Fifty years ago this month, the Kanawha County School Board approved new multicultural textbooks. Violent protests followed as some parents claimed the books undermined their faith. During a summer of unrest, boycotts led to businesses closing. And that fall, thousands of families kept their children out of school. The textbook war made national headlines, became a launching pad for the new right-wing political movement, and put school boards at the center of the culture wars.
Fifty years ago this month, a heated controversy broke out in Kanawha County, West Virginia, over the introduction of new school textbooks.
The struggle led to violent protests in the state. Dynamite hit empty school buildings. Bullets hit empty school buses. And protesting miners forced the closure of some coal mines – because of the new multicultural textbooks.
The curriculum focused on an increasingly globalized society and introduced students to the languages and ideas of different cultures. The material was an insult to many Christian social conservatives who felt the books undermined traditional American values. They saw their religion replaced by another belief system: secular humanism.
Many of these frustrations boiled over in Kanawha County in the summer of 1974.
This episode of Us and them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the CRC Foundation, and the Daywood Foundation.
This episode won the George Foster Peabody, Edward R. Murrow, and Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards.
Subscribe to something Us and them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and more.
At the crucial meeting on June 27, 1974, Kanawha County School Board member Alice Moore reviews the minutes as protesters watch through the windows of the council office auditorium.
“I almost think Kanawha County was a test case. This happened in different places all over the country, but I wonder if they didn’t think they could come to West Virginia… that these were backward, uneducated people. They could come to this little state; they could do whatever they wanted and nobody would question them.”
— Alice Moore
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
Black Power leader Eldridge Cleaver Soul on ice was one of the main reasons for the controversy.
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
A mother expresses her frustration over the adopted books in front of the Kanawha County Board of Education building.
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
A young girl succinctly summarizes the outcome of the 1974 textbook protest in Kanawha County.
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
The Reverend Marvin Horan, seen here at a rally in November 1974, was the most prominent person to serve a long prison sentence for his role in the protests. He served three years for conspiracy to “damage and destroy two schools.”
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
The American flag was an ever-present symbol at nearly every anti-textbook rally. Here, Reverend Avis Hill speaks outside the school superintendent’s office.
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
The miners defy the will of their union leaders and join the model boycott.
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
A number of textbook demonstrators protested outside Midway Elementary School in Campbells Creek, West Virginia.
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
On November 9, 1974, one day after the school board reinstated textbooks, protesters took to the streets.
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
Supporters of the textbook pointed to the obvious contradictions between the violence and the religious beliefs of the protesters.
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
West Virginia State Trooper DN Miller’s patrol car was shot at by a sniper while escorting a school bus on November 13, 1974.
Photo credit: Charleston Newspapers
Klansman Dale Reusch attends an anti-textbook rally on the steps of the West Virginia Capitol in January 1975. Reverend Marvin Horan holds the umbrella.
