Kanawha County Textbook Controversy

Arts & Culture WVPB Staff, Jun. 27, 2024

Annual Report Deadline For State Businesses Looms And 50 Years Since Textbook Controversy On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, there’s a deadline looming for business owners across the state. Tens of thousands of them still haven’t filed their annual reports as required by state law. Assistant News Director Maria Young sat down with Secretary of State Mac Warner – who’s hoping all of them get the job done by midnight Sunday night – just, not all at once.

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Arts & Culture Trey Kay, Jun. 27, 2024

Us & Them Remembrance — 50 Years Ago: Reflecting On A Pivotal Kanawha County Board Of Education Meeting

Fifty years ago, June 27, 1974, the Kanawha County Board of Education set off a chapter of the nation’s culture wars as it debated whether to purchase a controversial series of new textbooks. The meeting room was packed and emotions were hot.

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Arts & Culture Trey Kay +, Jun. 26, 2024

Revisiting The Great Textbook War

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.

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Arts & Culture Trey Kay +, Dec. 13, 2023

Us & Them: Bidding Farewell To My Unlikely Friend, Alice Moore

Sometimes friendships show up when we don’t expect them. That was true of Us & Them host Trey Kay’s friendship with Alice Moore — a conservative Christian county school board member, who sparked a turbulent textbook controversy in Kay’s home county back in the 1970s. Kay and Moore saw education, religion, homosexuality and Trump very differently, but were still dear friends.

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