In 2022, Livingston Parish librarian Amanda Jones spoke out against book banning attempts in her parish’s library system, saying, “Censoring and relocating books and displays is harmful to our community, but will be extremely harmful to our most vulnerable—our children.” Immediately, Michael Lunsford, the leader of the far-right group Citizens for a New Louisiana (CFNL), and Ryan Thames, a right-wing blogger from Louisiana, launched a harassment campaign against her. They posted online content framing Jones’ speech against censorship at the Livingston Library Board meeting as advocating to keep sexual materials in the children’s section. The harassment continued for years. But instead of laying low until things blew over, Jones fought back. As her situation gained national media attention, she spoke out against her treatment, discussed the book banning movement writ-large, co-founded Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship (LCAC), and filed lawsuits against those who started the campaign against her. In the process, she became a subject of The Librarians, a documentary produced by Sarah Jessica Parker, and made the 2025 TIME100 Next List. As a result of the legal actions, Thames was forced to publicly apologize to Jones. As of June, CFNL and Lunsford owe Jones over $54,000 in legal fees and court costs, and the lawsuit is heading to trial in September. With this recent legal victory, I thought it was time to call her up and ask how it feels to be making waves where it counts.
The night of the library board meeting that started the entire harassment campaign against you, what compelled you to want to speak out?
Well, a big red flag for me was that Jamie Pope from [CFNL] was posting pages of books out of context, and she was telling everybody that they had to get to the library board meeting, and she was not a resident of Livingston Parish. She’s a resident of Central, and she works for [CFNL], but she was posting that in our Livingston Parish [Facebook] pages. I could sense she was trying to stir something up, but what really got me was that I looked at the agenda and it said, “content and signage,” and it was in July, right after Pride Month. I figured it was gonna be books about Pride. I just thought I was gonna go and speak. It’s my library too. I was born and raised here and I just wanted to go protect it. I have had former students that took their own lives when they got older because they’re members of the LGBTQ community, and I didn’t want [current Livingston Parish Councilwoman] Erin Sandufer and her nastiness to affect any of my past, present, or future students.
After everything that came next, what was the feedback from the community once all of this harassment online started?
Oh, they all joined in. People I’ve known my whole life were joining in, friends who are now former friends. What got me was that I felt like every educator and every librarian in our parish was suddenly silent. Because they were scared. They didn’t want to become a target like I had. So everybody got quiet. People I’ve seen at the meeting didn’t want to talk about it. They didn’t want to be seen with me. There was this huge, huge feeling of fear. But a few people I didn’t know that stood up for me… most of the support [was] online. Most of the support came from librarians across the country and not from our community.
Around that time is when the book banning movement across the country was at its fever pitch.
Yeah, it really started kicking up in 2021 and 2022. Then it just snowballed from there.
What’s going through your head as all of this hate is coming in?
It was like this overwhelming sense of shame, which is what they wanted me to feel. But what they were saying was lies, so I don’t know why I felt ashamed. I didn’t do anything wrong. I stand by everything I said. I stand by everything I did. I just got recently diagnosed with PTSD. I’m having to do some deep trauma therapy from all that they’ve been doing for the past four years. But it was just humiliating, that everybody saw something that wasn’t true and believed it. And that’s how they’re gonna remember me for the rest of my life. No matter if I win in court, no matter [that] I wrote a book and there’s a documentary, they’re always going to think that of me in my community.
People can post anything online and if it jibes with the viewers’ personal political beliefs, then they’ll just go with it.
Which is so wild to me because here’s the thing, I was born and raised here. Like, I am these people; they’re me. I’m [a part of] the community, and then you have these two assholes that don’t even live where I live. And all of a sudden these people just believe them? It is horrible. I’m more conscious now of what I post because of that. I don’t want anyone else to ever feel that way from something I’ve posted, even though Jamie Pope’s son was allegedly in a hate crime in Central, I posted a couple of things online. But I tried to not be nasty like she did. But she went after me hard. I tried to rise above it, and even though she’s a horrible, hateful person, I wouldn’t ever want her to feel the way I felt in the past four years.
That’s rather big of you. Not a lot of people [would] have that mindset.
Well, my friends told me I’m stupid. [laughs] They said that’s dumb. I was able to go to the Obama Presidential Center this summer, and I did a lot of reflecting because it was all about we shall overcome, we can achieve. And it just really sank in that if we want to get past this in our country, you don’t have to like other people, but we have to start being a little more respectful and find a way to deal with stuff other than the way MAGA is dealing with it—by harassing and being so hateful. I want to set a better example to the kids. It’s not that I’m being altruistic, I want to set a good example to the kids because that’s why I went into librarianship in elementary education, because I love the kids and I love my community. If the community doesn’t love me back, that’s OK. Teenagers don’t love you back either when they’re going through their teens, but eventually they realize that you were trying to help them.
A lot of educators in a similar position as you would have just put their heads down until everything blew over. But instead, you filed a lawsuit, you wrote a book, you co-founded Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, and did some other stuff. What made you continue to fight back instead of playing dead?
There’s so many reasons. First and foremost, just telling the truth. I wanted to get my story out because there’s safety when you get your story out in the open, and I felt safer the more I [spoke] about it because then more people will know who Michael Lunsford is and leave me alone. I do it for that reason. I did it because right after it happened, the first people to contact me and ask me if I was OK was a trans women’s group in Baton Rouge. They invited me to a Zoom. And we’re chatting, and they’re all like, “You’re gonna be OK.” And I just had this epiphany of like, well yeah, I’m gonna be OK, but they’re not. They’re gonna have to live with this the rest of their lives. So I thought really long and hard about privilege, and people make fun of me for that. They say, “Oh, white privilege isn’t a thing.” It is very much a thing, and I just thought, well, I’m in a position of privilege where other people aren’t. I have the means to raise money. I have a lot of friends across the U.S. I have a good husband and family that will stick by me. And if I lose my job, I’m gonna be OK. There’s a Samira Ahmed quote that says, use your power and privilege for purpose. I got that tattooed on my wrist because that’s when I try to remember to use [my] power and privilege for purpose. Plus, I was mad as hell.
As far as the work that LCAC does, it seems as though y’all had some success in rallying the community against these bad library bills in 2024. Seven of nine bills were killed after over 42,000 emails were sent out, and a bunch of the community showed up to the legislative committee hearings to speak out. What did it feel like to have those wins that year?
That was so great. That credit goes to so many residents across Louisiana. Lynette Mejia, who is our executive director, coordinated a campaign. [We got] the Louisiana Library Association involved through our work with [LCAC]. I went down [to the committee hearing] to testify and I think it was Representative [Candance] Newell who said, “I’m not gonna vote for this bill. I got so many hundreds of emails against it and only two for it. So why would I vote for it?” It was like our campaigns were actually taking effect. Often, you don’t feel like you’re listened to at the legislature, but they were really listening. For seven of the nine bills to be defeated in a MAGA-extremist-controlled government, especially when it was being pushed by Governor Landry, we were really proud. We’re still proud because for the past two years they haven’t filed a single bill. I always joke with Lynette Mejia and say they don’t want this smoke anymore. But we’re always watching and we’re always waiting… We’re monitoring constantly to make sure they’re not doing anything.
For your lawsuits, you had to file multiple appeals and multiple briefs. Overall, it was a very long process. At any point did you feel like things wouldn’t work out in your favor? And if so, what kept you going?
When I filed the lawsuit, the judge dismissed it very soon after I filed it. My attorney remarked that she had never seen something filed and dismissed so quickly. So it has literally almost taken four years just to have the right to have a trial. Again, I had that same feeling of shame and embarrassment. I almost stopped. I didn’t have the right attorney at first. I am a Christian, and I asked God for a sign, and the Wilson Phillips song “Hold On” came on. I was like, I’ll just hold on for one more day, and that was the night that my current attorney contacted me. [Since then] I’ve never felt anything other than relief and that things are gonna be OK. We’ve been winning and I’ve won. [The defendants] keep filing appeals and I keep winning, and eventually Ryan Thames [offered] to settle. I didn’t make him pay the $54,000 that he owed for attorney fees. The point was for him to apologize, and he did. I wanted to prove that I wasn’t after their money. But Michael [Lunsford] didn’t offer that. So Michael now owes me money, and now we get to have the actual trial, and our first hearing for the actual trial I believe is September 21. I’m ready.
What are the next steps for this case?
It’s going to trial. He has to pay me, I don’t know, $50,000-something. That deadline’s coming up soon, and then we’ll have [a hearing on] September 21 [and] they’re trying to get some things stricken from the record. Then we’ll be heading to discovery. His chance of having me settle for $1 and apology went out the window. He should have done it when Ryan Thames did it. It doesn’t matter if I win or lose the defamation trial because I’ve already beat him. I’ve beat him to a pulp. He wanted me to crawl in a hole and die. And now I’m going to the Emmys in two weeks for a documentary that I’ve done about this.
Do you think this saga is over for CFNL? Do you think this is gonna really hurt them in the end?
One thing I’ve learned about MAGA is they don’t know when to quit. They don’t realize when they’ve lost, so I’m sure his donors will pump some more money into it. But if you look at his [social media] posts and his engagement, it’s so pitiful and sad. Like he has no engagement anymore. Nobody cares about anything he’s saying. He has no power. Everybody makes fun of him. So he can take some money from some donors for another year or two. He’s about to have to put a pin in [CFNL], at least if he’s smart, because he’s becoming a laughingstock. I mean, he always seems to be posting these weird blogs about me just so he can raise some money, like a big grifter. He just seems pitiful. It’s sad to me when people don’t know when to quit.
It’s funny that you say that because whenever I did the feature last year on CFNL one person told me he’s losing steam and that apparently he’s losing some donors, so I’m sure after this trial and then the situation with Jamie Pope, it’s looking grim.
If I were him, I’d be very, very scared because I have been collecting evidence and screenshots, recordings, interviewing people for four years, getting ready for this. Me and my attorney, we have pages and pages. If he doesn’t think that we’re not gonna depose Jamie Pope or that we’re not gonna depose Senator Valarie Hodges for her involvement in this, we’re not gonna depose his donors, he has another thing coming. So if he was smart, he would actually be trying to settle, but he’s not smart. So we’re gonna air all his dirty laundry for the whole world to see. He should have apologized and I would have gone away, but he didn’t. He messed with the wrong librarian.
You’ve definitely taken this head on. I’ll definitely say that.
It wasn’t a choice. It’s just what I had to do. I would have rather not done any of this. You could take away my book deal, you could take away the documentary, you could take away any good thing that’s happened to me. If I could go back in time and change it to where he hadn’t harassed my friends—I’d trade everything if they could have their jobs back. He didn’t just mess with me. He messed with a lot of people, a lot of librarians in our town. And they can’t stand up for themselves, so I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do it for Giovanni Tairov. I’m gonna do it for Michelle Parrish. I’m gonna do it for what he did to Lynette Mejia and Melanie Brevis and Lafayette [libraries] and Matthew Humphrey, because they can’t. They’re right behind me supporting me the whole way. And if I lose, at least I can say I tried.
Let’s talk a little bit about your book, That Librarian. What’s been the response to it?
I was contacted by President Obama’s speechwriter, who really liked it—Terry Szuplat—and I actually have been to DC and met him. His mom and sister are librarians, so I got to meet him and his mom and his sister. I think it’s in its third printing. It just got picked up in Japan. I didn’t think anybody was gonna buy it. I just wanted to say I had a book, but it became a national bestseller. It’s just been huge. My publicist joked to me, “Amanda, normal book tours last five or six weeks and yours has been going on for two years.” I’m still getting interviews and requests and stuff, and it was published in 2024. Judy Blume read it. She invited me to her store. I got to go meet [her]. Gloria Steinem invited me to her apartment in New York City this summer to talk about it. Oprah talked about [the book], like, it’s just crazy to me. I’m just a school librarian in a two red-light town. I don’t know why anybody wants to read the story. But I’m thankful and grateful for it because it afforded me to take my child on a mother-daughter epic vacation this summer.
I will say the biggest honor of my life and the best thing to come out of the book is that the American Library Association had its annual conference in Chicago this summer, and that was when the Obama Presidential Center was opening. And so hundreds of these librarian friends were at this conference, and I didn’t go ‘cause I had just come back from Gloria Steinem’s and I just didn’t want to travel anymore. All these people started texting me. They’re like, “Your book should be at the presidential reading room.” I was like, what are you talking about? And so apparently [the Obamas] chose my book for their permanent collection in the presidential reading room. And I went to Chicago this summer with my friend and I got to go see it. And seeing my book on a shelf in the presidential reading room just took my breath away. I still can’t go to Walgreens to get cold medicine without being called a groomer. I can’t even go out in my own community, but then I’m hanging out on the Upper East Side with Gloria Steinem. None of it makes sense, but I’m just going with it.
You made the 2025 TIME 100 List, didn’t you?
It was the TIME100 Next [List]. Sarah Jessica Parker wrote the [TIME] article about me, and that is surreal in itself. And so I went out to celebrate. This is such a girl thing, I guess, but in honor of Sarah Jessica Parker writing the article about me, I bought myself a pair of Louboutins. Because I had wanted the same pair for like 20 years and I was like, my TIME article came out today and there’s a pair of shoes and I’m gonna get them. So that’s how I celebrated.
Hey, you gotta treat yourself sometimes.
Yeah, it’s the only time because I wear like $10 shoes every day—I don’t buy myself things. My husband’s still mad at me. He’s like, that is ridiculous for shoes. But I’m like: I learned about these shoes from Sarah Jessica Parker on Sex and the City, and she wrote an article about me, so it’s kind of destined that I buy these today.
You had no choice but to do it! OK, this is my last question for you: Why is it important to defend libraries and how do you defend your libraries?
Libraries are one of the very last few places where you can go completely for free. Anybody can walk in the door. They won’t exclude you for your race or the amount of money you make or your religion. And you can freely check out resources. You can look in databases, check out cake pans and telescopes, and they have museum passes—libraries are so much more than books. They’re movies, they’re games, they’re community centers. And if we don’t defend them and we don’t protect them, we’re gonna lose them. And I always think about that stupid tweet that [Louisiana Congressman] Clay Higgins [posted], where he tweeted that one day all of our nation’s libraries will be church-owned. And although I am a Christian, like hell [will] Clay Higgins [have] any involvement [in] controlling any of our libraries. Not that fool. And honestly, if you went to church, you know most churches already have their own libraries, but I digress.
It’s just a magical place and I wouldn’t be the kind of person I was without the library. So of course I’m gonna defend it. You see across the nation this huge effort to suppress information and knowledge and accurate history. They’re attacking libraries [and] museums and journalists, because the people that control the resources control everything [and can] control the narrative. Anybody who wants to [defend libraries], there’s probably an alliance of some sort, or a Freedom to Read group in your state. You can join that. If you don’t have that, you can always look online. Look at your public library, your school library, see when the meetings are, and follow along. Sometimes we have people that come to the Livingston Parish meetings that never speak, but they show up wearing a purple shirt because we said we need people to fill the room wearing purple [to show solidarity with the library]. So even the act of just attending a meeting in the same color shirt can help, but the biggest thing is to vote. We got to where we are because of how people have been voting and the only way to get out of it is to vote.
Photos: Amanda Jones at Cavalier House Books, a new and used bookstore in Denham Springs
photos by Katie Sikora
