The Knox County School Board has a choice to make regarding its stance on a recent state law.¶
The board held a work session Monday evening, the first time it has met since banning and then reinstating “Roots,” a 1976 novel written by the late Alex Haley, who was a Clinton, Tennessee, resident for most of his later years. The book is largely based on the history of Haley’s family, which threads through American slavery.¶
During the meeting, the board tentatively decided on a resolution initially proposed by board member Anne Templeton, asking lawmakers to:¶
- Allow books to be considered as a whole instead of just by a single passage. (For instance, if a section of a book has a depiction of sexual conduct or excessive violence, it must be banned)
- Distinguish between grade levels. (For instance, deciding a book must be removed from elementary schools but allowed in middle or high schools)
The board will vote at its June 4 meeting on whether to officially ask legislators to reform the law.¶
Background
Knox County Schools confirmed on May 14 that it had banned Roots from its schools, despite its book-banning committee having previously reviewed a section of the book and not recommending its ban. On May 26, Knox County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jon Rysewyk decided to reinstate the book after consulting with legal officials.¶
The ban occurred under the rules of the 2024 Age-Appropriate Materials Act, which requires school districts to post a list of the books in a library’s collection on each school’s website. The law also requires districts to adopt a policy to review these collections for age-appropriateness and to receive feedback from parents on the content.¶
Public Comment
During the work session, public comment lasted nearly an hour, and most of it concerned the banning of “Roots” and other books. League of Women Voters of Knoxville/Knox County President Lisa Plawchan, who has two children in the Knox County School District, thanked Rysewyk for reinstating the book and allowing students’ sensibilities to be challenged by it and criticized the book removal process for lacking transparency and community input. She also called for the other 123 banned books in the district to be reinstated.¶
“Thank you, Dr. Rysewyk, for returning Roots to school library shelves,” Plawchan said. “Roots is not only an important work of historical literature, but one with deep connections to East Tennessee. We appreciate your decision to err on the side of access rather than censorship, because access matters. Access exposes students to diverse perspectives, lived experiences, and historical truths.”¶
Another person said that while “Roots” may serve as a powerful reminder of the horrors of slavery, she did not know about its contents until recently and felt the controversy could be used as a political tool to weaken the Age-Appropriate Materials Act.¶
“Only after hearing about the current controversy surrounding the book ‘Roots’ did I learn that it contains a sexually graphic paragraph that met the criteria for removal under the 2024 Age-Appropriate Materials Act,” she said. “I understand the argument that one paragraph should not necessarily disqualify an entire work (and) that context and an author's intent matters. The greater concern here is that this controversy may be exploited to undermine the 2024 Act, which has thankfully led to the removal of 123 inappropriate books from our school libraries.”¶
