by Lucas Thomae, Carolina Public Press
June 20, 2025

With less than two weeks before Yancey County officially exits its regional public library system, opponents to the change are making a last-ditch legal effort to force the county to reverse course. The two-year-long debate over the future of the library in Burnsville began with residents’ complaints over a Pride Month display in 2023.

Resident and local Democratic leader Landon Beaver started a crowdfunding campaign last month which has raised more than $48,000 to date, enough to pay the retainer fees of North Carolina law firm Brooks Pierce.

Beaver told Carolina Public Press his goal is to file a First Amendment lawsuit against the county and secure an emergency hearing for an injunction on the library transition, which is set to happen July 1.

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Collins Saint, an attorney for Brooks Pierce specializing in education law and civil rights litigation, confirmed that the firm was representing Beaver, but that no lawsuit had been filed as of Wednesday. Beaver called the state of things a “developing legal situation,” but remained optimistic that there remained enough time to file a lawsuit and pause the library transition before the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Yancey County and the regional library system — both of which have been preparing for the transition over the past year — told CPP that they have little reason to think the exit won’t happen as planned.

“We haven’t had any discussions on that,” Yancey County Manager Lynn Austin said of the potential lawsuit. “We’re just looking to move forward (on) July 1.”

Legal fight to save library system looms

County commissioners first announced their intent to leave the Avery-Mitchell-Yancey Regional Library last June.

That decision followed a tumultuous year in which Yancey overhauled the public advisory board for its library branch, which included the appointment of residents who decried books featuring LGBTQ+ characters and themes as inappropriate for children.

Since then, Yancey has charged ahead with its planned exit by applying for state grants and hiring replacements for the current Yancey library staff, all of whom are employees of the regional library system.

Residents opposed to the change fear that they will be paying more in taxes for lessened services. They stand to lose regional system benefits such as its children’s librarian and digital literacy program.

They’ve organized “solidarity walks” and shown up at commissioners’ meetings urging them to reconsider the exit. Still, the county has remained steadfast in its desire for greater freedom over library operations.

“(A lawsuit) was the absolute last resort,” Beaver said. “Hence the marches and the speaking last year, trying to get the commissioners to see that this was not in the best interest of the community and not the best use of financial resources.”

Beaver took part in many of those community organizing efforts over the past year. In April he was elected chair of the Yancey County Democrats, the minority party in a largely conservative county. All five Yancey County commissioners are Republicans.

Beaver criticized board chairman Jeff Whitson’s stated vision of an “unbiased library” as a justification for limiting freedom of expression and breaking with the regional library system.

“To say that we won’t have any displays, we won’t have anything divisive in the library, that’s just going to start looking like an echo chamber to a certain set of people,” Beaver said.

“That’s not what a library is, and that’s not how the First Amendment works.”

Local debates capture national attention

The heated debate in Yancey is just one more example of a larger national trend: the transformation of public schools and libraries into political battlefields.

John Chrastka is executive director at EveryLibrary, a self-described “non-partisan, pro-library” political advocacy organization. He told CPP that the emergence of social conservative groups seeking to limit materials in public libraries has led to policy changes at both the state and local level. Sometimes, he said, the best means of pushing back is through the courts.

“Sometimes (court) is the only place that you can go, because you can organize all day long locally and the politicians and the political actors won’t listen because they’re not in for the rule of law,” Chrastka said.

First Amendment challenges are common in these library disputes, but Chrastka said an often underlooked litigation strategy is through a civil rights lens.

Federal law dictates that all people are entitled to “equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages and accommodations of any place of public accommodation.” Public libraries, being taxpayer-funded institutions, are considered places of public accommodation.

“So many of the book bans, so many of the challenges to displays, so many fights over what kind of programming is done in the libraries is based on the comfort of the majority,” Chrastka said.

“If the majority population isn’t comfortable with a minority population — whether it’s race or gender or sexuality or religion, we see these fights. The relevance of a program, the relevance of a display, the relevance of a title to a minority population should be considered in that civil rights framework.”

Uncharted territory for library system

What might happen if Yancey County does not exit its regional library system on July 1, by judicial order or otherwise, is an untested question.

Earlier this month the county approved its budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which included more than $300,000 for the library. It already hired three full-time employees to replace the outgoing regional employees.

The regional system, too, has transition plans in place. It will change its name to the Toe River Valley Regional Library, and a new interlocal agreement was drafted by Avery County, Mitchell County and the Town of Spruce Pine earlier this year.

Current regional director Amber Westall Briggs told CPP that she doesn’t expect the transition to be nixed given the work done on both sides to make it happen, although it is a possibility that she’s discussed with her staff.

“If (Yancey) did not withdraw and they changed their mind, I would imagine we would go on as we normally would,” Briggs added.

That would leave Yancey with the problem of figuring out how to reverse course after already having passed a budget and hiring new employees.

“For patrons, it would be the least disruptive (outcome),” Beaver said of a possible injunction on the library transition.

“For the finance officers, it would probably be the most disruptive.”

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Library system split in NC over LGBTQ+ content could face lawsuit appeared first on carolinapublicpress.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article presents a factual recount of the local dispute surrounding Yancey County’s exit from its regional library system, highlighting the perspectives of opponents, particularly those advocating against the removal due to concerns over LGBTQ+ content censorship and library access. The language is generally neutral but shows subtle sympathy toward the opponents’ viewpoint by emphasizing civil rights, First Amendment arguments, and the impact on marginalized groups. The coverage includes voices from Democratic local leaders and pro-library advocates, while framing the county commissioners as conservative and steadfast, which suggests a slight lean toward supporting progressive positions on inclusivity and free expression in public institutions.