For journalists and researchers.
Everything you need to cover this project: a summary, the headline facts, quotable statements, downloadable assets, sources for verification, and direct contact information.
One-paragraph summary
On May 14, 2026, Knox County Schools removed Alex Haley’s Roots from its library shelves under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. The district’s statement acknowledged the book’s “immense cultural and historical significance” but cited mandatory adherence to state law. The next day, a Knox County resident named Stacey Kilgore published a 754-verse evidentiary catalog showing that the same statutory standard, applied evenhandedly, would also remove the King James Bible from every school library in Tennessee. The catalog documents 147 passages spanning 754 verses across 31 books of scripture, triggering all four of the AAMA’s statutory categories. It is published as a non-partisan, non-religious civic research project. Kilgore is a Knox County resident with no political role, no organizational affiliation, and no campaign or party connection. The catalog is released for free redistribution with attribution.
The headline facts
| Passages catalogued | 147, spanning 754 verses across 31 books of the KJV. |
|---|---|
| Statutory categories | All four: nudity (24 passages, 59 verses); sexual content (27 passages, 155 verses); sexual abuse (16 passages, 91 verses); excessive violence (93 passages, 521 verses). |
| Source text | King James Version, 1611 Authorized Version, public domain. Machine-readable text from Project Gutenberg eBook #10. Parsed into 31,102 verses across 66 books; canonical KJV totals verified. |
| Statutory basis | Tennessee Code Annotated § 49-6-3803, as amended by Public Chapter 782 (2024). The 2024 amendment expanded coverage to materials containing prohibited content “in whole or in part” and declared any nudity or excess violence per se inappropriate for K–12. |
| Comparison point | Knox County Schools elevated Roots for committee review based on a single passage in chapter 84. The Bible contains 147 such passages by the same statutory standard — a ratio of at least 147 to 1. |
| Author | Stacey Kilgore, Knox County, Tennessee. Private citizen. No organizational affiliation, no political role, no campaign, no party. |
| Publication date | May 2026, Knoxville, Tennessee. |
| Reproduction | Freely available for reproduction, citation, and redistribution with attribution. |
Quotable statements from the author
“The catalog is not a request to remove the Bible from any library. It is the proof that the law cannot be applied evenhandedly. When the same standard that removed Roots would, applied honestly, also remove the King James Bible, that standard is not a neutral protection of children. It is a selective culling.”
“I built this because of a series of decisions made by my own school district under a law I believe is being applied dishonestly. Roots and Slaughterhouse-Five in Knox County, Maus in McMinn County, and the dozens of other books removed under the AAMA from Tennessee school libraries have profound value. Their removal is a moral wrong dressed up as procedural neutrality. This catalog is the most honest test I could devise of whether that procedural neutrality is real.”
“I do not have children in Knox County Schools. I do not represent any organization. I have no candidate to endorse. I am simply a Knox County resident who read the statute, read the Bible, and made an honest record of what one says about the other.”
“Adherence to state law cannot mean one thing for Roots and a different thing for the King James Bible. Either both belong on the shelf, or neither does. There is no third option that is principled.”
Downloadable assets
Verifiable sources for fact-checking
Reporters verifying claims made in coverage of this project can rely on the following public sources:
The Knox County Schools removal of Roots
The district’s statement, dated May 14, 2026, was reported by the Knoxville News Sentinel, WATE 6, WBIR, WVLT, and others. The district’s spokesperson is Carly Harrington. As of May 2026, the Knox County Schools banned-books list totals 124 titles (up from 113 in May 2025).
The statute
Tennessee Code Annotated § 49-6-3803, available through the Tennessee Secretary of State’s public records and via legal databases. Public Chapter 782 of 2024 (HB 843) made the operative amendments and took effect July 1, 2024. The 2022 original (Public Chapter 744) established the framework.
The Utah precedent
In 2023, the Davis School District in Utah briefly removed the King James Bible from elementary and middle school libraries under Utah’s parallel “sensitive materials” law (Utah Code § 76-10-1227). The decision was reversed on appeal by the district’s elected school board. Coverage at NPR, CNN, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, and the Deseret News documents the sequence.
The source text
King James Version, 1611 Authorized Version, public domain. Project Gutenberg eBook #10, available at gutenberg.org. Standard reference edition used in academic biblical computing.
Context: other recent AAMA removals in Tennessee
Knox County Schools’ banned list includes, in addition to Roots, the following well-known titles: Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut), A Light in the Attic (Shel Silverstein), The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie), Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen), A Court of Thorns and Roses (Sarah J. Maas), and A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess). McMinn County Schools removed Maus (Art Spiegelman) in 2022 under the same statute. State Sen. Jeff Yarbro, during the March 2024 Senate floor debate on the 2024 amendment, asked the bill’s sponsor Sen. Joey Hensley directly whether the law would also apply to the Bible. The exchange is in the legislative record.
Contact
Replies within 24–48 hours. Please indicate your outlet, deadline, and the angle you’re working on; this helps me prepare and respond well. I am happy to do interviews on the record, by phone or in writing. For broadcast or video requests, please include the format you need.
Author background
Stacey Kilgore is a Knox County, Tennessee resident with a professional background in technology and operations, including prior work on the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and at SAIC. He has no political role, no party affiliation publicly relevant to this project, no campaign work, and no organizational backing for the catalog. The work was researched, written, and published entirely on his own time, with his own resources. He is not a lawyer, not an academic, and not a member of clergy. He is reachable through the contact address above.
Permissions and licensing
The catalog and all materials on this site are released for free reproduction, citation, redistribution, and reuse with attribution to Stacey Kilgore and a link to this site. The underlying KJV source text is public domain. There is no need to request permission for fair use; significant reproductions (full reprints of the catalog, syndication of the comparison page, etc.) should include attribution and a URL.