West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Revisiting The Great Textbook War

Trey Kay
A graphic that reads, "Us & Them: Revisiting the Great Textbook War." The background is gray and features the WVPB logo. To the right of the graphic is a black and white photo of a woman sitting with a protest sign that reads, "I have a 'Bible,' I don't need those dirty books."

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Read the companion piece to this episode from Us & Them Host Trey Kay.

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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At the pivotal meeting on June 27, 1974, Kanawha County School Board member Alice Moore reviews transcripts as protesters watch through the board office auditorium windows. 

“I almost think that Kanawha County was a test case. This was happening in different places around the country, but I wonder if they didn’t think they could come into West Virginia… that these were backward, uneducated people. They could come into this little state; they could do whatever they wanted to and nobody was going to question them.”

— Alice Moore

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
Black power leader Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice was one of the leading sources of controversy.

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A parent expresses her frustration over the adopted books outside of the Kanawha County Board of Education building.

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
A young girl succinctly summarizes the bottom line of the 1974 Kanawha County textbook protest.

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
The Rev. Marvin Horan, shown here at a November 1974 rally, was the most prominent person to serve significant jail time for his role in the protests. He served three years for conspiring to “damage and destroy two schools.”

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
The American flag was an ever-present symbol at nearly every anti-textbook gathering. The Rev. Avis Hill is shown here speaking outside the school board office.

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
Miners buck the will of their union leaders and join the textbook boycott.

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
A line of textbook protesters picket outside Midway Elementary School in Campbells Creek, W.Va.

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
On Nov. 9, 1974, protesters take to the streets the day after the school board reinstates the books.

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
Textbook supporters pointed to the apparent contradictions between the violence and the protesters’ religious beliefs.

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
West Virginia State Trooper D. N. Miller’s cruiser was shot by a sniper on Nov. 13, 1974 while escorting a school bus.

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
Klansman Dale Reusch attends a January 1975 anti-textbook rally on the steps of the West Virginia Capitol; the Rev. Marvin Horan is holding the umbrella.

Photo Credit: Charleston Newspapers
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