Stephanie Howard, the former director of the Pickens County Library System, filed a civil lawsuit Monday against the library board, a prominent local activist and several other defendants, accusing them of conspiring to get her fired over ideological disagreements about what books belong on library shelves. The suit, filed in Pickens County Court of Common Pleas, seeks a jury trial, damages and a court declaration that the board violated South Carolina’s open-meetings law.
According to FOX Carolina News, the lawsuit names nine defendants: five library board members — Mark Kilburn, Danny Parton, Nancy Miller, Alesa Pinkerton and Brian Aiken — along with the Pickens County Library Board of Trustees, Pickens County itself, local activist Johnnelle Raines and the unincorporated advocacy group Conservatives of the Upstate. Raines is identified in the filing as administrator of the No Porn in Pickens Facebook group. Per the lawsuit, Howard alleges that Raines, Conservatives of the Upstate and a majority of board members improperly interfered with her employment contract to push her out for ideological reasons.
Howard alleges her firing was the culmination of an organized campaign dating back to 2023, with activists targeting her over book challenges and LGBTQ+ library materials, according to the lawsuit. The filing claims those activists pressured county council to install aligned board members and coordinated behind the scenes to secure her termination. It also accuses the defendants of civil conspiracy, alleging all named parties worked together to pack meetings, damage her reputation and bring about her dismissal.
Firing Followed a Contentious February Vote
The library board voted 5-2 to terminate Howard’s employment effective immediately at a special meeting on Feb. 24, according to The Post and Courier. Pickens County issued a statement.
In the lawsuit, Howard alleges the board violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act by failing to post an agenda giving 24 hours’ notice that her employment would be discussed at that meeting. She also alleges board members held secret communications beforehand to predetermine her firing. The suit separately accuses Raines of publishing defamatory statements about Howard on social media and in letters to the editor, and claims the defendants’ multi-year campaign caused her severe emotional distress, anxiety, humiliation and career damage.
Board’s Book Review Upended Library Services
Howard’s firing came amid a broader fight over the library system’s collection. The board directed staff to review more than 86,000 books in the children’s and teen sections, an effort the Post and Courier reported was expected to take a year. That review led the library to cancel more than a dozen youth programs and halt interlibrary loans so staff time could be reassigned, the newspaper’s report on the library’s interim leadership noted.
The review followed a Feb. 12 special-called meeting at which the board unanimously changed its Collection Development Policy, citing compliance with state library regulations and continued state funding as its goals, according to the Independent Mail. Opponents of the policy change said at the time it would place a heavy burden on library staff and lead to cuts in programs and services, per the Post and Courier’s account of the debate.
Part of a Wider Pattern in Library Disputes
Pickens County’s fight is not an isolated case. In Greenville, residents and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against the Greenville County Library System after it removed dozens of books in March 2025, the Independent Mail reported. Elsewhere, a former Rutherford County, Tennessee library director filed a First Amendment lawsuit after she was fired, in a case reporting by The Tennessean linked to her refusal to move certain books from the children’s section to the adult section. In Georgia, library manager LaVonnia Moore sued Pierce County and the Three Rivers Regional Library System, alleging she was fired for allowing a book about a transgender child to be part of a display, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
National data suggests the pressure on librarians has intensified. The American Library Association tracked 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025, its second-highest total ever documented, with 1,671 of those titles — 39 percent — representing the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color. The ALA also found that pressure groups, government officials and decision-makers initiated 92 percent of challenges in 2025, up from 72 percent the year before, and that libraries ultimately banned 5,668 books, or 66 percent of those challenged.
Howard’s lawsuit seeks actual and compensatory damages for lost wages, benefits and career harm, along with punitive damages for what the filing calls willful and malicious conduct. She is also seeking attorney’s fees and court costs. FOX Carolina reported it was awaiting a response from the library board; Pickens County had provided a statement.
