Texas textbooks are causing a stir again over State curriculum standards. These standards act as minimum requirements for what the textbooks have to cover and at this time they do not require teaching of the Jim Crow laws. When Texas rewrites requirements for a textbook it echoes throughout most of the country because publishers cater their products to the large market in Texas. This goes beyond history and also has an impact on other topics, namely science.
Mitigating the role of slavery and Jim Crow in history has a huge impact on public perception and race relations. Currently, there is a movement saying the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery, when historical facts say otherwise. We can no longer base arguments on facts if the truth has been changed, minimized, or distorted. Textbooks are meant to create a base level of education so we have to make sure they are rooted in facts.
*Originally posted on In The Loop, a Chron blog by Mustafa Tameez