The 901: Book bans, the people's Rock and Memphis concerts

Good morning, Memphis, where you can find the University of Memphis Tigers battling the Temple Owls at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on Saturday but you can't find Darnell R. Moore's "No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America" on a Collierville public school book shelf on any day. But first...

The nightmarish and almost back-to-back Memphis crimes of September continued to make headlines this week, in ways that underlined both the efficiencies and the failures of the justice system.

As Lucas Finton reported Wednesday, Ezekiel Kelly was indicted on *26* charges related to a Sept. 7 crime spree. According to officials, Kelly, 19, "drove around Memphis shooting random people and streaming some of it on Facebook Live," Finton wrote. The indictment includes three counts of murder.

Meanwhile, another heinous and highly publicized crime has brought renewed attention to delays in testing "rape kits" in Tennessee. Wrote Samuel Hardiman: "Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland on Tuesday defended the Memphis Police Department and its handling of a rape investigation that prompted a lawsuit from a woman last week, alleging Memphis mother Eliza Fletcher would still be alive if the department had arrested 38-year-old Cleotha Henderson sooner."

On Sept. 8, police charged Henderson with aggravated rape and kidnapping in a 2021 case, based on a DNA sample taken a year earlier. The charges came about six days after Fletcher's kidnapping and murder; Henderson was charged for those crimes on Sept. 5.

On Thursday, Gov. Bill Lee announced plans to speed up the hiring of 25 new forensic scientists, lab technicians, and administrative support personnel, aiming to address the significant sexual assault kit backlog issue in Tennessee's state crime lab, the Tennessean's Melissa Brown reports in this story.

Those troublesome, worrisome books ...

In the summer of 1969, during a meeting of the board of the Memphis and Shelby County public library, Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb "shooed all the women out of the room" (according to The Commercial Appeal) and "read aloud passages he had underlined in red ink" from "Portnoy's Complaint," the best-selling novel by Philip Roth, who 10 years earlier had won the National Book Award for his collection, "Goodbye, Columbus."

Along with "Valley of the Dolls" and "Myra Breckinridge," the Roth novel was one of about a dozen titles placed off limits to readers under 18, due to the worries of a few citizens. As one board member asked of "Complaint": "Is this a book for women to read?" Needless to say, Memphis briefly became a national laughing stock for its blue-nosed response to serious literature, and Loeb and the other would-be censors relented.

The contretemps certainly didn't hurt the book: "In 1998, the Modern Library ranked 'Portnoy's Complaint' 52nd on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century," reports Wikipedia; meanwhile, Time magazine included it on its list of "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005."

Fifty years later, such kerfuffles are no longer laughing matters, although the battlefield has changed from public libraries in general to school libraries, with objections seemingly centered less on sexual antics and more on representations of "lifestyles" and "values" and racism and racial inequity.

As The Commercial Appeal's Laura Testino reported, Collierville Schools officials pulled more than 300 books from library shelves (including the aforementioned "No Ashes in the Fire"), in anticipation of state legislation that could support "banning LGBTQ+ books."

"The list is vast," Testino wrote. "Collierville librarians found more than 300 books that contained 'sensitive content,' a topic largely defined by LGBTQ+ characters and themes, but also inclusive of 'Black Lives Matter' and books parents in Collierville and nearby municipal school districts had questioned."

Meanwhile, Melissa Brown of the Nashville Tennessean reports that "Tennessee’s textbook commission may need additional staff and its own attorney to deal with the aftermath of a new, controversial state law requiring schools to catalog and publicize a list of all available library and classroom materials."

According to Brown: "The commission faces a Dec. 1 deadline to issue statewide guidance on the library materials law, which the General Assembly passed this year in response to pushback from conservatives alleging Tennessee students were being exposed to "inappropriate' school materials."

In other words, banning books may come with a hefty price tag for taxpayers, in addition to the more obvious price of an increase in ignorance.

Solid Rock

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, the pro wrestler turned international superstar, flexed his celebrity muscle most generously this past month while he was in Memphis shooting season 3 of his NBC series, "Young Rock."

The Rock, as it turns out, is a softie. Besieged by fans of all ages, Johnson posed for pictures with neighborhood kids and with one teenager in particular: A video he made Crosstown High School sophomore Charis Carroll, 16, has been viewed millions of times on social media. The full feel-good story is here.

Make mine music

Books may be under fire, but the Memphis music scene remains hot, in a good way, as Bob Mehr reported this week. Artists headed here in concert in October include "The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul," Mary J. Blige; alt-folk/rock activist Ani DiFranco; and Stax icon Mavis Staples.

Also, on Oct. 6 on the Graceland Soundstage, you can experience the man who merges the rhythm of polka with the irreverence of Mad magazine, "Weird Al" Yankovic. If you haven't bought a ticket yet, maybe this will encourage you:

John Beifuss is a pop culture and features reporter for The  Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at john.beifuss@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: The 901: The Rock in Memphis, book bans and October concerts