Texas stops teaching that Ku Klux Klan was morally wrong

The requirement was voted down in a bill that scraps guidelines on lessons about the civil rights struggle.

Texas authorities won’t teach that that Ku Klux Klan was morally wrong.

A requirement for schools in Texas to teach that the Ku Klux Klan was “morally wrong” has been voted down in a bill that scraps guidelines on history lessons about the civil rights struggle.

In the latest round of US classroom culture wars, the legislation seeks to prevent the teaching of critical race theory, an approach to American history asserting that racism is baked into the country’s culture and institutions.

Although it is not thought to be widely taught in schools, Republican legislatures are leading a backlash to prevent it spreading from universities into the nation’s classrooms.

The measures being targeted in Texas were signed into law only last month by Greg Abbott, the Republican governor, and were inserted into education legislation by Democratic members.

They included a requirement to teach specific historical moments and documents such as the “history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong”.

Members of the Ku Klux Klan protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Picture: AFP.

Other mandatory subjects included “women’s suffrage and equal rights”; Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the “I Have a Dream” speech; and “the works of Susan B Anthony”, a 19th-century social reformer.

The law was passed with Republican votes, but they now say that it was too prescriptive and the Republican-led state senate voted by 18-4 to send a new bill to the lower chamber, which is in limbo after Democrats fled the state to stop a quorum being reached on controversial voting reforms.

The new bill includes general requirements that pupils learn about “the history and importance of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964” as well as several amendments to the constitution relating to equality after the Civil War and the right for women to vote.

It proposes the removal of a portion of the earlier law requiring that students be taught “about the writings of and about the founding fathers and mothers and other founding persons of the United States” which included the writings of women such as Sally Hemings and Ona Judge. It requires that instruction covers “the writings of the founding fathers of the United States”.

Bryan Hughes, the bill’s author, said: “What we’re doing with this bill, we’re saying that a specific reading list doesn’t belong in statute.” That was a task for the state’s board of education. “Not just politicians but teachers and parents and administrators have a say in that process,” Hughes said.

The new bill still includes a section barring teachers from requiring “an understanding” of The New York Times’s 1619 Project, which recast US history from the perspective of the first slaves, rather than the declaration of independence in 1776. It is seen as a core plank of critical race theory.

Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor, said 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”.

The Times