or two outside, one in the back, one in the front, with people who are not standing with the crowd, but keeping an eye on the periphery. Everyone had the same channel. When the protesters left and began to move, I was notified in the event that they were moving north. And then when they were gone I was notified again.” We used earpieces to not startle the customers. We even had customers and community members in the neighborhood in cars and on foot in case people were coming in mass from any direction.”

7. Keep event to a manageable size

“Instead of one big show, which could have been potentially dangerous if somebody needed to escape, we did two small shows which were much more comfortable. Much safer, much more regulated. We had secret shoppers in the store, people who just milled around both events to make sure that people weren't being shady or stealing, and several checkpoints to get into the actual area for the event.”