Texas Makes Changes to History Textbooks: No Mention of KKK or Jim Crow, and the Civil War Was Fought Over States’ Rights, Not Slavery

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A change is coming to public school education in Texas, a change that was voted for in 2010 and will take effect when students go back to school come fall.

It's happening in history class—in the new social studies textbooks that students will be using to learn U.S. history. New state academic guidelines changed some of the black American history content that students typically learn. For instance, the new textbooks will "barely address racial segregation," the Washington Post explains; nor will they make mention of the Ku Klux Klan or the Jim Crow laws put in place to continue what began with slavery. 

Oh, and with regard to what got the Civil War going: Texas' new academic standards mandate that students learn that the war was about a debate regarding states' rights. Slavery will reportedly play second fiddle on the list of explanations used to teach why some states seceded from the Union. 

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Some groups are not happy about these changes. 

"Not only are we worried about the flags and statues and all that, but what the hell are kids learning?” said Dan Quinn, a member of the Texas Freedom Network, an advocacy organization that does not support the state's new academic standards governing history. 

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Read more at the Washington Post.