Libraries and schools across the country are experiencing unprecedented levels of attempts to ban or remove books from their shelves. I Love Libraries will continue to raise awareness by highlighting attempts to censor library materials, as well as efforts by librarians, parents, students, and concerned citizens to push back against them. This update includes news from Tennessee, Arizona, and Texas, and a passionate reaction to book bans from a Today show cohost.
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Tennessee school takes “Roots” off banned book list, restores to libraries
After weeks of backlash, pressure, and statewide criticism, a Tennessee school district has reversed its ban on “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alex Haley, reports Tennessee Lookout.
Knox County Schools will return the 1976 novel to school library shelves, walking back a decision that had added “Roots” to a growing list of banned books and ignited debate about race, history, and the reach of state law into public school libraries.
Unfolding in the same city where a 13-foot bronze statue of Haley has stood for nearly three decades, the ban drew immediate attention not just because of the book’s stature in American literature but because of where it happened. Haley spent part of his childhood in Lauderdale County and later lived and wrote in Knoxville and Alex Haley Farm in Clinton.
The removal was triggered by Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act, a state law that broadly restricts materials from school libraries if they contain nudity, sexual abuse, sexual content, or excessive violence. The law is stricter for library materials than for classroom instruction, as a book can still be taught by a teacher as part of a curriculum, but cannot remain on library shelves for independent student checkout if certain content is present.
“I’m so disgusted that a law passed by the TN legislature has resulted in the book Roots being banned,” State Rep. Gloria Johnson wrote on Facebook. “This isn’t coincidence folks, it’s the agenda of the white supremacist supermajority working exactly as intended.”
Repairs denied to Arizona library because it hosted drag storytime events
Congressional Republicans in Arizona denied a request for $650,000 in maintenance and restoration for the Copper Queen Library in Bisbee at an Agriculture subcommittee meeting late last week, The Tucson Sentinel reported. U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) says the decision was rooted in anti-LGBTQ+ bias because the library hosted two drag storytime hours, in 2019 and 2024.
“It is outrageous, it is petty, and it is a complete abuse of the appropriations process,” U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) said in a statement after the vote. “I’m livid,” she told The Advocate.
In 2019, Copper Queen Library won the EBSCO Excellence in Rural Library Service Award by the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association, and was named “Best Small Library in America” the same year by Library Journal. In 2022, it was a finalist for the National Medal by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
According to Grijalva’s office, the funding request was not intended to cover any library programming or events. Grijalva said the decision would “punish an entire region” by denying funds to a public resource in the rural area.
“Denying access to a public library based on identity is a violation of the Equal Protection clause under the 14th Amendment,” she said and vowed to fight for the requested funds.
Texas asks Court to resurrect ‘unconstitutional’ book rating law
Publishers and booksellers are pushing back against a bid by Texas state attorneys to resurrect H.B. 900, the “book rating” law previously ruled unconstitutional and blocked from taking effect in 2023, reports Publishing Perspectives.
Signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott on June 12, 2023, H.B. 900 would have required bookstores and vendors to review all books in Texas schools and rate them for “sexual content” as a condition of doing business with Texas public schools—including tens of thousands of previously sold titles. Under the law, books rated “sexually explicit” would be banned from Texas public schools, while books rated “sexually relevant” would require written parental permission for students to access them. The law also would have given the state the unchecked power to change the rating on any book and to “blacklist” vendors that did not accept the state’s altered ratings.
A coalition including two bookstores, the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund sued to block the law, arguing it was unconstitutional on multiple grounds. In September 2023, judge Alan D. Albright agreed with the plaintiffs and preliminarily blocked the law from taking while the litigation proceeded. That preliminary injunction was later upheld by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, widely considered to be the most conservative court in the U.S.
In their new appeal before the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Texas attorneys are now pressing a new argument: that Albright erred by interpreting the state’s role under H.B. 900 as that of a “regulator” rather than as a mere “marketplace” participant.
On May 20, several industry groups filed a brief in support of the plaintiffs, pointing out the economic and cultural impact the “book rating” law would have if allowed to take effect.
“[H.B. 900’s] ramifications for booksellers and book publishers alike are daunting from an economic and cultural perspective. Larger publishers and booksellers will suffer a significant loss of revenue. Smaller ones could conceivably be forced to discontinue operations entirely,” argues an amicus brief filed by several publishers and industry associations, including Penguin Random House, the Association of University Presses, Authors Against Book Bans, Barnes & Noble, the Educational Book and Media Association, Freedom to Learn Advocates, Half Price Books, the Independent Book Publishers Associations, and Sourcebooks.
In addition, the brief states, the book rating provisions of H.B. 900, if allowed to take effect, will mean “fewer works will be discovered by young Americans, depriving them of valuable learning and developmental opportunities.”
Jenna Bush Hager speaks out against book bans
Today show co-host Jenna Bush Hager had a passionate reaction to book banning on the May 20 episode of the “Las Culturistas” podcast with Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. In a recurring segment on the show called “I Don’t Think So, Honey,” guests are encouraged to give a short rant about a topic they are passionate about. Bush chose the skyrocketing amount of attempts to have books banned and removed from school and public libraries.
“I don’t think so, honey. Why are we banning all these books, y’all?” Bush Hager said. “Why are we banning the ‘Wicked’ book? Why are we banning ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’?
“I posted a picture of my daughter reading ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’, and you know what people said to me? They shamed me,” she continued. “I don’t think so, honey.”
Bush Hager noted how kids have access to all types of content on YouTube, yet certain books are being targeted so children can’t read them.
“Leave it up to the librarians,” she said on the podcast. “I want my kid to read. Want to know why? Books start conversations. Know what we’re not having enough of in this country? Conversations!”
Bush Hager, who is also the creator of the Read With Jenna book club, elaborated on position on the Today show also on May 20.
“It’s such an interesting world we live in where there’s very little regulation on the internet and everything is accessible, and we are regulating libraries,” she said. “I understand the mom that would say, ‘Well, this isn’t appropriate for my child.’ But that’s why we train librarians to know what is age appropriate, what is on-level for reading, and obviously I come from a mother who was a librarian, but what this does is to tell these central figures in our communities that they are not knowledgeable enough.”
Take action
Alarmed by the escalating attempts to censor books? Here are six steps you can take now to protect the freedom to read.
- Follow news and social media in your community and state to keep apprised of organizations working to censor library or school materials.
- Show up for library workers at school or library board meetings and speak as a library advocate and community stakeholder who supports a parent’s right to restrict reading materials for their own child but not for all
- Help provide a safety net for library professionals as they defend intellectual freedom in their communities by giving to the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund.
- Educate friends, neighbors, and family members about censorship and how it harms communities. Share information from Banned Books Week.
- Join the Unite Against Book Bans movement and visit our Fight Censorship page to learn what you can do to defend the freedom to read in your community
- Become a Supporter of the American Library Association and help ALA fight for libraries and everyone’s freedom to read.
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