Fifty years ago this month, the Kanawha County School Board approved new multicultural textbooks. Violent protests followed when some parents said the books undermined their beliefs. During a summer of unrest, boycotts shut down businesses. And in the fall, thousands of families kept their children home from school. The textbook war made national headlines, created a launching pad for the new right political movement and placed school boards at the heart of the culture wars.
Fifty years ago this month, a fierce controversy erupted over newly adopted school textbooks in Kanawha County, West Virginia.
The fight led to violent protests in the state. Dynamite hit vacant school buildings. Bullets hit empty school buses. And protesting miners forced some coal mines to shut down — because of the new multicultural textbooks.
The classroom material focused on an increasingly global society, introducing students to the languages and ideas of diverse cultures. The material was an affront to many Christian social conservatives who felt the books undermined traditional American values. They saw their religion replaced by another belief system: secular humanism.
Many of those frustrations boiled over in Kanawha County in the summer of 1974.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, CRC Foundation and Daywood Foundation.
This episode was honored with George Foster Peabody, Edward R. Murrow and Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards.
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