1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:04,960 Speaker 1: Cool Media. 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:08,039 Speaker 2: I'm Michael Phillips. I wrote a history of racism in 3 00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:11,680 Speaker 2: Dallas called White Metropolis, and have co authored an upcoming 4 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 2: book on the history of eugenics in Texas called The 5 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 2: Purifying Knife. 6 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:20,440 Speaker 3: And I'm Stephen Monticelli, an investigative reporter and columnist who 7 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:24,080 Speaker 3: covers extremism and far right movements for a variety of publications, 8 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 3: including The Texas Observer and The Barbed Wire. 9 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:31,600 Speaker 2: School board meetings used to be boring. Board members typically 10 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:37,199 Speaker 2: spend hours discussing financial reports, land purchases, plumbing contracts, and 11 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 2: other tedious topics. But beginning in twenty twenty, Christopher Ruffo, 12 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 2: a former documentary filmmaker and fellow at the right wing 13 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 2: Heritage Foundation, the group responsible for Project twenty twenty five, 14 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:54,320 Speaker 2: launched a campaign to convince Americans that public schools have 15 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 2: become communists and doctrination centers. RUFO falsely claimed that public 16 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 2: school teachres were brainwashing school children with something called critical 17 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 2: race theory or CRT for short. Adherents of critical race 18 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:13,080 Speaker 2: theory argue that racism has become so intrinsically entwined in 19 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:17,640 Speaker 2: American politics, law, and culture that anti discrimination laws typically 20 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 2: fail While CRT is studied in some graduate schools and 21 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,559 Speaker 2: law programs, it hasn't been taught at the grade school level, 22 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 2: where the outrage has been directed. 23 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 3: That's certainly not the case in Texas, which influences curriculums 24 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 3: across the nation due to its large population and purchasing 25 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:41,160 Speaker 3: power of textbooks. But precision wasn't the point of Rufo's campaign. Rather, 26 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 3: it was to refashion CRT into a sort of political cudgel, 27 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:48,880 Speaker 3: something that Rufo admitted to in a series of tweets 28 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 3: in twenty twenty one. The goal is to have the 29 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:57,240 Speaker 3: public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think critical. 30 00:01:56,880 --> 00:01:58,360 Speaker 4: Race theory, Rufo wrote. 31 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:02,600 Speaker 3: We have decotify the term and will recodify it to 32 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:06,680 Speaker 3: annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular 33 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 3: with Americans. 34 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:08,760 Speaker 4: End quote. 35 00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:13,359 Speaker 3: On Fox News, Newsmax and other right wing media outlets, 36 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 3: Rufo convinced parents that instead of teaching kids reading, writing, 37 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 3: and arithmetic, public school teachers were using CRT to brainwash 38 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:26,639 Speaker 3: white children into hating themselves and goading black children into 39 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:30,760 Speaker 3: hating white people. Radical teachers and professors, Rufo warned, had 40 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 3: launched a sinister campaign to destroy the American way of life. 41 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 5: In a foundational paper called Whiteness's Property, the critical race 42 00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:44,080 Speaker 5: theorist Cheryl Harris has proposed suspending private property rights, seizing 43 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:46,640 Speaker 5: land and wealth from the rich and redistributing it along 44 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 5: racial lines. 45 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 2: Rufa's timing could not have been more perfect. The artificial 46 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:57,120 Speaker 2: CRT panic broke out during the COVID pandemic. Parents already 47 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 2: felt frustration and fury about the hard ships of campus closings, 48 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:06,240 Speaker 2: remote learning, and mass mandates, now convinced that their children 49 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 2: were being taught to scapegoat white people for all the 50 00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:13,639 Speaker 2: country's problems. Parents across the country exploded in rage at 51 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 2: local school boards. Reuters reported on one meaning that turned 52 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 2: violent in Loudon County, Virginia. 53 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,520 Speaker 6: What had been planned as a typical school board meeting 54 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:34,080 Speaker 6: in Virginia's wealthy Louden County this week devolved into pandemonium, 55 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 6: with hundreds of parents flooding an auditorium to accuse the 56 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 6: school system of teaching their kids that racism in America 57 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:45,280 Speaker 6: is structural and systemic, something the school board denies as 58 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 6: part of the curriculum. Things got so heated that the 59 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:52,240 Speaker 6: board members eventually walked out leaving the police to deal 60 00:03:52,280 --> 00:04:00,920 Speaker 6: with the unruly crowd. Two people left in handcuffs. Louden 61 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 6: County School Board has been roiled for months by accusations 62 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 6: that it has embraced critical race theory, a school of 63 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:11,560 Speaker 6: thought that maintains that racism is ingrained in US law 64 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:15,960 Speaker 6: and institutions, and that legacies of slavery and segregation have 65 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:20,600 Speaker 6: created an uneven playing field for black Americans. The idea 66 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:24,920 Speaker 6: that CRT, as it's known, is infiltrating public schools has 67 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 6: become a rallying cry for conservatives, who, like many in Louden, 68 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,640 Speaker 6: say it is being used to indoctrinate children that America 69 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:34,000 Speaker 6: is a racist country. 70 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 7: Critical race theory is anti white, and it's not American. 71 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,120 Speaker 3: Those within a year for historical rhymes may find this 72 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:47,119 Speaker 3: outcry familiar. Resistance to racial integration and the Civil rights 73 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,560 Speaker 3: era movements drew similar accusations of being hostile to whites 74 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 3: and being a product of anti American communism, and those 75 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 3: with experienced teaching students might chuckle at the accusations of 76 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 3: ideologically motivated brainwas an indoctrination. A common joke posted by 77 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 3: teachers online is that quote, if we could indoctrinate students. 78 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 3: Students would always read the syllabus, but that didn't stop 79 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:16,679 Speaker 3: panic over CRT expanding to include anti LGBTQ sentiment as well, 80 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:20,359 Speaker 3: with queer students and teachers who supported them being placed 81 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:23,479 Speaker 3: squarely in the crosshairs of a well funded national hate 82 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 3: machine dedicated to ginning up fear among local parents. Here's 83 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:31,600 Speaker 3: a clip from one speech I personally witnessed at the 84 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:35,440 Speaker 3: school board meeting of my hometown school district, grape Vine Kullyville, 85 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:38,800 Speaker 3: from August twenty twenty two, and very simple truths. 86 00:05:38,839 --> 00:05:41,840 Speaker 8: There's only two genders, and boys should go to boys rooms, 87 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:45,800 Speaker 8: girls should go to girls' restrooms. And guess what teachers 88 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:49,599 Speaker 8: should be forced to use Your freaking made up fantasy. 89 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:53,840 Speaker 9: Pronouns find like hall hold the line against the LGBT 90 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 9: mafia and their dang pedo fans hate winning. You know what, 91 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,240 Speaker 9: keep the wing they you keep the monkey cocks. 92 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:04,080 Speaker 10: How's that work? 93 00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:04,200 Speaker 11: It? 94 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,440 Speaker 10: The keep wrings so much, We'll keep come. 95 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:08,679 Speaker 8: You know what, We're. 96 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:09,839 Speaker 5: Gonna keeck come so hard. 97 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:12,640 Speaker 9: The only thing these bullcards have to figure out is 98 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 9: whiler tell their face back one thighs. Wow, it's all. 99 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:22,400 Speaker 3: As absurd as all this may seem there was something 100 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 3: to this national phenomenon that was rooted in reality. As 101 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:29,599 Speaker 3: of twenty twenty, the United States had become more culturally diverse, 102 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:34,280 Speaker 3: racially integrated, and accepting of LGBTQ people than ever before, 103 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:39,000 Speaker 3: and our education systems have increasingly reflected that reality. There's 104 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:42,560 Speaker 3: also a deep irony to this reaction. Prior to the 105 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:45,560 Speaker 3: advances of the Civil Rights era and beyond, schools in 106 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:49,560 Speaker 3: the United States have often been the centers of ideologically 107 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:54,040 Speaker 3: motivated education, but not the fantasy Bolshevik propaganda that outrages 108 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:57,279 Speaker 3: the right. In fact, it's usually been the opposite. For 109 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 3: most of its history, American public schools have effectively advanced 110 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:07,040 Speaker 3: white supremacy, female subordination, and submission to capitalism. In this episode, 111 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 3: we're going to look at what has actually been taught 112 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,400 Speaker 3: in American schools over the years, with a particular focus 113 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:15,720 Speaker 3: in Texas, and how what you learn about American history 114 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 3: depends on where you live and how Christian supremacists are 115 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 3: successfully inserting their theology into school curriculums in much of 116 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,080 Speaker 3: the country, with Texas playing a leading role. 117 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:30,800 Speaker 2: Textbooks before the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties Civil Rights 118 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:36,920 Speaker 2: era were explicitly and astonishingly white supremacists. Schoolbooks in the South, 119 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 2: for instance, portrayed Confederates as gallant gentlemen fighting for a 120 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 2: noble loss cause. This influenced popular culture, as we see 121 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 2: in films like Gone with the Wind. Meanwhile, school kids 122 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:51,040 Speaker 2: were taught that abolitionists who wanted to end slavery before 123 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:54,840 Speaker 2: the Civil War were terrorists who needlessly plunged the country 124 00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 2: into civil war, and this too steeped into the public 125 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:02,560 Speaker 2: imagination of movies like NFA Trail starring Van Heflin. 126 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:06,040 Speaker 12: The time is coming when the rest of us are 127 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:08,320 Speaker 12: going to wipe you, and you're kind off the face 128 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:08,920 Speaker 12: of the earth. 129 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:16,560 Speaker 2: According to the myths promoted first in schools then echoed 130 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:20,440 Speaker 2: in mass entertainment, slavery would have gone away eventually if 131 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,320 Speaker 2: only white slave owning Southerners had been left alone to 132 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:27,560 Speaker 2: figure it out themselves. Screenplaywriters have often echoed what they 133 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:29,800 Speaker 2: heard in the classroom is we see In this scene 134 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:33,959 Speaker 2: from the nineteen forty film Santa Fe Trail. Here Raymond 135 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,360 Speaker 2: Massey plays John Brown, a white abolitionist who tried to 136 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 2: start a slave rebellion Harper's Ferry Virginia in eighteen fifty nine. 137 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:46,840 Speaker 2: Massey portrays him as a thoroughly crazed maniac, while Aero 138 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:50,800 Speaker 2: Flynn depicts future Confederate General J. E. B. Stewart as 139 00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:52,000 Speaker 2: sweetly rational. 140 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:54,360 Speaker 12: Half of the people in America believe in your theory, 141 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:57,560 Speaker 12: A lot of them, even Condonia methods that'll guarantee you 142 00:08:57,600 --> 00:08:58,360 Speaker 12: a public trial. 143 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:02,640 Speaker 13: I'm not on trial, but the nation itself? 144 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:06,000 Speaker 12: Are you too stupid and blinded by. 145 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:07,640 Speaker 14: A uniform to see what I see? 146 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:11,200 Speaker 12: A dark and evil curse laying all over this land? 147 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:16,120 Speaker 15: A kind will sin against God can only be wiped 148 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:16,760 Speaker 15: out in blood? 149 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:20,000 Speaker 12: But why in blood? The people of Virginia are considered 150 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:23,040 Speaker 12: a resolution to abolic slavery for a long time. They 151 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:25,840 Speaker 12: sense that the tomorrow wrong, and the rest of the 152 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:29,200 Speaker 12: South will follow Virginia's example. All I ask is time. 153 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 3: From the eighteen eighties until the nineteen sixties, school books 154 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:38,439 Speaker 3: depicted the country's only brief experiment with multiracial democracy at 155 00:09:38,440 --> 00:09:42,080 Speaker 3: the time, the Reconstruction period from eighteen sixty five to 156 00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 3: eighteen seventy seven, as a time of rampant corruption. These 157 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:51,160 Speaker 3: books often described emancipated African Americans as ignorant lazy and 158 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:56,240 Speaker 3: expecting government handouts, while their white allies were portrayed as crooks. 159 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:00,559 Speaker 2: American school children furthermore learned from their teacher that so 160 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:04,760 Speaker 2: called radical democracy was not a good idea, and sometimes 161 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:09,040 Speaker 2: dictatorship was the better option. The nineteen twenty four textbook 162 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:12,920 Speaker 2: Are World Today and Yesterday, a History of Modern Civilization, 163 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:17,600 Speaker 2: published two years after Mussolini's fascist government took over Italy, 164 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 2: had nothing but praise for that nation's new dictator. The 165 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,480 Speaker 2: authors told the impressionable high school students the following about 166 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:27,199 Speaker 2: the world's first fascist leader. 167 00:10:27,679 --> 00:10:31,320 Speaker 16: Mussolini has chosen a ministry made up of capable men 168 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:35,360 Speaker 16: and has straightened up the badly demoralized finances of the country. 169 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 16: He and his followers are accused of suppressing liberty and 170 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:44,600 Speaker 16: downing the communists by violence. Nevertheless, he has done much 171 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,280 Speaker 16: to do away with strikes and to re establish conditions 172 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:53,000 Speaker 16: as they were before the economic demoralization of World War 173 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:55,560 Speaker 16: One set in again. 174 00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:58,880 Speaker 3: School books reinforced an American culture in the nineteen twenties 175 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:02,199 Speaker 3: that responded to the horror of World War One, labor unrest, 176 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:05,240 Speaker 3: and the impact of immigration by becoming not only more 177 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:08,440 Speaker 3: intolerant but also more anti democratic. 178 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:13,120 Speaker 15: All the while, Mussolini's propaganda machine churned out images of 179 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:16,840 Speaker 15: a thriving country and a via leader Iluch stripped down 180 00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:20,120 Speaker 15: for the camera bok side by side with the peasants 181 00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:23,920 Speaker 15: and wrestled wild animals. Never mind that this one had 182 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:29,760 Speaker 15: no teeth. Nonetheless, it was working. Mussolini attracted fans worldwide, 183 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:35,120 Speaker 15: including Thomas Edison, Sigmund Freud, and Mohandas Gandhi. Here he 184 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:39,840 Speaker 15: speaks to his many supporters among Italian Americans, I. 185 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:44,520 Speaker 17: Tell it the Italians of America, who I want to 186 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:45,880 Speaker 17: make America greed. 187 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:50,880 Speaker 2: Another textbook, published in nineteen thirty five, The Record of America, 188 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:54,559 Speaker 2: told stins that the so called Founding fathers like Alexander 189 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:58,640 Speaker 2: Hamilton were not big believers in democracy, an attitude the 190 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:02,319 Speaker 2: authors seemed to endorse. As the Record of America put it. 191 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:05,800 Speaker 16: The Founders had little faith in the ability of people 192 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:09,720 Speaker 16: as a whole to maintain self control and wisdom in government. 193 00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:14,440 Speaker 16: They had no confidence in the man without property. A 194 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:18,280 Speaker 16: man who had failed to accumulate property would be regarded 195 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:23,199 Speaker 16: as shiftless, lazy, or incompetent, and not deserving a voice 196 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:28,120 Speaker 16: in the government of others. The Constitution was written to 197 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:32,200 Speaker 16: retain power in the hands of those who release radical 198 00:12:32,559 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 16: and to set obstacles in the way of radical mob action. 199 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 3: After the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties civil rights movements, 200 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:43,880 Speaker 3: history textbooks for the first time covered the horrors of slavery, 201 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:48,000 Speaker 3: the heroism of African American abolitionists like Surgeon or truth 202 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:50,520 Speaker 3: in Frederick Douglas, and the evils of the Ku Klux 203 00:12:50,559 --> 00:12:56,400 Speaker 3: Klan with clarity. But the backlash was swift, particularly after 204 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 3: the election of the first African American president, Barack Obama 205 00:13:00,280 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 3: and the rise of the hyper conservative Tea Party. 206 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:14,520 Speaker 4: In response, in twenty ten. 207 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 3: Tea Party supporters took control of the Texas State school Board, 208 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:23,240 Speaker 3: which has control over Texas school book curriculums. They felt 209 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:27,440 Speaker 3: that this reckoning with America's racist past undermined patriotism and 210 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:29,840 Speaker 3: demanded a rewrite of school lesson plans. 211 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:33,760 Speaker 2: In twenty fifteen, Ronnie Dean Baron got a text from 212 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,960 Speaker 2: her son Kobe, who was glancing at a ninth grade geography 213 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:40,800 Speaker 2: textbook published by McGraw hill signed him by his high 214 00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:45,000 Speaker 2: school in Perilyn, Texas, near Houston. He sent her a 215 00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:50,000 Speaker 2: video highlighting a map in its shocking caption. Soon Burn 216 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:55,640 Speaker 2: posted her son's video online. That video, as KPRC reported, 217 00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:57,600 Speaker 2: spread outrage across the nation. 218 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:01,040 Speaker 17: A video post on Ronnie Dean Buren's face book page. 219 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:02,560 Speaker 3: So I'm going to show you the book and then 220 00:14:02,559 --> 00:14:04,160 Speaker 3: there's just an interesting. 221 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,280 Speaker 17: Section, went viral. Her video has been viewed more than 222 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:10,800 Speaker 17: one point eight million times and has forty eight thousand shares. 223 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:14,440 Speaker 17: To get to the topic of conversation, you literally have 224 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:18,160 Speaker 17: to turn through the pages of her son's geography textbook. 225 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:20,320 Speaker 1: The immigration in the United States can be divided in 226 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 1: four district periods. 227 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:24,280 Speaker 17: Kobe, who's in the ninth grade at Perlin High School, 228 00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:26,880 Speaker 17: was studying immigration when he read this in his textbook, 229 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:31,040 Speaker 17: a comment that referenced African slaves as workers. 230 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:33,360 Speaker 1: As if we worked our way up in America, as 231 00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:36,840 Speaker 1: if we came here by choice for a better life. 232 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:41,240 Speaker 3: The offensive caption read, in full quote, the Atlantic slave 233 00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:44,480 Speaker 3: trade between the fifteen hundreds and the eighteen hundreds brought 234 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:48,640 Speaker 3: millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States 235 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:49,440 Speaker 3: to work. 236 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:51,080 Speaker 4: On agricultural plantations. 237 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,680 Speaker 3: The publisher of the book, simply titled World Geography later 238 00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:59,600 Speaker 3: apologized for the euphemism, noting that it did not adequately 239 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:03,200 Speaker 3: convey that Africans were both forced into migration and to 240 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:06,800 Speaker 3: labor against their will as slaves. The company said it 241 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:09,760 Speaker 3: would revise the digital version of the text and future 242 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:12,600 Speaker 3: print versions, but it was unclear at the time when 243 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:14,600 Speaker 3: the new edition would be in students' hands. 244 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:18,680 Speaker 2: The caption wasnt an accident. McGraw hill had given the 245 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:22,000 Speaker 2: Stay of Texas what it wanted, rather than anything like 246 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:25,520 Speaker 2: critical race theory. The State Board of Education twenty ten 247 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:29,880 Speaker 2: adopted changes in Texas curriculum standards for public schools, known 248 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:34,400 Speaker 2: as Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills that imposed a whitewash 249 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 2: of American slavery, raised doubts about human caused climate change, 250 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:43,440 Speaker 2: and imposed other right wing content to be sold in 251 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:46,720 Speaker 2: Texas school textbooks had to meet the board's standards. 252 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,440 Speaker 3: Texas State Board of Education members are elected from districts 253 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:53,000 Speaker 3: that tilt the body towards rural parts of the state 254 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:56,800 Speaker 3: and serve four year terms, while the governor appoints the 255 00:15:56,880 --> 00:15:59,200 Speaker 3: chair of the board. Since the beginning of the twenty 256 00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:03,080 Speaker 3: first century, the board has been dominated by Christian right activists. 257 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:05,800 Speaker 3: As a twenty thirteen PBS report. 258 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:09,640 Speaker 7: Deaths Don McElroy has three jobs and he loves them all. 259 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:11,880 Speaker 1: Good morning got to mclary's office. 260 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:17,200 Speaker 7: Job number one dentist, job number two Sunday school teacher, 261 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:21,920 Speaker 7: and job number three member of the Texas State Board 262 00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:25,680 Speaker 7: of Education, a seat he's held for the last twelve years. 263 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:29,800 Speaker 7: But it's that third job which has put this dentist 264 00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:33,360 Speaker 7: and Sunday school teacher from Brian, Texas into a national 265 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:36,720 Speaker 7: debate over what kids are taught in school. Critics have 266 00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:42,040 Speaker 7: accused McLeroy of injecting his religious conservative beliefs into the curriculum. 267 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:46,000 Speaker 7: About every ten years, the board revises the textbook standards 268 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:49,440 Speaker 7: for different subjects. Any books bought by the state must 269 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 7: conform to these guidelines. The last big battle was over 270 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:58,520 Speaker 7: the science standards. This year he's tackling social studies. 271 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:03,359 Speaker 2: The demands Texas makes of textbook publishers matter, as PBS 272 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:04,720 Speaker 2: reported a decade ago. 273 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:09,120 Speaker 7: According to publishing insiders, textbooks are often tailored to fit 274 00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:14,080 Speaker 7: Texas's standards. Because Texas is the largest buyer of textbooks. 275 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:17,639 Speaker 7: That means the choices made here could determine books that 276 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:20,639 Speaker 7: other states will buy, and that's led to a school 277 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:23,040 Speaker 7: fight that has the entire country looking on. 278 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:27,120 Speaker 2: This is how Kobe Burn ended up with the World 279 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:31,360 Speaker 2: Geography textbook that used the word workers to describe chattel slaves. 280 00:17:32,359 --> 00:17:37,280 Speaker 2: Kathy Miller of the anti censorship group Texas Freedom Network said, quote, 281 00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:40,679 Speaker 2: it's no accident that this happened in Texas. We have 282 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:44,600 Speaker 2: a textbook adoption process that's so politicized and so flawed 283 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:49,040 Speaker 2: that's become almost a punchline for comedians. Those serious about 284 00:17:49,119 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 2: education aren't laughing. However, in twenty eighteen, the state board 285 00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:56,879 Speaker 2: removed Hillary Clinton, the first woman to be presidential nominee 286 00:17:56,920 --> 00:17:59,560 Speaker 2: of a major political party, from the list of major 287 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:03,720 Speaker 2: historic figures Texas students must learn about, a decision later 288 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:08,639 Speaker 2: reversed after embarrassing news coverage. In twenty ten, that board 289 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:12,520 Speaker 2: mandated that textbooks depict the Civil War as primarily a 290 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:16,520 Speaker 2: struggle over states' rights and not slavery, a choice that 291 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:20,720 Speaker 2: was later modified in twenty eighteen to return slavery as 292 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:24,240 Speaker 2: the primary cause, but still maintained that quote states rights 293 00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:29,080 Speaker 2: and sexualism were key contributing factors. Approved books still tell 294 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,200 Speaker 2: students that segregated black schools and the Jim Crow Eric 295 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:36,720 Speaker 2: quote had similar buildings, buses, and teachers as white schools, 296 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:40,359 Speaker 2: maintaining a hint of these separate but equal logics that 297 00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:45,399 Speaker 2: upheld segregation. One textbook included cartoon in which a space 298 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:48,159 Speaker 2: alien lands on Earth and asks if he's eligible for 299 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:52,920 Speaker 2: affirmative action programs. Texas standards also misled students into thinking 300 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:56,240 Speaker 2: there was controversy about whether human activity has led to 301 00:18:56,280 --> 00:19:00,000 Speaker 2: climate change and to quote consider all sides of scientist 302 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:04,960 Speaker 2: evidence regarding evolution, even though the scientific consensus in favor 303 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,480 Speaker 2: of fossil fuels trinking climate change and also the scientific 304 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:14,360 Speaker 2: consensus regarding evolution is nearly unanimous. Students can get dramatically 305 00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:18,120 Speaker 2: different versions of American history based on which state they 306 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:22,320 Speaker 2: attend schools. A New York Times comparison textbooks used at 307 00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:26,200 Speaker 2: California Texas show that both versions of the same history 308 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:30,679 Speaker 2: textbook include an annotated Bill of rights in reference to 309 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:34,680 Speaker 2: the Second Amendment. However, the California textbook notes that several 310 00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:39,040 Speaker 2: federal court rulings have allowed regulation of gun sales and ownership. 311 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:42,879 Speaker 2: The Texas version of the same book replaces US commentary 312 00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:47,160 Speaker 2: with a quote blank white space. As The New York Times. 313 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:51,760 Speaker 3: Reported, Texas and California textbooks both introduced students to African 314 00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:55,760 Speaker 3: American authors during the Harlem Renaissance, but only Texas students 315 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 3: are told that quote. Some dismissed the quality of the 316 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:03,920 Speaker 3: literature produced by the Harlem Renaissance. 317 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:06,359 Speaker 2: As The New York Times reported. The California version of 318 00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:09,639 Speaker 2: the history textbook addressed the issue of white flight, the 319 00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 2: phenomena whereby parents moved from cities when schools became integrated 320 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:19,600 Speaker 2: and moved to overwhelmingly Anglo suburbs. The California textbooks said this. 321 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:23,119 Speaker 16: Some people wished to escape the crime and the congestion 322 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:27,000 Speaker 16: of the city. Movement of some white people from cities 323 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:30,920 Speaker 16: to suburbs was driven by a desire to get away 324 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:36,080 Speaker 16: from more culturally diverse neighborhoods. Others believed the suburbs offered 325 00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:38,359 Speaker 16: better and more affordable living. 326 00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:42,119 Speaker 2: The Texas version of the same textbook deleted the sentence 327 00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:45,040 Speaker 2: referring to racism as a motive for white flight, but 328 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:48,800 Speaker 2: left the reference to a fear of crime, reframing what 329 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:52,280 Speaker 2: students learned about why suburbs grew so rapidly after World 330 00:20:52,359 --> 00:20:56,440 Speaker 2: War Two. The Texas State Board also specifically asked one 331 00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:00,679 Speaker 2: textbook publisher demphasized how many clergies signed the Declaration of 332 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:04,919 Speaker 2: Independence and to underscore the supposed importance of religion to 333 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:09,040 Speaker 2: the founders. These particular demands were the result of intense 334 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:13,080 Speaker 2: lobbying by Texas Christian nationalist David Barton. 335 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:18,119 Speaker 3: Barton, a seventy year old lifelong resident of Aledo, Texas, 336 00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:21,399 Speaker 3: which is a small town just southwest of Fort Worth, 337 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,199 Speaker 3: has become a major influence on the Republican Party and 338 00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:29,000 Speaker 3: its attitudes towards education, not just in the Lone Star State, 339 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:33,560 Speaker 3: but across the nation. While reporting on the Conservative Political 340 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:36,679 Speaker 3: Action Conference for Rolling Stone, I recall being given a 341 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,600 Speaker 3: copy of one of Barton's books. He calls himself a historian, 342 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:44,880 Speaker 3: although his only credential is a bachelor's degree in religious 343 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:49,920 Speaker 3: education from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A one 344 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:52,760 Speaker 3: time science and math teacher at a Christian academy in 345 00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:56,280 Speaker 3: his hometown, Barton plunged into politics in nineteen eighty eight 346 00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:59,879 Speaker 3: as a Republican activist with a penchant for homophobia. He 347 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,600 Speaker 3: declared that homosexuality is as evil as any deed Adolf 348 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:07,080 Speaker 3: Hitler committed and said that the lack of cure for 349 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:11,640 Speaker 3: AIDS was God's punishment for a wicked community. Quote, your 350 00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:13,880 Speaker 3: sexual choice is not a God given right, he said 351 00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:14,680 Speaker 3: on one occasion. 352 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:19,920 Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty eight, Barton founded Wall Builders, a nonprofit. 353 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:24,440 Speaker 2: The organization says dedicated to quote educating the nation concerning 354 00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:28,840 Speaker 2: the godly founding of the nation. Barton believes that Americans 355 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:31,160 Speaker 2: have been deceived about the true meaning of the First 356 00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:35,200 Speaker 2: Amendment to the United States Constitution, which declares, quote, Congress 357 00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,640 Speaker 2: shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion. 358 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:43,320 Speaker 2: The Founders, Barton claims, only meant that Congress should pick 359 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:48,399 Speaker 2: a particular Protestant denomination as the national faith. Barton also 360 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:51,720 Speaker 2: argues that Thomas Jefferson meant that the wall of separation 361 00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:55,600 Speaker 2: between church and state should operate only in one direction, 362 00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:59,040 Speaker 2: that the government should not interfere with a religion, but 363 00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:02,560 Speaker 2: that Christians should dominate the government. As Barton said in 364 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:03,800 Speaker 2: an interview. 365 00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:06,240 Speaker 11: So we've got to get away from being scared to 366 00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:08,239 Speaker 11: say we're a Christian nation. What we've got to do 367 00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:09,879 Speaker 11: is to find it the right way, define it the 368 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,840 Speaker 11: historical way. We can't let the left steal three hundred 369 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,040 Speaker 11: years of heritage. We can't let them wipe out three 370 00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,320 Speaker 11: hundred core cases, wipe out what dozens of presents and 371 00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:22,160 Speaker 11: governors have said, simply because they don't like the term, 372 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:23,080 Speaker 11: we are. 373 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:23,760 Speaker 4: A Christian nation. 374 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,320 Speaker 11: We have been a Christian nation, and that doesn't mean 375 00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:30,320 Speaker 11: anything they think it does. We're not theocratic, we're not coercive. 376 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,280 Speaker 11: We believe in free choice. We don't believe in any 377 00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,080 Speaker 11: of the others. And that's what we've got to get 378 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:36,800 Speaker 11: back to doing. We don't need to be ashamed at 379 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:38,840 Speaker 11: all that we're Christians and that we believe we have 380 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:39,560 Speaker 11: a Christian nation. 381 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,399 Speaker 3: The story is much more complicated than Barton says, and 382 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:46,399 Speaker 3: he gets the most important details wrong. Most of the 383 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:50,120 Speaker 3: generation that led the Revolution and wrote the Constitution agreed 384 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:53,320 Speaker 3: with Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, 385 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:58,040 Speaker 3: that when church and state mix, both are harmed. Jefferson 386 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,960 Speaker 3: successfully established separation of church and state in his home 387 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,480 Speaker 3: state of Virginia in seventeen eighty six when it adopted 388 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:08,400 Speaker 3: the Statute of Religious Freedom he authored. The first Amendment, 389 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,480 Speaker 3: adopted in seventeen eighty nine, also banned Congress from quote 390 00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:15,160 Speaker 3: establishing a religion, and most states embraced, to varying degrees, 391 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:17,400 Speaker 3: the doctrine of church state separation. 392 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,879 Speaker 2: There were some states that objected to this notion. The 393 00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:26,240 Speaker 2: state governments of Connecticut and Massachusetts, for instance, initially interpreted 394 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,840 Speaker 2: the First Amendment as meaning only Congress could not establish religion, 395 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,920 Speaker 2: but states could. Citizens of those two states paid taxes 396 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:38,600 Speaker 2: that supported the Congregationalist Church, respectively, until eighteen eighteen. In 397 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,440 Speaker 2: eighteen thirty three, for decades, some states had so called 398 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:46,720 Speaker 2: quote Jew laws that prohibited non Christians from holding office 399 00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:51,800 Speaker 2: or had similar bands on Catholics. Such laws were the exception, however, 400 00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 2: and fell by the wayside by the end of the 401 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:58,320 Speaker 2: nineteenth century. The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in eighteen sixty eight, 402 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:01,600 Speaker 2: placed the same limits on state power that were placed 403 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,879 Speaker 2: on the federal government regarding the establishment of religion, a 404 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,480 Speaker 2: limitation upheld in the nineteen forty seven Supreme Court case. 405 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:11,200 Speaker 2: Ever since versus Board of Education. 406 00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:14,640 Speaker 3: Artin has campaigned to overwrite that history with his own 407 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:19,560 Speaker 3: alternative narrative. Towards that end, he's collected approximately one hundred 408 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:24,320 Speaker 3: thousand primary documents written before eighteen twelve. Based on that 409 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:29,040 Speaker 3: selection of material, he argues that American leaders like Washington, Jefferson, Adams, 410 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,400 Speaker 3: and their peers wanted only Christians to lead the nation. 411 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,640 Speaker 3: And that American law should be based on the Bible. 412 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:39,080 Speaker 2: Barton believes that not just the Bible, but also the 413 00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:44,680 Speaker 2: original United States Constitution, which includes provisions protecting slavery such 414 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:48,840 Speaker 2: as the Three Fifths Compromise, were directly inspired by God. 415 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:53,520 Speaker 2: He asserts, again with no evidence and without defining terms, 416 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,560 Speaker 2: that fifty two of the fifty five signers of the 417 00:25:56,600 --> 00:26:00,640 Speaker 2: Declaration of Independence were, in his words, quote orthodized or 418 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:06,960 Speaker 2: evangelical Christians. In reality, the early leaders of America didn't 419 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:10,359 Speaker 2: speak with one mind regarding religion. Many were deists who 420 00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:13,639 Speaker 2: saw God not as a deity invested in the daily 421 00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:18,080 Speaker 2: lives of humans, but as a dispassionate clockmaker who put 422 00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:21,480 Speaker 2: the gears the universe together, wound it up, and let 423 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,840 Speaker 2: it run on its own. Their God didn't intervene in 424 00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:29,680 Speaker 2: history or perform miracle healings at spiritual revivals. When Ben 425 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:33,000 Speaker 2: Franklin proposed opening the first session the seventeen eighty seven 426 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:37,320 Speaker 2: Constitutional Convention with a prayer, the proposal was voted down, 427 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:41,280 Speaker 2: with only four approving Franklin's motion, and a gathering that 428 00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:44,120 Speaker 2: as many as fifty five attended on any given day. 429 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:48,439 Speaker 3: In their letters, many of the founding fathers scoffed at 430 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,200 Speaker 3: the accuracy of the Bible and the reliability of its 431 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:55,399 Speaker 3: myriad translations. As John Adams said of the Bible. 432 00:26:55,480 --> 00:27:01,240 Speaker 14: In an age when fraud, forgery, and perjury were considered 433 00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:08,040 Speaker 14: as lawful means of propagating truth by philosophers, legislators, and theologians, 434 00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:10,760 Speaker 14: what may not be suspected. 435 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:15,480 Speaker 3: Benjamin Franklin told his friend Ezra Styles that Jesus was 436 00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,399 Speaker 3: a wise philosopher, but that he had personal doubts that 437 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:21,520 Speaker 3: Christ was the son of God. Franklin questioned whether the 438 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:24,400 Speaker 3: depiction of Christ's life or even his teachings as describing 439 00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:25,720 Speaker 3: the Gospels, could be trusted. 440 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:30,119 Speaker 14: As to Jesus of Nazareth, I think the system of 441 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:34,480 Speaker 14: morals and his religion as he left them to us 442 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:37,879 Speaker 14: the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see. 443 00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:43,600 Speaker 14: But I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and 444 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 14: I have doubt with most of the present dissenters in 445 00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:52,080 Speaker 14: England as to his divinity, though it is a question 446 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:56,080 Speaker 14: I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it. 447 00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:00,879 Speaker 3: And Thomas Jefferson, who Barton insists, believe that the American 448 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:03,920 Speaker 3: government should be based on Christian values, was even more 449 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,520 Speaker 3: blunt about a central Christian belief regarding Jesus and his 450 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 3: virgin birth. 451 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:14,119 Speaker 14: Jefferson wrote, Jesus was a man of illegitimate birth, of 452 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:18,800 Speaker 14: a benevolent heart and an enthusiastic mind, who set out 453 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:23,439 Speaker 14: without pretensions of divinity, ended in believing them, and was 454 00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:27,760 Speaker 14: punished capitally for sedition by being gibbeted according to the 455 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:28,440 Speaker 14: Roman law. 456 00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,840 Speaker 2: Barton's books and speeches are filled with misquotes and statements 457 00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:36,840 Speaker 2: attributed to historical figures that no credible scholars have been 458 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,600 Speaker 2: able to find. He cherry picks evidence to Bolster's claims 459 00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:44,400 Speaker 2: about the founder's religious beliefs. Bartin, for instance, made up 460 00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:47,720 Speaker 2: a story that Jefferson started the practice of holding church 461 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:52,239 Speaker 2: services in the US capital. More reputable scholars argue that 462 00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,520 Speaker 2: while there's evidence that Jefferson attended one service held at 463 00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:59,600 Speaker 2: the Capitol building, there's no evidence that he approved them officially. 464 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:04,000 Speaker 2: What's more, Jefferson was far from an orthodox Christian or 465 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,000 Speaker 2: the sort of Christian that dominates conservativism today. He edited 466 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:10,960 Speaker 2: and published The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, 467 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:14,600 Speaker 2: commonly referred to as the Jeffersonian Bible. Which is a 468 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,560 Speaker 2: condensed version of Jesus's teachings from the Bible that excludes 469 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:21,680 Speaker 2: all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, 470 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:25,720 Speaker 2: the resurrection, the raising of the dead, and so on. 471 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,240 Speaker 2: These sort of facts are the subject of Barton's twenty 472 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:34,120 Speaker 2: twenty two New York Times bestseller, ironically titled The Jefferson Lies, 473 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,600 Speaker 2: Exposing the Myths You Always believed about Thomas Jefferson. 474 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:42,440 Speaker 3: For instance, Barton depicted Jefferson as defining the United States 475 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:45,680 Speaker 3: as a Christian nation. Here's the real Jefferson in his 476 00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:49,520 Speaker 3: seventeen eighty five book Notes on the State of Virginia. 477 00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:54,240 Speaker 14: The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only 478 00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:57,840 Speaker 14: as are injurious to others. But it does mean no 479 00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,000 Speaker 14: injury for my neighbor to say that there are twenty 480 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:05,640 Speaker 14: gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor 481 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:06,560 Speaker 14: breaks my leg. 482 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,880 Speaker 3: Barton's book on Jefferson went too far for even some 483 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:14,080 Speaker 3: of Barton's fellow Christian Conservatives. The History News Network website 484 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:17,080 Speaker 3: derided the book as quote the least credible history book 485 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:21,720 Speaker 3: in print. Ten Christian conservative scholars so harshly criticized Barton's 486 00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,800 Speaker 3: book that his publisher withdrew it from circulation because it 487 00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:28,600 Speaker 3: had quote lost confidence in the book's details. Yet, in 488 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:32,600 Speaker 3: spite of the questions regarding its truthfulness, another evangelical publishing 489 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:34,720 Speaker 3: company eventually released a new version. 490 00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:47,920 Speaker 2: In spite of his flexible relationship with the truth, Barton 491 00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:51,720 Speaker 2: is a major player in Republican Party politics. On a podcast, 492 00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,520 Speaker 2: Barton claimed that Republican US House Speaker Mike Johnson consulted 493 00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,840 Speaker 2: with him about staffing at the Capitol. Johnson made his 494 00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 2: speech at a wall building event, telling the audience that 495 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:05,920 Speaker 2: the Theocratic evangelists had quote a profound influence on me, 496 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:09,080 Speaker 2: my work, my life, and everything I do. 497 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:13,440 Speaker 3: Because of Barton's influence, the state of Texas recently okayed 498 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:18,120 Speaker 3: public schools teaching Bible stories to kindergarten children. Former Arkansas 499 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,600 Speaker 3: governor and Republican presidential candidate and Trump's choice to be 500 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,480 Speaker 3: ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, owns the company that designed 501 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:26,360 Speaker 3: those lesson plans. 502 00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:30,240 Speaker 2: Huckabee has long produced so called history videos for school 503 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:33,480 Speaker 2: children that promote Christian nationalism and the idea of the 504 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,000 Speaker 2: United States has a unique relationship with God, such as 505 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,440 Speaker 2: a series aimed at older children called One Nation Under God, 506 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:45,240 Speaker 2: which portrays a revolutionary war soldier and George Washington suggesting 507 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:47,640 Speaker 2: God was on their side. 508 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:51,280 Speaker 7: We will bring the plagues upon our British oppressors, just 509 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:53,640 Speaker 7: as Moses did in ancient Egypt. 510 00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:57,920 Speaker 18: And we will win the same preto. We fight for 511 00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 18: the idea that we can make something right here. God's 512 00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:06,040 Speaker 18: spirit compels us forward, and the times of fighters upon us. 513 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,560 Speaker 3: This video series may not be shown to kindergarteners in Texas, 514 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,680 Speaker 3: but the lessons in the Huckabee Design curriculum clearly favor 515 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 3: a Christian worldview at the expense of other religions. The 516 00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:22,040 Speaker 3: scripture field lessons are not required by state law, but 517 00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:25,160 Speaker 3: the state will reward school districts with extra tax dollars 518 00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:29,520 Speaker 3: per student for teaching Huckaby's product. This is an attractive 519 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:31,680 Speaker 3: offer to the many school districts in Texas that are 520 00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 3: currently filing deficit budgets and struggling to raise revenue. 521 00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:39,920 Speaker 2: Meanwhile, Barton's political and cultural influence has grown exponentially over 522 00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:43,880 Speaker 2: the last decade. One of his political action committees played 523 00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:46,840 Speaker 2: a major role in getting Ted Cruz elected to the 524 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:50,520 Speaker 2: United States Senate. He has close allies with Texas Lieutenant 525 00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:54,680 Speaker 2: Governor Dan Patrick, who wields power typically held by governors 526 00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,960 Speaker 2: and other states. Patrick said this at a twenty twenty 527 00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:01,840 Speaker 2: two Conservative Political Action convention in Dallas about who he 528 00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:03,920 Speaker 2: thinks wrote the US Constitution. 529 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:06,600 Speaker 19: We were a nation founded upon not the words of 530 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:07,880 Speaker 19: our founders, but. 531 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:08,600 Speaker 4: The words of God. 532 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:13,920 Speaker 19: Because he wrote the Constitution, he empowered them. We were 533 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,920 Speaker 19: a Christian state, and we've been blessed because of that 534 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:18,480 Speaker 19: for so many years. 535 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:21,680 Speaker 3: In twenty ten, the Texas State School Board for the 536 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:26,320 Speaker 3: first time required that textbook publishers portray a particular biblical 537 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:31,280 Speaker 3: figure as an honorary founding father. This supposed founder was 538 00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:35,640 Speaker 3: famously portrayed in the nineteen fifty six box office smash 539 00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:39,520 Speaker 3: by Charlton Heston, who later served as a five term 540 00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:42,040 Speaker 3: president of the National Rifle Association. 541 00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:48,000 Speaker 18: Woo unto the you're Israel, you have sinned a great 542 00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:50,240 Speaker 18: sin in the sight of God. 543 00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:56,120 Speaker 12: You are not worthy to receive these ten commandments. 544 00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,959 Speaker 2: In Texas, regardless of a lack of evidence, textbook publisher 545 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,800 Speaker 2: are required to tell students that Moses, the prophet depicted 546 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:07,120 Speaker 2: in Judeo Christian scripture as well as the Qur'an, as 547 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,520 Speaker 2: leading the Hebrews out of slavery was a major influence 548 00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:14,800 Speaker 2: on the authors of the Constitution. Furthermore, under Barton's influence, 549 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,720 Speaker 2: the state of Louisiana enacted a law in June twenty 550 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,160 Speaker 2: twenty four which requires every public school classroom in the 551 00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:25,080 Speaker 2: state to prominently display a version of the Ten Commandments 552 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,840 Speaker 2: from the Book of Exodus, derived from Protestant translations of 553 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:32,480 Speaker 2: the Bible. This past November, a federal court issued an 554 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:34,960 Speaker 2: injuction barring enforcement of the law. 555 00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:39,120 Speaker 3: With Barton's encouragement, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick fought to get 556 00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 3: a similar bill passed in Texas that would have required 557 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:45,600 Speaker 3: every classroom to feature a display of the Ten Commandments 558 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,120 Speaker 3: at least sixteen inches wide and twenty inches tall, and, 559 00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:51,759 Speaker 3: as the law put it, quote in a size and 560 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,840 Speaker 3: typeface that is legible to a person with average vision 561 00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:58,600 Speaker 3: from anywhere in the classroom. The bill passed the state 562 00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,719 Speaker 3: Senate with unanimous Republican support, but died when it didn't 563 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:04,840 Speaker 3: come before the Texas House in time for a legislative deadline. 564 00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:09,640 Speaker 3: As KVUE in Austin reported, Patrick has vowed to continue 565 00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:11,440 Speaker 3: his crusade in the coming months. 566 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:15,080 Speaker 20: Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick resurrecting a bill to force 567 00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:18,799 Speaker 20: public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. 568 00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:23,200 Speaker 20: That bill was originally proposed during last year's legislative session, 569 00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:25,960 Speaker 20: but missed a key deadline and died in the House. 570 00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:30,800 Speaker 20: Louisiana just passed a similar law this week, the Lieutenant 571 00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:34,400 Speaker 20: governor posting on x saying quote, Texas would have and 572 00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:37,360 Speaker 20: should have been the first state in the nation to 573 00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:41,000 Speaker 20: put the Ten Commandments back in our schools end quote. 574 00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:43,799 Speaker 20: The Lieutenant Governor says he will pass the bill during 575 00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:45,640 Speaker 20: the next legislative session. 576 00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:49,840 Speaker 3: Under the Ten Commandments bill, moral codes from other major 577 00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:53,000 Speaker 3: world religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism would not be 578 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:56,760 Speaker 3: posted in classrooms, presenting a clear case of a state 579 00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:00,720 Speaker 3: government violating the First Amendment. Princeton Histori and Kevin Cruz 580 00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:04,080 Speaker 3: explained by such laws like those signed by Louisiana or 581 00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,480 Speaker 3: Governor Jeff Landry ignore the United States Constitution. 582 00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,680 Speaker 13: There are three references to religion and the Constitution. All 583 00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:15,200 Speaker 13: three are ones that keep religion at arm's length away 584 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:18,360 Speaker 13: from the state. There is no religious tests required for 585 00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:22,080 Speaker 13: office forms. A remarkable revolutionary act at the time, the 586 00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:26,160 Speaker 13: First amendment says there will be no national religion established 587 00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:29,080 Speaker 13: by the national government. Says that we will not interfere 588 00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:31,600 Speaker 13: with your private right to worship or not worship as 589 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:34,200 Speaker 13: you see fit. Right, that is what the Constitution says. 590 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:36,279 Speaker 13: And so Landry says he wanted to put this up 591 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,520 Speaker 13: because Moses was the first lawgiver. 592 00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:39,120 Speaker 12: He's not. 593 00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:43,480 Speaker 13: The Code of Hamerabi predates Moses by four centuries or something. 594 00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:45,960 Speaker 13: But also, if you want to look at the real 595 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 13: law of the land, put the Constitution up on those walls. 596 00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:52,160 Speaker 13: Let students read what the real law of this country 597 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,440 Speaker 13: has to say about the proper role of religion in politics. 598 00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:59,880 Speaker 2: The history of posting Ten Commandments signs or plaques are 599 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,200 Speaker 2: building such monuments in public spaces over the last seventy 600 00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:06,479 Speaker 2: years has an origin that might shock many right wing 601 00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:12,200 Speaker 2: cultural warriors who associate Hollywood with godless liberalism. As Cruise 602 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,799 Speaker 2: points out in this book One Nation Under God, How 603 00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:19,600 Speaker 2: Corporate America invented Christian America. The three hour, forty minute 604 00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:22,960 Speaker 2: epic movie The Ten Commandments was a monster hit and 605 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:26,840 Speaker 2: wild audiences with its twenty five thousand member cast and 606 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:30,680 Speaker 2: advanced special effects when it was released in nineteen fifty six, 607 00:37:31,680 --> 00:37:35,279 Speaker 2: The movie grossed more than eighty five million dollars. The 608 00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:40,440 Speaker 2: film's politically conservative subtext was unmistakable. The director Cecil B. 609 00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:43,560 Speaker 2: De Mel hated the New Deal and testified to the 610 00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:48,440 Speaker 2: House un American Activities Committee that communists exercised malign influence 611 00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:51,839 Speaker 2: over unions, including those in Hollywood, that drove up the 612 00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:52,960 Speaker 2: cost of filmmaking. 613 00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:55,920 Speaker 3: The film can be read as a metaphor about the 614 00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:59,400 Speaker 3: Cold War, with the oppressive Egyptians representing the Soviet Union 615 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,480 Speaker 3: and the freedom loving Hebrews standing in for the United States. 616 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:06,200 Speaker 3: At the beginning of the movie, Demill appears and calls 617 00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:09,000 Speaker 3: the movie quote the story of the Birth of Freedom, 618 00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:13,640 Speaker 3: the story of Moses. The movie also captures the racism 619 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,960 Speaker 3: and ironically, the anti semitism of a country that had 620 00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:21,600 Speaker 3: not yet emerged from McCarthyism. The historian Alan Nadell tells 621 00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:25,040 Speaker 3: a revealing story of two cast members in The Ten Commandments. 622 00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:28,160 Speaker 3: According to the story, during the film's production, Charlton Heston's 623 00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:31,640 Speaker 3: wife became pregnant. Demill then told Heston that if his 624 00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:34,160 Speaker 3: wife gave birth to a boy, the child would be 625 00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:35,800 Speaker 3: cast as the baby Moses. 626 00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:37,800 Speaker 4: When Heston's wife gave. 627 00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:38,560 Speaker 14: Birth to a son. 628 00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:42,880 Speaker 3: Demill sent her a telegram saying congratulations, He's got the part. 629 00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:47,080 Speaker 2: Meanwhile, an adult actor, Woody Strode, appeared in the film 630 00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:51,200 Speaker 2: in two markedly different roles. A former NFL star who 631 00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:54,920 Speaker 2: broke the thirteen year informal NFL ban on African American 632 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:57,560 Speaker 2: players when he signed with the Los Angeles Rams in 633 00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:01,200 Speaker 2: nineteen forty six, stro played both in an Ethiopian king 634 00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:06,120 Speaker 2: and the enslaved attendant of Moses's adopted Egyptian mother. Demill 635 00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:09,920 Speaker 2: thought that the audiences could tell whether swaddled white baby 636 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:12,799 Speaker 2: was a boy or a girl, but apparently assumed they 637 00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:15,440 Speaker 2: wouldn't notice a black actor playing both a king and 638 00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:18,600 Speaker 2: a slave because of the racist belief that all black 639 00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:22,520 Speaker 2: people look alike. Meanwhile, a movie set in ancient Egypt 640 00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:26,840 Speaker 2: and the Sinai Peninsula featured an almost entirely light skinned cast. 641 00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:31,000 Speaker 2: Even though Demill's mother was Jewish, the only Jewish actor 642 00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:33,520 Speaker 2: to play a major role was Edward G. Robinson, who 643 00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:38,240 Speaker 2: earlier became famous playing gangsters, and who won de Mill's favor, 644 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,200 Speaker 2: perhaps because he was a friendly witness before the House 645 00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:45,439 Speaker 2: on American Activities Committee during the Communist Witch hunts. Thus, 646 00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:49,279 Speaker 2: the one prominent Jewish face in The Ten Commandments was 647 00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,560 Speaker 2: cast as a bad guy, a Hebrew named Nathan who 648 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:56,440 Speaker 2: continually tries to undermine Moses and convince the escaped slaves 649 00:39:56,480 --> 00:40:01,480 Speaker 2: to return to their Egyptian masters. 650 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,800 Speaker 18: You take too much upon yourself. 651 00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:06,680 Speaker 9: We will not live by your commandments. 652 00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:07,480 Speaker 18: We're free. 653 00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:11,440 Speaker 14: There is no freedom without the law. 654 00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:13,680 Speaker 18: Who's law most yours? 655 00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:18,640 Speaker 9: Did you call those tablits to become a prince over us? 656 00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:23,120 Speaker 3: As Cruz documents? When the Ten Commandments film was initially released, 657 00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,680 Speaker 3: the mill came up with an ingenious marketing strategy. He 658 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:30,880 Speaker 3: teamed up with a conservative anti communist organization, the Fraternal 659 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:34,560 Speaker 3: Order of the Eagles, to establish Ten Commandment monuments across 660 00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:38,000 Speaker 3: the country. Around the time that Southern States erected new 661 00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:42,719 Speaker 3: Confederate monuments to protest desegregation. Ten Commandment monuments appeared at 662 00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:46,799 Speaker 3: the county courthouse in Evansville, Indiana, the Milwaukee City Hall, 663 00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:50,480 Speaker 3: and near the US Canadian border in North Dakota. Nearly 664 00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:53,880 Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty such monuments were erected across the country. 665 00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:57,040 Speaker 3: Momentum stalled during the Civil Rights era to the extent 666 00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:00,880 Speaker 3: that in Alabama, State Justice Roy Moore ord ridicule when 667 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:05,440 Speaker 3: he placed, without authorization, a self funded five two hundred 668 00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:08,280 Speaker 3: and eighty pound monument in the rotunda of a judicial 669 00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:11,359 Speaker 3: building housing State Supreme Court in two thousand and one. 670 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:15,719 Speaker 3: The monument was ordered removed two years later, but once 671 00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:19,200 Speaker 3: fringe figures like More have moved closer to the American 672 00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:22,400 Speaker 3: political mainstream because of the influence of people like Barton, 673 00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:24,719 Speaker 3: Lieutenant Governor Patrick and their allies. 674 00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:30,080 Speaker 2: The contemporary of session with festooning public spaces with religious 675 00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:34,080 Speaker 2: artifacts has as much to do with malevolent nostalgia as 676 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:39,560 Speaker 2: with religious zeal Men like anti crt crusader Christopher Rufo, 677 00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,440 Speaker 2: along with Barton and Patrick, want to return to the 678 00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:46,520 Speaker 2: world that made The Ten Commandments film, a world in 679 00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:50,400 Speaker 2: which white people are centered, the accomplishments of dark skinned 680 00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:54,759 Speaker 2: people are erased or expropriated, and where America stands as 681 00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:57,880 Speaker 2: an untainted beacon of freedom in spite of its history 682 00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:03,280 Speaker 2: of enslavement, imperialism, and genocide. And now once again, advocates 683 00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:06,480 Speaker 2: of historical amnesia have a friend in the White House. 684 00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:10,279 Speaker 10: The time has come to reclaim our once great educational 685 00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:13,200 Speaker 10: institutions from the radical left, and we will do that 686 00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:18,879 Speaker 10: our secret weapon will be the college accreditation system. It's 687 00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:23,279 Speaker 10: called accreditation for a reason. The accreditors are supposed to 688 00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:27,600 Speaker 10: ensure that schools are not ripping off students and taxpayers, 689 00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:30,680 Speaker 10: but they have failed totally. When I return to the 690 00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:33,640 Speaker 10: White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that 691 00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:39,279 Speaker 10: have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs 692 00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:40,160 Speaker 10: and lunatics. 693 00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:44,120 Speaker 3: On January twenty ninth of this year, Trump issued an 694 00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:47,600 Speaker 3: executive order mandating the withdrawal of federal dollars from any 695 00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:53,160 Speaker 3: public school that allegedly imprints quote anti American, subversive, harmful, 696 00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:57,280 Speaker 3: and false ideologies on our nation's children. This can include 697 00:42:57,280 --> 00:43:01,920 Speaker 3: teaching them about transgender identity, proing services to trans students, 698 00:43:02,719 --> 00:43:08,200 Speaker 3: or educating students about America's long, bloody promotion of white supremacy, homophobia, 699 00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:12,880 Speaker 3: or transphobia. The order also requires public schools to provide 700 00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:18,040 Speaker 3: quote unquote patriotic education. Those like Trump, Barton, and others 701 00:43:18,239 --> 00:43:21,040 Speaker 3: who have clamored the loudest about schools as centers of 702 00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:25,520 Speaker 3: indoctrination are now imposing their own form of propaganda, returning 703 00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:29,240 Speaker 3: history classes from kindergarten to graduate schools to the days 704 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:32,080 Speaker 3: of the nineteen twenties and the nineteen thirties, when textbook 705 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:35,200 Speaker 3: writers praised fascist dictators for keeping unions in their place, 706 00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:38,480 Speaker 3: and those willing to die to end slavery were painted 707 00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:39,480 Speaker 3: as the bad guys. 708 00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:43,239 Speaker 2: In the Civil Rights era, black and brown parents boycotted 709 00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:47,520 Speaker 2: public schools that discriminated to undermine their funding, created their 710 00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:51,040 Speaker 2: own freedom schools that provided lessons in black and brown history, 711 00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:55,480 Speaker 2: and marched against the old Jim Crow laws. Parents who 712 00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:58,600 Speaker 2: want their children receive an honest accounting of the nation's 713 00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:02,440 Speaker 2: past will do well to learn from these predecessors and 714 00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:05,480 Speaker 2: to disrupt the meetings of right wing school boards as 715 00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:09,000 Speaker 2: loudly and enthusiastically as the parents who were conned into 716 00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:13,040 Speaker 2: a frenzy about the phantom dangers of CRT. This is 717 00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:14,600 Speaker 2: Michael Phillips. 718 00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:15,640 Speaker 4: And this is Stephen Monicelli. 719 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:19,560 Speaker 3: Thanks to Betsy Freoff for reading passages from textbooks, and 720 00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:22,400 Speaker 3: to Dan Glass for reading quotes from the founding fathers. 721 00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:25,360 Speaker 3: Of course, thanks to you for listening. 722 00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:31,080 Speaker 1: It could happen. Here is a production of cool Zone Media. 723 00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:34,320 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 724 00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:37,960 Speaker 1: coolzonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 725 00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:41,600 Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 726 00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:43,960 Speaker 1: now find sources for it could happen here, listed directly 727 00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:46,280 Speaker 1: in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.