Texas Senate Removes Requirement to Tell Students That the KKK Are 'Morally Wrong'

The move is one of about two dozen curricula that are being removed from requirements. 

By Christian Spencer 

July 20, 2021

Teaching about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the accomplishments of labor leader and leftist activist Cesar Chavez, the writings of women’s suffragist movement leader Susan B. Anthony and Native American history will also not be required.

The Senate Texas Bill is a response to critical race theory, specifically The New York Times’ controversial "1619 Project."

Democrats say it “ties teachers’ hands.”

In a bill that just passed the state’s Senate, Texas public school students would no longer be required to learn about the Ku Klux Klan or that the group’s white supremacy is “morally wrong.”

In the Republican-controlled state, two dozen curricula that were once required in public schools, like teaching about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the accomplishments of labor leader and leftist activist Cesar Chavez, the writings of women’s suffragist movement leader Susan B. Anthony and Native American history, are no longer required staples of Texas education, according to The Huffington Post.

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The latest Senate Bill 3 passed last Friday, it was reported on Bloomberg Law, is seemingly a response to critical race theory, specifically The New York Times’ controversial "1619 Project."

As Changing America previously reported, critical race theory is an academic concept based on the premise that race is a social construct and the U.S. legal system is inherently racist. Created by Pulitzer prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, the 1619 project is an attempt to "reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative," according to New York Times itself. 

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick praised the legislation for rejecting "philosophies that espouse that one race or sex is better than another."

The language of the bill specifically mirrors other critical race theory preventable measures presented by a Texas Republican House Bill, H.B. 3979. Teachers cannot "be compelled" to discuss current events or "controversial issue[s] of public policy or social affairs" and that if they do, they can’t give "deference to any one perspective."

However, state Democrats say the measure "tie[s] the hands of our teachers," state Sen. Judith Zaffirini said on the new bill.

"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?" she asked.