Ta-Nehisi Coates attends school board meeting in support of teacher who defied ban on his book

Ta-Nehisi Coates attended a school board meeting in Irmo, South Carolina, sitting in silent support of a teacher who refused to comply with a ban of his 2015 book Between the World and Me, the Associated Press reports. Mary Wood, an English teacher at Chapin High School, had been asked to discontinue assigning the book to her advanced students after several of them complained to a board member that his polemical theories on race made them feel “uncomfortable” and “ashamed to be caucasian.”

Records from the Lexington-Richland 5 school district reviewed by the AP indicate school officials were worried that Wood’s choice to continue assigning the book could be a violation of new state laws banning schools from using state money to teach that someone can be “consciously or unconsciously racist” solely due to their race, and lessons that might make students feel “discomfort, guilt, or anguish” because of their race.

Coates reportedly sat next to Wood at the board meeting, though neither spoke publicly. Instead, the board heard comments from both sides of the argument, including Chapin High English department head Tess Pratt, who said she regretted carrying out the district’s orders and thereby silencing Coates’ story. Republican state representative RJ May also spoke to the board, telling them that class lessons should reinforce the idea of a “color-blind society” and not “discriminate against white people.” Choosing to remain anonymous, a third speaker advocated for Wood’s firing, claiming she “showed no remorse and strongly defended herself after she broke the law.”

Per the AP, the school board has yet to take punitive action toward Wood or change their book-banning policy.