A Tennessee school district has banned “Roots,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alex Haley that helped reshape how Americans understand the history of slavery and African American genealogy.
Knox County Schools confirmed the decision May 14, adding the 1976 book to its banned titles list under the state’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. As theGrio previously reported, the fight to keep Black history accessible in schools has intensified nationwide, with “Roots” and dozens of other titles by Black authors under sustained threat, and the erosion of Black educational representation has extended beyond books into university campuses as well. The Knox County Schools “Roots” ban was first confirmed by the Knoxville News Sentinel, which reported the book was among seven titles added to the district’s banned list.
The decision brings the district’s total number of banned titles to 124, up from 113 in May 2025. Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act broadly restricts school library materials containing nudity, sexual abuse, sexual content or what it classifies as “excessive violence.” While books covered under the law can still be taught in classrooms, they cannot remain on library shelves. Complaints can be raised by staff, students, parents or any Tennessee resident under recently expanded legislation.
The irony of the ban is not lost on observers. Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, but spent his early childhood in Henning, Tennessee, (where his mother was from) and maintained a farm in Clinton that was later acquired by the Children’s Defense Fund. There is a large statue of Haley in East Knoxville, where he is celebrated as a hometown literary figure. His 1976 novel spent 22 weeks at number one on the New York Times bestseller list, sold tens of millions of copies, was adapted into a landmark television miniseries, and won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
“Roots” follows multiple generations of an African family beginning with Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka warrior captured and sold into slavery in the American South in the 18th century. It was among the first widely read works to offer a detailed account of the Middle Passage, the transatlantic slave trade route that carried millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries.
