Texas Educators Will Call It ‘Involuntary Relocation’ Under New Plan

Topline

Texas educators proposed the Texas State Board of Educators teach slavery as “involuntary relocation” in second-grade classrooms – the latest attempt from Republican lawmakers to downplay the horrors of slavery and create curriculum seen as more patriotic.

Texas educators proposed the Texas State Board of Educators teach slavery as “involuntary … [+] relocation.”(Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

The Texas State Board of Educators will consider the proposal – which proponents argue would ease students’ feelings of “discomfort” – this summer, and take a final vote in November.

The proposal follows proposed changes across the country to change the way slavery is taught in public schools, including a Louisiana bill – which ultimately died in committee – that would require public schools and universities to teach the “good, the bad” and the “ugly” of slavery and ban lessons on “divisive concepts.”

It comes seven months after Oklahoma lawmakers filed a bill that would allow teachers to be fired for saying the U.S. is “fundamentally racist.”

A similar Tennessee law allows “impartial instruction” on topics of historical oppression, and prohibits any teaching promoting the idea that a “meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist” or “designed by a particular race or sex to oppress members of another race or sex.”

The proposal also follows an initiative created by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves in November 2020 for a $3 million “Patriotic Education Fund” to combat what it claims is revisionist history, a response to The New York Times publication of the 1619 Project – a journalism initiative that reconsiders the legacy of slavery.

Teachers in Florida this week said they were “alarmed” with new civics training from Gov. Ron DeSantis that reportedly downplayed slavery and claimed the slave trade is often portrayed as bigger than it actually was – less than the 12.5 million estimated to have been taken from Africa, according to PBS.

Key Background

The 1619 Project claims to “reframe the country’s history by balancing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans” at the center of the country’s narrative. In addition to praise, the project has also sparked criticism from Republican lawmakers and some history scholars alike who disagreed with some of it’s arguments. In July 2020, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton filed legislation called the “Saving American History Act” to prevent federal funds from being used to teach lessons out of the “1619 Project,” which he called “racially divisive and revisionist.” Former President Donald Trump created the 1776 Commission in an executive order late into his presidency to promote “patriotic education,” in response to the project. In a January 2021 statement, the commission wrote “the Civil Rights Movement was almost immediately turned to programs that ran counter to the lofty ideals of the founders.” Biden disbanded it in one of his first executive orders in office.

Tangent

A 2018 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center using student and teacher surveys found most students are taught about slavery in fragments, without context, and in some cases, in a sanitized or sentimentalized way. The report also found less than 8% of students knew why Southern states seceded from the Union.

Chief Critic

Aicha Davis, a Texas Democrat on the Board of Educators, told the Texas Tribune the proposed changes are not a “fair representation” of the slave trade, saying she “can’t say what their intention was, but that’s not going to be acceptable.”

Big Number

4,800. That’s how many K-12 teachers and college educators who have started or plan to use lesson plans outlined in the 1619 Project, according to the Associated Press.

Texas Educators Will Call It ‘Involuntary Relocation’ Under New Plan—And Here’s Where Else It’s Happening