Texas State Legislature Votes to Drop Civil Rights Movement as a Required Lesson

By Nikki Slusher

Last Friday the Texas Senate passed legislation that would remove requirements for public schools to have to teach civil rights movements and women’s suffrage. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech and “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” being cut from the curriculum along with Susan B. Anthony and Caesar Chavez.

The bill passed with an 18-4 vote but has still not passed through the House where they are unable to have a quorum since a group of Democrats are out-of-state. The state legislature’s special session ends on August 6th.

The legislation on school curriculum also includes a lis of required elements like historical figures, documents and events in social studies courses. If passed into law, the bill drops many historical figures of color and women it would require teaching on white supremacy and the ways in which it is morally wrong.”

New York Times’ 1619 Project would be banned from teachings completely. The group is named after the date from when enslaved people first came to the colonies. Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the state’s senate said in a statement that the bill would ensure “that critical race philosophies including the debunked 1619 founding myth, are removed from our school curriculums statewide.”

“Parents want their students to learn how to think critically, not be indoctrinated by the ridiculous leftist narrative that America and our Constitution are rooted in racism,” Patrick said. From the chamber floor, Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D) spoke against the bill saying it would be “tying the hands of our teachers.”

Zaffirini concluded her rebuttal, “How could a teacher possibly discuss slavery, the Holocaust, or the mass shootings at the Walmart in El Paso or at the Sutherland Springs church in my district without giving deference to any one perspective?”

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