Textbook War

WHY THE KANAWHA COUNTY TEXTBOOK WAR IMPACTED THE ENTIRE NATION

(This thesis demonstrates) how a relatively small and powerless group can impact the nation and how the nation impacts their lives and attitudes…The protestors exhibited trends that would pave the way for future single-issue interest groups to garner the attention and respect that they do. McHenry, Justin J., "Silent, no more: The 1974 Kanawha County textbook controversy and the rise of conservatism in America" (2006). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. West Virginia University. vii

What makes the Kanawha County protestors unique? The protestors would hardly be considered liberal like the civil rights and anti-war protestors. Very few conservative grassroots movements formed around a single-issue in the years leading up to the textbook controversy. Kanawha County proved to be a textbook itself for other single-issue, conservative grassroots movements that followed throughout the seventies. McHenry, Justin J., "Silent, no more: The 1974 Kanawha County textbook controversy and the rise of conservatism in America" (2006). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. West Virginia University. 26

Coming early in the metamorphosis of the New Right, the textbook controversy set the early tone for the rest of the decade ending with Reagan’s campaign for president. With the help of the Kanawha County cultural uprising and others like it, the New Right found their constituency…With that support and well tested tactics, the New Right moved on from the textbook controversy to solidify their place on the American political spectrum. When the parents decided to rebel in 1974, they had no idea the implications of their actions. Simply wanting to protect their children from a cruel and strange world, they did much more. The Kanawha County protestors symbolized the rising tide of conservatism that swept over the seventies. McHenry, Justin J., "Silent, no more: The 1974 Kanawha County textbook controversy and the rise of conservatism in America" (2006). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. West Virginia University. 112

As 1974 ended and tensions abated in 1975, the parents of Kanawha County toned down their protesting and life regained a sense of normalcy once again. But the reverberations of their actions would be felt long after. In the years following the textbook controversy, conservatives began growing louder and louder on the national political scene, culminating with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. The protestors emphasis on social and moral concerns would foreshadow the rhetoric of future conservative leaders like Jesse Helms and Orrin Hatch and played a large role in the election (and re-election) of President George W. Bush. The textbook controversy seemed to occur at the nexus of this conservative resurgence. It displayed elements of the various ingredients needed for the Right to regain political power. McHenry, Justin J., "Silent, no more: The 1974 Kanawha County textbook controversy and the rise of conservatism in America" (2006). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. West Virginia University. 113

Organizations associated with the New Right ideology, the Heritage Foundation, Populist Forum, the Conservative Caucus, cut their teeth in the Kanawha Valley, where they learned what will and will not work in the battle to gain control over the soul of America. McHenry, Justin J., "Silent, no more: The 1974 Kanawha County textbook controversy and the rise of conservatism in America" (2006). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. West Virginia University. 75

One of the first outsiders to get involved in the textbook controversy came from the Washington-based conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation…In 1975 as a result of the Kanawha County textbook controversy, the Heritage Foundation created the National Congress for Educational Excellence to coordinate activities amongst hundreds of textbook protestors…Kanawha County acted as a testing ground for the year-old public policy research institute, for the textbook controversy marked one of the first forays the Heritage Foundation made into the realm of politics. McHenry, Justin J., "Silent, no more: The 1974 Kanawha County textbook controversy and the rise of conservatism in America" (2006). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. West Virginia University. 89-90

This grass-roots effort to rid the school of the textbooks that were anti-American, communist, filthy, dirty, and anti-Christian gained the attention of the nation. Their response, spurred on by the rapid changes in American society, which ultimately funneled their way down to Kanawha County, foreshadowed much of the conservative language, thinking, and strategy that came after. McHenry, Justin J., "Silent, no more: The 1974 Kanawha County textbook controversy and the rise of conservatism in America" (2006). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. West Virginia University. 72

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