Tennessee’s attempt to whitewash Roots was stopped — for now

Knox County Schools removed “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” from library shelves under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act, citing “age-appropriate” rules tied to a scene in the novel’s 84th chapter. After weeks of attention and debate, the distr

For weeks. “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” sat out of reach in Knox County school libraries—an abrupt act with a quiet cruelty to it. The district’s decision landed in the same state that has been steadily rewriting what children are allowed to read. under a Tennessee law designed to regulate “age-appropriateness” and based its removals on feedback from parents. guardians. school employees or students.

The target was not a minor or obscure title. “Roots. ” published in 1976 and the recipient of a special Pulitzer. traces Kunta Kinte from his capture in Gambia at age 17 and his sale into chattel slavery in North America. then follows six generations of his descendants down to the author. Alex Haley. The story later became a landmark miniseries released a year after the novel—still remembered as one of the most-watched television broadcasts in American history.

As of May 2026. Knox County Schools has banned 124 books. including “Roots.” Other titles listed as banned include Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye. ” Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel. ” Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. ” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.” The Knox County moves fit into a broader sweep in Tennessee: the state banned at least 1. 600 books between July 2024 and June 2025. trailing only Texas and Florida.

That sprint toward removal follows the Age-Appropriate Materials Act, a Tennessee law passed in 2022. An addendum passed two years later helped permit the removal of hundreds of books from libraries across the state. Under the act. districts are required to keep a public list of library materials and to have a policy for reviewing materials for “appropriateness” based on feedback from parents. guardians. school employees or students. The law also prohibits titles that contain sexual content, sexual abuse, nudity or “excessive violence.”.

Knox County Schools. in explaining why “Roots” was pulled. pointed to content in the novel’s 84th chapter. which includes a depiction of the sexual assault of an enslaved person by a white plantation owner. Carly Harrington. a spokesperson for Knox County Schools. said the district recognized the “immense cultural and historical significance of Alex Haley’s Roots to our nation. to Tennessee. and particularly to the county seat of Knoxville.” She added that removing the novel “is in no way a commentary on the literary or cultural value of the novel. ” but instead followed state law.

Harrington also made clear what the district said it was doing under that law. Under Tennessee rules, “Roots” and other banned books can still be taught, but they are not part of the circulating collection at public school libraries.

The ban sparked mounting pressure and attention. After weeks of national and international focus—and pressure from school board members and the local community—“Roots” was restored to school libraries in Knox County on Tuesday.

The turning point came in a memo from superintendent Jon Rysewyk. He explained that legal experts he consulted could not come to a consensus on whether the Tennessee law actually required the removal of Haley’s novel in the first place. The legal uncertainty was the deciding factor in reversing the ban. “Removing any book from circulation is, and should be, an immense decision,” Rysewyk wrote. “Our intent will always be to err on the side of access. which is the decision I have made with regard to ‘Roots.’”.

The reversal may bring relief to parents and students who fought for the book. but it doesn’t erase what the removal signaled in the first place. The damage was done to the principle that school libraries are places where difficult history can be read—especially history tied to power. violence. and memory.

“Roots” is especially hard to silence because its central subject is not just slavery as an abstract chapter in a textbook. The novel and the television adaptation depict the survival and triumph of Black Americans over a barbaric system and the power of memory. And for many in Knoxville. the choice to remove it carried another layer: Haley lived in and around Knoxville. Tennessee. for long periods of his life. and a statue of him stands in Morningside Park. At the time of its unveiling in 1988. it was described as the largest public statue of an African-American in the country.

The fight over “Roots” also landed against a wider political backdrop. The account ties the book ban to the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act. describing that decision by right-wing justices and noting that red states in the former Jim Crow South moved almost immediately to dismantle Black people’s voting power. In this telling. the “Roots” episode is framed as part of white backlash to the Civil Rights Movement and the Long Black Freedom Struggle. and the “very idea of multiracial democracy.”.

The broader pattern of book removals is large enough to be felt as a national policy trend. A 2025 PEN America report cited in the account says 23,000 book bans have been enacted across 45 states and 451 public school districts since 2021.

The restoration in Knox County doesn’t put the debate back at zero. Book bans. even when rolled back. are designed to change behavior—pushing families. educators. and students to wonder what they can safely read and what they might be punished for later. In the account. Toni Morrison—who spoke at the 2008 PEN Literary Gala—warned of “the erasure of other voices. of unwritten novels. poems whispered or swallowed for fear of being overheard. ” describing it as “a nightmare. ” like “a whole universe … described in invisible ink.”.

Now the question for Knox County, and for Tennessee, is what happens next. When legal certainty is missing, a superintendent can choose access. But when state rules are applied with speed. the first lesson is still the one that lands hardest: some stories can be treated as too dangerous to keep on shelves—until politics. pressure. or uncertainty forces a reversal.

Knox County Schools Tennessee Age-Appropriate Materials Act Roots: The Saga of an American Family Alex Haley book bans free speech Toni Morrison Jon Rysewyk Carly Harrington Supreme Court Voting Rights Act