The Termination of Tory Pegram at Christian County Library
From ACLU Activism to Library Obstruction: The Final Evasion
Interim Director's Termination Caps Months of Transparency Violations and Systematic Resistance to Oversight
How an activist's anti-institutional worldview poisoned public service and led to documented Sunshine Law violations
Tory Pegram's termination as Christian County Library's interim executive director on Monday brings to a close a tenure marked by alleged unprecedented transparency violations and possible obstruction of board oversight, behavior that mirrors patterns established during her decades-long career as a civil rights activist challenging institutional authority.
Reported by Chris Drew from KSMU, the termination was confirmed in a statement released by Board President Echo Schneider, ending a controversial period during which Pegram denied board members their statutory authority to review budgets, edited public meeting videos to hide contradictory statements, and imposed prohibitive fees on basic public records requests. Pegram emailed me this morning after I made a Sunshine request this weekend, asking for additional credit card statements for January.
She stated that she had stepped down as interim director on June 13th and was also no longer the Custodian of Records. I don’t know if she had the authority to make either decision on the 13th, but this is what she emailed me this morning. By last Monday afternoon, Chris Drew’s article had dropped, indicating she had been terminated.
If you go to the Library’s Board of Trustees page, you will see a special closed session reviewing Personnel matters. This was scheduled at 3:30 pm on Friday. She informed me in her Monday morning email that her resignation as Interim Director took effect Friday morning, but I did not have an exact time for that.
During my numerous meetings at the Library Board, the staff have consistently stated that the board only has review authority over the director. This raises some questions, such as who attended the afternoon personnel meeting and if it was related to Ms. Pegram.
Did Pegram attempt to avoid accountability by resigning from her interim director position hours before a scheduled Friday disciplinary hearing? If so, this last-minute maneuver failed to prevent her termination on Monday.
During my months-long investigative research on Pegram, I have uncovered that she has a history of using rules to navigate institutions, which began during her tenure at the American Civil Liberties Union. I had planned to gather more details before publishing about her history, but with her termination, I am publishing this story now while the details are still fresh. One detail I wanted was a deposition she gave in 2015, I believe.
The Activist Foundation: Fighting Prisons, Blocking Libraries
Pegram's resistance to institutional oversight at the library stems from a worldview shaped by decades of activism that has challenged government authority. Her most prominent role was as coordinator of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3, where she worked to free Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace, and Robert King from Louisiana's Angola prison. She even owned a private business, or a nonprofit, called One Day Soon, LLC, which was registered in Louisiana for this purpose.
"Angola is disturbing every time I go there," Pegram told Truthout during her activism years. "It's not even really a metaphor for slavery. Slavery is what's going on." This perspective—viewing institutional authority as fundamentally oppressive—would later manifest in her approach to library governance.
Before her work with the Angola 3, Pegram worked with the Louisiana ACLU, beginning in June 2005, focusing on public education about rights and speaking out against government mistreatment. She played key roles in high-profile cases, including the Jena 6, where she helped coordinate national attention and activism.
Her New Orleans-based activism included describing the city as "the only place in the US that seems least like the US. I like to call it the northern most tip of the Caribbean," revealing a perspective that views American institutional norms as problematic.
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Pegram evacuated to family property in Missouri. In her own words from an ACLU account:
"On the Friday after the storm everyone was still stunned but my family in Missouri was desperate to see me. I packed up my car and left behind all the intrigue to drive 11 hours to Ozark to my parents' house in a 40 acre cowfield."
This evacuation would eventually lead to her permanent relocation to Missouri and her eventual role at Christian County Library.
The Financial Connection: Money Flows to Prisoners
Court records from the Angola-3 case indicate her involvement was extensive enough that a federal judge found her deposition would be "highly relevant" and would "confirm an extensive support network, publicity, efforts, and financial backing for Plaintiff Woodfox."
Deposition testimony from 2008 reveals the extent of this financial backing. Herman Wallace sent $60 to "Tory Pegram" at her New Orleans address, which she then used to deposit money for another inmate. This practice might have violated Angola prison regulations regarding financial transactions between inmates and their supporters at the time.
This pattern of circumventing institutional rules while advancing activist agendas would later resurface in her library role, where she allegedly flaunted transparency laws while claiming to serve the public interest.
From Challenging Prisons to Blocking Libraries
The same anti-institutional mindset that drove Pegram's prison activism found new expression at the Christian County Library, where she allegedly obstructed transparency and board oversight. Her approach transformed from challenging what she viewed as unjust authority to attempting to block legitimate governmental oversight from the Board and investigative journalism—a concerning evolution from activist to alleged obstructionist.
The Pattern Emerges: From Meeting Cancellations to Sunshine Violations
The signs of Pegram's resistance to public accountability appeared early. In January 2024, she orchestrated the cancellation of a library board meeting with a week's advance notice, citing weather concerns for a day forecast to have a high of 44 degrees and cloudy skies. Unlike previous weather cancellations that were rescheduled, this meeting was eliminated—an early indicator of her preference for avoiding public scrutiny.
When questioned about the unusual cancellation, Pegram provided only boilerplate responses, avoiding any substantive explanation for why the library was departing from its standard practice of rescheduling weather-canceled meetings.
The Sunshine Law Violations
By 2025, Pegram's obstruction had escalated to an alleged violation of Missouri's Sunshine Law. Recent investigations revealed that she appeared to have ignored multiple public records requests while selectively sharing similar information with preferred media outlets and anonymous blogs.
In March 2025, HickChristian submitted multiple Sunshine Law requests seeking communications between library staff, board members, and attorneys. Despite Missouri law requiring responses within three business days, Pegram acknowledged receipt but explicitly stated she would not begin searching for records until "later next week or the week of April 7th"—potentially two weeks after receipt.
When confronted about these delays, Pegram claimed that her vacation status somehow suspended the statutory timeline, despite Missouri's Sunshine Law providing no provision for such an exemption. Most tellingly, while my requests faced systematic delays, the anonymous blog "We Are Concerned" published detailed information about court documents and board meetings, suggesting preferential treatment for aligned media.
The QuickBooks Mislead
Earlier transparency violations revealed Pegram's willingness to use tactics to price public information out of reach. When faced with a routine public records request for budget information, Pegram's administration claimed the records were stored in "specialized and highly technical management software that entry-level employees are not trained or authorized to access."
The software in question? QuickBooks—the same user-friendly accounting program used by millions of small businesses.
The library demanded $185 for basic budget documents, pricing transparency out of reach for ordinary citizens, while someone was simultaneously editing the "free" video records to hide contradictory evidence.
Denying Board Authority
Perhaps most revealing was Pegram's confrontation with board oversight. During the contentious May 28 board meeting, she told Treasurer Garrity that his request to review financial records was "stepping on the operational autonomy of the staff" and was "not something that our auditor thinks is a good idea."
When Garrity offered to read the Missouri statute granting him this authority, Pegram's dismissive response, "Sure. Go ahead," captured an employee challenging her employer rather than providing the requested information. Insubordination to your employer is always grounds for dismissal in the state of Missouri; however, I must speculate about what happened in the closed meeting and what was said to her.
Video Editing: Hiding the Evidence
The investigation revealed that someone at the library deliberately edited public meeting videos to remove content that contradicted her public statements. When board treasurer John Garrity asserted his statutory authority to review financial records, Pegram flatly denied this authority existed, responding, "It does not. John. It does not."
This exchange was initially removed from the public video record, only to be restored after hours when the editing was discovered and reported. The corrected video runs 16 seconds longer than the original, suggesting multiple edits to the public record—a clear violation of Missouri's Sunshine Law regarding public meeting recordings.
The Final Evasion: Opinionated Questions About Qualifications
The investigation also raises questions about Pegram's professional credentials and how they may have factored into her appointments to positions of authority. While her activism with the ACLU and the Angola 3 coalition is well-documented, questions remain about her formal qualifications for administrative positions that require legal and financial oversight.
Public records searches reveal no evidence that Pegram holds an active bar admission in Missouri or Louisiana, despite her prominent roles in legal advocacy cases. This raises questions about how her qualifications were evaluated for positions requiring an understanding of complex legal and administrative requirements.
The pattern of credential questions extends to her library tenure, where her resistance to financial oversight and apparent unfamiliarity with basic administrative law requirements suggest potential gaps between claimed expertise and actual qualifications.
The Final Evasion Attempt
In a last-ditch effort to avoid accountability, Pegram attempted to resign from her interim director position just hours before a scheduled Friday disciplinary hearing, apparently hoping to claim she was no longer subject to board authority. This final maneuver—consistent with her long pattern of challenging institutional oversight—failed to prevent Monday morning's termination.
The timing reveals a possible consciousness of wrongdoing: faced with formal disciplinary action, Pegram chose attempted escape over accountability, mirroring her career-long pattern of viewing institutional authority as something to be evaded rather than respected.
I can respect a good rebel. There are times to rebel. Rebelling to support the insanity going on in libraries today isn’t the right time.
Monday morning’s email revealed that Pegram had attempted to claim she was no longer the custodian of records and therefore not responsible for fulfilling Sunshine Law obligations. When challenged with mounting accountability pressures, Pegram chose evasion over responsibility.
The Legal Framework Violated
Missouri library statutes explicitly require board treasurers to oversee finances, and the state's Sunshine Law creates clear public access rights. Pegram's possible obstruction would have been in direct contradiction to multiple legal requirements:
Treasurer's Rights: Missouri law requires librarians to work "together with the treasurer" on financial certification
Public Records: Budget documents are specifically designated as public records under Missouri law
Video Integrity: Once they choose to record meetings, libraries create public records that cannot be altered
Custodial Responsibilities: Public officials cannot simply abandon their legal duties when accountability becomes inconvenient
The Cost of Ideological Governance
The years-long investigation into the Christian County Library highlights the risks of appointing ideological activists to administrative positions that require institutional cooperation. Pegram's view of institutional authority as inherently suspect rendered her fundamentally unsuited for a role that required collaboration with elected oversight.
The damage extends beyond policy disagreements. By pricing public information out of reach while editing meeting videos and attempting to abandon custodial responsibilities, the library created a system where transparency was available only to those who could afford it—and even then, only in versions the administration chose to provide.
Her approach to both roles demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of accountability in public service. While challenging unjust authority can be admirable in activist contexts, blocking legitimate oversight in taxpayer-funded institutions undermines democratic governance. Someone who fought against prisons that isolated men for decades was probably the wrong hire for a job in a library.
Opinion and Speculation
A person who experienced life like this experienced deep trauma and was going to conflate Burl Cain with other Christians in her community who wanted to protect children from harm. Burl Cain is likely a disgusting human being. I left New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he has a ministerial relationship, because of the false Christians there who would pretend to understand faith. I can sympathize with disliking fake Christians and false teachers who use the government to cause harm, like Burl Cain did to the Angola-3. Yet, I can also recognize that my experiences preclude me from being rational in dealing with certain types of Christians. I’m not sure Pegram had the same awareness when she was dealing with Christians looking to protect children from obscene materials in the library.
Her Friday self-demotion to a new position, which came hours before a possible disciplinary action, perfectly encapsulates this pattern—when accountability arrives, Pegram chooses escape over responsibility.
Questions That Need Answers
Several aspects of Pegram's tenure demand further investigation:
What credentials were reviewed during her hiring process?
How were her legal qualifications verified for positions requiring administrative law knowledge?
What other public meeting videos may have been edited? I have found more.
How many public records requests were discouraged through excessive fees?
What role did her activist network play in her library appointment?
How did someone with her anti-institutional background gain administrative authority over a public institution?
The Broader Implications
The Pegram case illustrates a broader challenge facing public institutions: the infiltration of activist ideologies into administrative roles meant to serve all citizens impartially. When activists view institutional authority as fundamentally illegitimate, they are unable to serve within those institutions effectively.
Her termination sends a clear message that public service requires public accountability, regardless of one's activist credentials or ideological commitments. The challenge for the Christian County Library Board—and similar institutions—is ensuring that public positions serve the public interest rather than private ideological agendas.
Looking Forward
With Pegram's departure, the Christian County Library Board may be able to refocus on its fundamental mission. Yet, if the Library staff's failure to include me in a press release is any indication, this problem isn’t solved.
The CCL’s mission should be to provide library services while maintaining transparency and public accountability. The board's previous decision to hire Will Blydenburgh as the new executive director suggests a desire to move beyond the activism-driven administration that characterized Pegram's tenure, as well as the previous administrations.
The challenge now is to ensure that future hiring prioritizes administrative competence and institutional cooperation over ideological credentials, preventing future appointees from using public positions to advance private agendas or abandoning responsibilities when accountability arises.
The board must also address the transparency violations documented during Pegram's tenure, ensuring that past edited videos are corrected, fee structures comply with Missouri law, and custodial responsibilities are properly maintained regardless of personnel changes.
The Accountability Test
The Pegram case presents a clear test for public accountability in libraries and schools that are funded by tax bonds.
Can Public Institutions hold officials accountable for systematic transparency violations and the abandonment of their legal duties? The answer will determine whether Missouri's Sunshine Law has teeth or merely serves as a suggestion that activist-administrators can ignore when convenient.
Her termination demonstrates that even officials with extensive activist credentials cannot escape the basic requirements of public service. While her experience allowed her to stymie the will of the conservative voters for years in this county, eventually she overreached with the blatantly edited videos. I don’t know if they terminated her for that reason. I don’t have a termination letter like Chris Drew at KSMU does. I know I would be terminated for doing anything like that.
When ideological conviction conflicts with legal obligation, the law must prevail. The Christian County Library Board's decision to proceed with termination despite Pegram's evasion attempts shows that accountability can still function when institutions dare to enforce it. So thank your Library Board members, starting with Janis Hagen, John Garrity, Diana Brazeal, Mary Hernandez de Carl, and Echo Schneider, for being brave enough to stand on integrity.
Public service requires public accountability. When officials use anti-institutional activism as justification for blocking oversight, they fundamentally misunderstand the nature of democratic governance. The people of Christian County deserve better than administrators who view transparency laws as obstacles to be circumvented rather than requirements to be honored.
The Christian County Library was contacted for comment, but did not respond by publication time.
UPDATE: KSMU Radio confirmed Pegram's termination in a report published hours after this article, validating the investigation's findings and timeline.
The selective information sharing continued right until Pegram's departure and beyond, indicating that viewpoint-based discrimination extends beyond individual administrators to institutional staff culture. Despite being officially added to the library's press distribution list in April 2025, HickChristian was excluded from Monday's termination announcement while other media outlets received advance notice. Three separate Sunshine Law requests were submitted seeking records about the termination and press coordination.
This continued obstruction raises additional questions about who within the library staff assisted in removing the edited May 28 board meeting video from YouTube, editing out her contradictory statements, and later restoring the unedited version when the manipulation was discovered. The systematic nature of these transparency violations suggests coordination that extends beyond any single administrator.
The pattern highlights the importance of independent journalism in holding public officials accountable for transparency violations, particularly when media channels are deliberately blocked based on editorial viewpoint. While mainstream outlets like KSMU, News-Leader, and Springfield Daily Citizen often serve as institutional stenographers—parroting press releases and reporting what officials want the public to hear—independent journalism such as Right to Win Ozarks and HickChristian News requires the more complex work of document analysis, legal challenges, and sustained investigation.
Real journalism demands accountability, with reporters putting their names on stories and standing behind their work. It requires documentation, backing every claim with records, emails, and timestamps rather than accepting official narratives. It involves persistence, following stories for months rather than relying on one-off reports, and legal rigor, utilizing Sunshine Laws and filing formal complaints when transparency rights are violated.
The contrast between approaches could not be more apparent. While some outlets wait for official announcements to report what happened, investigative journalism reveals why it was inevitable based on documented patterns of misconduct. This distinction between journalism and public relations becomes crucial when institutional power attempts to control the flow of information and silence critical oversight.
Springfield Daily Citizen is so proud of their article about Pegram’s termination that they hide it behind a paywall so no one can determine if they reported the facts correctly. This is NGO Journalism supported by Government Grants.
David Rice is the editor of HickChristian News and has been investigating government transparency issues in Southwest Missouri since December 2023.