In 1984 I was a school librarian at West High School in Knoxville, TN. Ronald Reagan was President, and the strong sulfurous smell of Christofascism was already wafting from the conservative think tanks that dominated cultural and educational discussions in DC and beyond.
At the local level in Knoxville, we saw evidence of emboldened stupidity and narrow-mindedness with the insistence by the Chairman of the School Board that he wanted to see “filthy books” like Of Mice and Men removed from schools. Fortunately for us educators, the Chairman’s talk was just that, and no effort to remove the book was ever forthcoming.
That was long before the emergence of corporate-funded astroturf parent groups who are paid to spout rightwing ideological positions—and long before the full flowering of Jim Crow 2.0 under the fascist Trump regime.
Now comes this latest assault on Constitutional guarantees by the complicit, cowardly employees of Knox County Schools.
I am ashamed to have ever been associated with this outfit. From WBIR:
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knox County Schools has banned the 1976 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Roots", credited with raising awareness about Black American history and sparking interest by all Americans in their genealogy.
Knox County Schools spokeswoman Carly Harrington said "Roots: The Saga of an American Family" by Alex Haley was recently added to the district's list of banned books. . . .
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