*Ta-Nehisi Coates crashed a South Carolina School Board Meeting Monday that was discussing whether his book “Between the World and Me” should be banned.

Coates attended the Lexington-Richland District 5 School Board meeting to support a teacher whose lesson on the book’s themes was shut down in February. Coates did not speak at the meeting, but others defended his work (watch the YouTube clip above). The autobiographical tome unpacks what it means to be Black in America and experience racism. 

“What matters most to me is that my students have the ability to hear six or seven opinions on one topic and come up with their own thesis, supported with evidence, and come up with an independent conclusion,” said Superintendent Dr. Akil Ross, Insider reports. 

Literary human-rights organization PEN America called the book’s removal “an outrageous act of government censorship and a textbook example of how educational gag orders corrupt free inquiry in the classroom.”

“We cannot become critical thinkers without being uncomfortable in some way,” one student said at the Lexington-Richland board, according to Insider. “If students can’t learn these things in a safe space, like school, how are they—we—meant to make good decisions and think critically?”

As the DailyMail.com reports, Tess Pratt, chairperson of Chapin High’s English department, ordered copies of Coates’ book and said she regrets taking them away from students.

“On the day that I took Ta-Nehisi Coates’ books out of the hands of Ms. Wood’s students, I silenced his story,” she said, according to the media outlet.

“Even though this was a decision that was not mine, I will regret that moment in front of those students for the rest of my life, because it was wrong,” she added.

READ MORE: Ta-Nehisi Coates Memoir on Racism Banned at S.C. School

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