The Central York School Board in southern Pennsylvania made headlines in mid-September for hosting a virtual meeting so the school community could debate book bans that had gone into effect in October 2020. The banned books included biographies of Rosa Parks, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruby Bridges, and Nelson Mandela for young readers. Thanks to student protesting, the school board unanimously rescinded its decision to ban anti-racism books on September 23—ironically, just before the start of Banned Books Week 2021, which ran from September 26 through October 2.

The Hill reported, “The ban initially occurred last October, when the all-white school board banned the above materials and numerous more that surround race, social justice and history.”

On CNN, Ben Hodge, Central York High School teacher and staff advisor for the school’s anti-racist student group, said it took five high school students “organizing a peaceful walk-in protest for each day two weeks ago to help make sure that our district heard that they (and many others) did not feel represented by this resource ban.”

School board spokesperson Julie Randall Romig also told CNN that the school board unanimously approved the reinstatement of a list of anti-racism books and resources, effective immediately.

The list of books and other resources that had been banned is available here.