Library activist Amanda Jones speaks in KC on dismantling motivations behind national wave of book bans

Courtesy of Kathryn & Traveis Photography

Louisiana librarian Amanda Jones, recipient of the 2020 School Librarian of the Year and the 2021 School Library Journal Librarian of the Year, is headed to the Kansas City Public Library Sept. 25 to discuss her memoir That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America. 

The public event comes as Jones is preparing for her pending lawsuit against an extremist group and fellow community member for defamation.

Book banning, a form of censorship targeting stories that some feel are obscene, is at a monumental high in the U.S. now. Currently, there are over 100 bills in the state legislature that intend to ban or restrict books in public and school libraries. Missouri is no stranger to the growing war on libraries, either; the ACLU has sued both Missouri and the Independence School District for enforcing book bans–the censorship policies creating a hole in resources available to patrons seeking basic educational materials due to the broad language used in these aforementioned book bans, which have seen books about the Holocaust and even anatomy being removed, too. 

These bans have also led to budget cuts for some local libraries, creating a strain on resources and their workers, with some libraries even being forced to close down. The motive behind the bans being to eliminate books containing LGBTQ content, with challengers claiming the materials are sexually explicit. In addition to these challenges, librarians are also facing accusations of pedophilia for fighting against this censorship. 

As one of the first librarians in the country to file charges against her perpetrators amidst the book-banning epidemic in the U.S., this advocate’s novel details the grueling personal journey it has been for Jones as she has been fighting the same battle.

Jones, a married mother of one and educator for over 20 years, is in the midst of a lawsuit against far-right extremist group Citizens for a New Louisiana’s Michael Lunsford and community member Ryan Thames.

The lawsuit is currently under review by the Louisiana Supreme Court. 

Amidst the librarian’s ongoing fight against book banning and to maintain her rightful place as an educator, she won an auction that catapulted her career as a published author.

An organization named We Need Diverse Books holds an annual auction, where Jones bid and won. The prize? A 30 minute zoom call with a literary agent. Eventually, this golden ticket opportunity snowballed into Jones’s breakout memoir that highlights her fight against book banning, as well as other librarians’ across the country.

It was July 2022 when a would-be ordinary event at a public library in Livingston Parish, Louisiana became anything but. 

Just weeks after Pride month, the middle school librarian attended the meeting as a resident to talk about censorship.

Jones shares that she “had a feeling” books containing LGBTQ themes would be under attack, and that she had a responsibility to defend these stories for the sake of representation for her students. With not much on the docket and little resistance to her speech and others’, the librarian believed her efforts were successful and the battle was done. Unfortunately for Jones, this was not the case.

“I woke up to a targeted smear campaign attack on social media against me,” says Jones. “One post said that I advocate the teaching of anal sex to 11-year-olds. I just gave a basic censorship speech.”

The longtime educator believes she was targeted for a specific reason: her reputation. An award-winning librarian who was a lifelong resident of her hometown with accolades accrediting her, an attack on Jones’s more progressive beliefs in the southern town shook up residents who had previously shown support.

“They thought that if they silenced me, that everybody else would be scared to speak at any subsequent meetings. And they were right. It took a year before a lot of people started coming back to speak for our library,” says the educator. “People were scared because they didn’t want to become the cautionary tale that was me.”

The author shares how her sadness quickly became anger–fueling her decision to take legal action against those who had spread lies about her on the internet.

“I was the president at the time of the State School Library Association. They started tagging people and tagging my organization, and where I worked. That was the last straw for me. I then sought the advice of an attorney,” says Jones.

In her book, “That Librarian,” the author shares more about her inspiration to fight back.

“She [Jones’s daughter] wanted to know what I was going to do about it. That hit me hard. I’ve always taught her to stand up for herself, and here I was being tested to do the same thing.” 

Initially, the writer’s case was dismissed. After further collaboration with her legal counsel, Jones tried again–with the same futile result. Now, her case is spearheaded towards the very top: the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Life looks very different now for the activist and her family. Often, the nationally-recognized writer has her groceries delivered, rather than going out to get them herself. Following the very first meeting that sparked the online vendetta against Jones, she doesn’t feel very comfortable leaving the house these days. Despite the challenges, she is more determined than ever to not give up or leave her hometown.

“I was born and raised here. This is my town, and they’re not going to run me out of my old town,” the writer says with a smile.

Jones is headed to the Kansas City Public Library Sept. 25 to discuss her memoir That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America. You can register for free tickets through this website.