After some major blows to democracy that came via my home state in May, Alex Haley’s Roots being returned to schools feels so refreshing. It’s just one piece of a damaged pie, but it is something. It shows that being vigilant and fighting back does work—but we have a lot more to do.
This week’s roundup is abridged, as I cover for Senior Editor Kelly Jensen. Read on for the latest on closing libraries in Canada, a man who is incarcerated who is suing his state’s department of corrections, and more.
Alex Haley’s ROOTS Has Been Returned to Tennessee School Libraries in Knox County
A few weeks ago, Tennessee’s Knox County banned Roots by Alex Haley from school libraries because of their interpretation of the Age-Appropriate Materials Act. According to Carly Harrington, a spokesperson for Knox County Schools, the book was removed specifically because of a scene involving a sexual assault on an enslaved person that was committed by a white person, which the district deemed as not being age-appropriate. The ban of Roots, fittingly, came right around the same time as the Voting Rights Act was being torn asunder by Republicans. There is good news, though. After national, international, and local attention and pressure, the book was restored to Knox County school libraries this Tuesday. The reason, it turns out, is that the county’s legal team couldn’t agree on if the Age-Appropriate Materials Act actually required the book to be removed in the first place.
5 Libraries in Canada Permanently Closing Amidst a Rise in Book Banning
Five rural libraries in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley are set to close this summer, which account for 45% of the region’s total libraries. This comes after months of the regional library service alerting the public to financial difficulties as a result of budget cuts. It also comes despite how important these libraries are to their communities. This week, protestors showed up in Kentville, Nova Scotia, to decry the closing of the libraries—located in Kentville, Lawrencetown, Port Williams, Hantsport, and Middleton—which would undoubtedly be a huge blow to the rural communities they serve. The Nova Scotia cabinet minister who oversees library funding has called for a meeting with the Annapolis Valley Regional Library since the news of the libraries’ closing was announced Monday, though many say this meeting comes way too late.
Literary Activism
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A Man in Prison Is Suing the Michigan Department of Corrections After He Was Denied Books
Michael Ray Thomas, who is currently incarcerated in the Cooper Street Correctional Facility in Jackson County, Michigan, is suing the state’s Department of Corrections because his First Amendment rights were violated when he was prohibited from receiving books his family sent him—books that were not on the department’s banned book list. With the suit he filed in September 2025, he hopes that he will not only have access to the books he was sent, but also that the prison will amend its banned books policy.
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