16-02-2025
Tennessee sees surge in books banned in public schools. Here's which ones and why
At least 13 Tennessee counties saw books removed from public school library shelves over the past year, marking the highest number of book removals the state has seen since the passage of the Age Appropriate Materials Act in 2022.
Nearly 1,400 books, consisting of 1,155 unique titles, were either fully removed from school libraries or heavily age-restricted between December 2023 and January.
Classic titles like 'The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, 'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card, 'Slaughterhouse Five' by Kurt Vonnegut and other titles joined the growing list of books banned in schools across the state as school administrators try to comply with the new law.
Between 2021 and July 2023, only about 300 books faced similar challenges across the state. Now, in less than half that time, at least 1,389 books were found to be removed or heavily age-restricted statewide over the past year.
This count does not include books pulled from shelves that are currently under review, of which there are hundreds across the state.
The removals are part of sweeping and often chaotic attempts by districts to comply with the Age Appropriate Materials Act, which requires each public school library in the state to publish a list of materials in their collections and periodically review them to make sure they are 'appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials,' and to remove materials that do not meet the numerous parameters listed in the law.
The law is one of a slew of similar laws that have been passed in the state over the past three years, which have expanded the definitions of book violations under the law and added civil penalties against schools and criminal penalties for book publishers and distributors if they are found to provide books in schools that violate the law.
Twenty-one counties either did not respond to multiple records requests in time for publication, or do not having sufficient means to provide such data.
The top three counties with the highest number of removed books are:
Monroe County: 574
Wilson County: 425
Roane County: 138
Not all of these removals are due to public complaints, either, as schools are now required to periodically review and remove books internally due to potential content violations. For example, Monroe County Schools, which reported the highest number of book removals with 574 titles, removed all of these books in an effort to comply with the law before any complaints were filed against them.
The total number of books removed is likely far higher, as well, as some counties do not keep explicit records of books removed from libraries due to content issues, as long as the books are pulled internally by staff members prior to any public complaints.
For example, in Blount and Moore counties, books that are removed from libraries due to potential content violations, prior to complaints, are not separated from books removed due to normal wear and tear, making it nearly impossible to track the number of books preemptively removed from libraries due to content reasons.
The stark jump in book removals mimic national trends tracked by PEN America, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on free expression and literary access.
Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America, said the organization tracked over 10,000 book removals over 29 states and 200 public school districts during the 2023-2024 school year — a record high in the four years the organization has tracked such activity.
Still, Meehan said, this number is likely an 'under-count' of the true number of removals, due to the complex laws placed on school administrators across the country resulting in each school district handling the removal process differently and making the removals nearly impossible to track.
'We call it like 'soft censorship,'' she said. 'The idea is that materials are being removed or limited or never purchased at all, without there being a formal challenge, despite a book potentially being a good book that would serve a community.'
This soft censorship is even labeled as an emerging trend in PEN America's 2024 Banned in the USA report, including instances in Texas and California where entire libraries were closed in order to have collections audited rather than face complaints.
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director at the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, said the rise in 'soft censorship' is often a result of librarians and school administrators seeking to protect themselves from increasingly harsh punishments and public controversy.
'This culture of fear that they're creating around this issue certainly is contributing to some librarians' decisions to either not order particular books or remove books that are on the shelf to so that they don't risk their jobs or risk a controversy that could cost them their jobs,' she said.
Meehan said removing books for potentially being inappropriate only results in limiting access to literature that is already vetted under states' obscenity laws.
'We can very directly debunk the idea that there is porn in schools, or that there is obscene materials in schools,' she said. 'I think that people are taking issue with certain types of representation and certain types of content. There have always been sensible systems in place for parents to be engaging with educators and administrators and librarians in their district about what their student is reading. But what we see happening, you know, at a large scale, is the viewpoint of one or some impacting what's accessible for all.'
The full list of counties that removed or restricted books are:
Cannon County: 3
Franklin County: 58
Hardin County: 1
Knox County: 48
Lincoln County: 5
Macon: 73
Monroe: 574
Putnam: 2
Roane: 138
Rutherford: 49
Trousdale: 7
Williamson: 5
Wilson: 445
The USA TODAY Network - Tennessee's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.
Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at alatham@ by phone at 931-623-9485, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee banned books: See list from Tennessee public schools in 2024
