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The Knox County Public Schools district in Tennessee removed the Pulitzer Prize winning author Alex Haley’s seminal novel Roots from the library shelves.

According to published reports, the removal was due to the Tennessee’s Age Appropriate Materials Act, which is causing discourse of its exclusion as one of America’s most culturally significant literary works centered on Black history and generational survival.

The Tennessee district’s decision places Haley’s landmark novel alongside previously removed titles such as Water for Elephants, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and A Clockwork Orange, all of which were flagged under the 2022 state law requiring public school systems to review library materials for age appropriateness.

Schools officials said Roots was elevated for formal review after concerns were raised over a specific passage in Chapter 84.

Originally published in 1976, Roots: The Saga of an American Family chronicles the lineage of Kunta Kinte, an African man captured and sold into slavery, and traces his descendants’ journey through generations of oppression and resilience in America.

The book earned Haley a Pulitzer Prize and became a groundbreaking television miniseries that helped shape national conversations about slavery, ancestry, and Black identity.