The Chilling Effect of Georgia’s ‘Divisive Concepts’ Law

Records obtained by American Oversight provide new details of how laws restricting classroom instruction on racism and other topics led to the removal of books from school libraries in Georgia — yet another example of how such measures limit students’ ability to learn about inequality and diverse experiences.

The documents, reported on by Rebecca Gaunt for the Cobb County Courier, show that in August 2023, at least 30 recently acquired books with LGBTQ characters and themes were removed from high school libraries in Cobb County, Ga. They also show that certain classic works of literature, including some by William Shakespeare, were also flagged for review.

In 2022, Georgia passed HB 1084, a law banning classroom discussions related to certain so-called “divisive concepts.” The law directly addresses issues related to race but does not explicitly mention curriculum related to gender identity or sexuality. Education experts have warned the law’s vague wording has a chilling effect on teachers, who may avoid conversations about race because of uncertainty about what they are allowed to teach. SB 226, another bill passed in 2022, permits schools to remove books considered “harmful” to students.

The documents American Oversight obtained provide new details about how these laws were implemented in the Cobb County School District. For example, a lesson on planting trees that was designed for kindergarten through second grade classrooms was removed after review. The lesson incorporated the picture book “We Planted a Tree,” which depicts families across the world planting trees, with a true story of a student in Kenya fighting to stop deforestation.

The records also show Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “Antony and Cleopatra” were flagged for review because of references to suicide. “Dracula” was flagged because of “vampires drinking blood,” and “The Cage” for “Holocaust content … nothing too specific.”

While the school district’s policies state that schools will discuss the “topics of slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, or racial discrimination, including topics relating to the enactment and enforcement of laws resulting in racial oppression,” the records indicate that curriculum reviewers flagged materials related to slavery, such as a question regarding the Civil War in an eighth grade persuasive writing unit. The material instructed students to describe the way of life that those in Southern states wanted to protect when they seceded. The sample answer stated, “The Southern way of life was a life of wealth and power that the people in the South enjoyed because of slavery.”

In another instance, reviewers flagged material about Dred Scott, an enslaved man whose unsuccessful fight for freedom was the basis of the Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford.

The records we obtained also included an extensive list of books and other materials removed — or “weeded” — from Cobb County school libraries in August 2023. As the Cobb County Courier noted, weeding is an “essential part of maintaining a library to keep materials up to date and relevant.” But the list of books removed from the school libraries included books that were newly acquired by the school district in 2021, 2022, and 2023, the Courier reported. Some of these newer books addressed LGBTQ themes and/or racism

For example, a book about Aboriginal Australian boys’ experiences with homophobia and racism was acquired by a high school library in 2022 and removed from the library in August 2023. A book with a character who was afraid her family would learn she has a girlfriend was removed from a school library six months after it was acquired. “Out of Darkness,” about an interracial couple in Texas in the 1930s, was acquired by Wheeler High School in 2022 and removed in August 2023.

American Oversight is investigating efforts to politicize, censor, and weaken public education, from early elementary school through higher education, in Georgia and other states. Records we’ve obtained have shed light on how “divisive concepts” laws have removed important historical information and references to other cultures from race-related curriculum and math textbooks in Florida and Virginia.