Two and a half years ago, librarian Amanda Jones spoke at a local public library board meeting to express her concerns about censorship in her small town of Livingston, Louisiana. Days later she woke up to alarming messages from her neighbors and community members criticizing her short speech.

“A man had taken a picture of me and made a meme saying that I advocate the teaching of anal sex to children, to 11-year-olds, ” Jones told GBH’s Under the Radar host Callie Crossley. “And another man made another picture of me with a target around my head and said that I wanted to give pornography and erotica to children, which is absolutely not ... what I said at the meeting.”

From this came an organized campaign of harassment from groups with a mission to ban certain books in school and public libraries. But Jones fought back and is now telling her story in her new book, “That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America.” She highlights the mental impact the harassment had on her, how she feared retaliation, and worried how innocuous activities like a trip to the local pharmacy could bring unwanted attention.

“Every little noise had me peeking out of the curtains at night and watching the security footage,” Jones said, reading from her book.

Her initial statement to the library board was in response to some on the library board — many of whom were not librarians — wanting to create a team to decide what books to keep on the shelves, even though the library already had policies in place for anybody to challenge a book they deemed inappropriate. She found that the books in question, which were listed by a woman airing the complaint at the meeting, included mostly titles by authors or characters from the LGBTQ community and communities of color.

“It was apparent to me what she was trying to do is silence certain voices and communities,” Jones said. “I just wanted to reiterate that we already had policies in place.”

While other librarians around the country were resigning their positions due to fear of retaliation, Amanda Jones took her case to court, filing a defamation suit against the people accusing her of pedophilia and “grooming” for speaking out against book bans. The Louisiana Supreme Court sided with Jones in late 2024, but the fight is not over. The First Appeals Court must decide whether the attacks on Jones are considered defamatory.

Across the country, Jones’ story resonated, and soon, the middle-school librarian became the face of the anti-book banning movement.

“It’s very important as an educator and a mother and ... just a resident in my community that every single person in my community feels seen and heard and every single person in every community should see their families represented on the shelves of books in libraries, whether it be a school or in public,” Jones said.

Guest

  • Amanda Jones , librarian and author of “That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America”