Tennessee: Library Books on Slavery, Holocaust Pulled in Rutherford County

From The Tennessean:

Books on slavery, racism and the Holocaust are among the nearly 3,000 pulled from public library shelves across Rutherford County following a letter from State Secretary Tre Hargett prompting a review of juvenile collections across nearly all state public libraries.

Four Anne Frank biographies, more than 30 books focused on the Bible, five books on women’s history and suffrage and numerous books on ancient civilizations were among those removed for review.

The deadline for the collection review of all juvenile materials in 181 public libraries across the state was Jan. 19, after an October letter by Hargett requested a full audit of the public libraries’ juvenile books within 60 days to fit Trump administration standards on gender and state school library standards on age-appropriateness.

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Records requests to the Rutherford County Library System revealed the library had to review 79,168 titles over the allotted 60-day period, with 2,712 books flagged and temporarily pulled from county shelves for various possible violations of Hargett’s directive.

The scramble to complete the review caused the temporary closure of two libraries in Rutherford County.

• “unclothed anthropomorphic animals, violence”
• “Adam and Eve nude in the Garden of Eden; Violence”
• “underpants shown during cartwheel”
• “An image capturing an affectionate gesture where a girl gives a boy a kiss on the cheek on the school bus during Valentine’s Day.”
• “Fictional male rabbits get married”
• “Civil War Hero, Mary, dresses in pants, history of undergarments present and modeled by chickens”
• “Kissing”
• “Words “ass” appears for donkey and “cock” for rooster”
• “2 male neighbors speaking to one another, one has a rainbow and his produce bag”
• “LGBTQIA+ rights”
• “implied breastfeeding”
• “nude mummified body”
• “classroom discussion of book bans and censorship”
• “discussion of teen getting period”
• “woke”

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Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries, School Libraries