TEXTBOOK PROTESTER TRUTH

Compiled by Karl C. Priest

LEFTWING LIBERALS WANT
THE KANAWHA COUNTY TEXTBOOK PROTESTERS TO BE REMEMBERED AS
NARROW-MINDED, IGNORANT, RELIGIOUS FANATICS, CENSORS, VIOLENT, AND RACISTS.

LEFTWING LIBERALS USE
SLURS, LIES, EXAGGERATIONS, SENSATIONALISM,
HISTORICAL ERRORS, AND OMISSION OF KEY FACTS TO
PERPETUATE THEIR PROPAGANDA.

AN EXEMPLARY EXAMPLE IS
“DR. DURST DUPLICATES AND DESIGNS DISINFORMATION”.

AMAZINGLY, AND SADLY,
MANY CHRISTIANS AND CONSERVATIVES HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED.

THE KANAWHA COUNTY TEXTBOOK PROTESTERS (THE COURAGEOUS CORPS OF ‘74) WERE THE FIRST VICTIMS OF “FAKE NEWS.” THOSE FINE FOLKS WERE NOT FLAWLESS, BUT ANY REPORT THAT FINDS FAULT WITH THEM SHOULD BE FAIRLY EVALUATED BY THE FACTS ON THE TEXTBOOK PROTESTER TRUTH PAGES.

IF ANYONE CLAIMS THE PROTESTERS WERE ANYTHING OTHER THAN
PLEASANT PEOPLE--
THE ACCUSER'S ACCUSATION IS
A FABRICATION, EXAGGERATION, OR ABERRATION.

THIS PAGE WILL PROVIDE DOUCMENTATED FACTS THAT TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE “NARROW-MINDED” SLUR.

MATERIAL WILL BE ADDED AS DEVELOPED.
Items are not arranged by priority.
(Typos are corrected when found without changing “update” reference.)

LAST UPDATE: 5-27-2020

PLEASE INFORM ME OF ANY TYPOS OR OTHER ERRORS.

There is ample material to set the record straight.
Gold nuggets of truth will glitter among piles of gray gravel propaganda.

Many accusations are repeated multiple times in separate articles and reports. No attempt has been made here to cite every i accuracy although some duplication (not identical) have been arbitrarily included.

For detailed documentation of how
the propaganda has been perpetuated
see
INDISPUTABLE IGNOBLE IGNORANCE AND INSOLENCE

In order to fully understand the protesters as the Courageous Corps of ’74 and
the good citizens and patriots they really were
please read PROTESTER VOICES—THE 1974 TEXTBOOK TEA PARTY.
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The Kanawha County Textbook War was arguably one of the top three non-catastrophe events in West Virginia history. It also ranks in the top echelon of conservative history in America. The Kanawha County Textbook War has generated multiple articles, research papers, chapters in books and entire books.

The citations on this page are not intended to insinuate that the authors were in agreement with the protesters. To the contrary, the purpose is to demonstrate that even the most biased writer or researcher discloses facts that contradict the widely held misconceptions of the protesters. The folks who stood up for their children and their country in 1974 were good people—the kind of folks most Americans would want to have as neighbors. It is time that the truth is told!

My comments are in red.
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(Referring to the 6-27 board meeting ): A pro-text speaker rose, tried to say his or her piece only to be forcibly shouted down with catcalls of “communist” and, for some strange reason, “Time! Time!” On that night, Nixon’s so-called silent majority crept out of their cocoon. 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. iv What is strange about wanting speakers to stay within their allotted time? The excuse, for giving the pro-book speakers extra time, was because of interruptions. Alice Moore “rejected the claims that the audience was unruly, contending its concern on the part of its citizens is so intense that it would be unreasonable to expect complete order.” (Charleston Gazette-Mail, June 28, 1974, pg. 7A.) A book supporter claimed the books were better for his kids’ learning than a “rice paddy in Vietnam.” (ibid) One must keep in mind that this was during the Vietnam War and liberals were frequently loudly and violently attacking the USA. The Protesters were almost 100% loyal Americans and such a comment (even if it was innocently intended) was objectionable and that is why it was called a “Communist.) (ibid)

Two Protesters presented petitions of 2,100 and 4,600 signatures respectively. (Charleston Daily Mail, June 28, 1974, pg. 8A)

“Over a thousand people (one source said it was closer to 2,000) attended the June 27, 1974 three hour board of education meeting where the books were voted in by a 3-2 vote. The spectators were overwhelmingly against the books. The auditorium and hallway were packed. Most of the folks held umbrellas and stood outside of the open first floor windows in a heavy downpour. The board of education should have realized that the taxpayers and parents of the systems’ students were bothered about the books!” PROTESTER VOICES--The 1974 Textbook Tea Party, page 70)

Elsewhere, in his paper, Mr. McHenry, aptly described a reason the Protesters were justified in being irritated. “Most of the school board, the county, the state, and the white collar elite of Kanawha County failed to take the protestors’ grievances or their threats seriously.” 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. 9

What started out with textbooks quickly turned into something else, something bigger. Textbooks were no longer at stake but rather the children, the future, America. The debate shifted somewhere along the way toward a new vision of America, a vision dripping with the traditions of the past, coming at the intersection of a country poised to change direction. 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. iv

The average citizen was out of luck when it came to trying to have their say in the whole process. The language arts adoption process began in September of 1973, with educators forming a Curriculum Study Committee to review all the texts and related instructional material. 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. 3-4

Most of the school board, the county, the state, and the white collar elite of Kanawha County failed to take the protestors’ grievances or their threats seriously. 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. 9

Most in the liberal media tried to understand the protestors but few moved beyond condescension. They strove to explain the textbook controversy, some more successful than others. The Progressive talked of a cultural war in America, “[The textbook controversy] is in part a class war, a cultural war, a religious war. It is a struggle for power and authority that has sundered a peaceful community into rigid and fearful factions. And it is a complex and profoundly disturbing reflection of the deep fissures that crisscross American society.” The media relied heavily on stereotypes like violent hillbillies… 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. 15 The statement from that liberal magazine is accurate.

As parents protested the inclusion of textbooks that they felt corrupted their children, they were voicing the concerns of millions of others throughout the nation. The content of their complaints points toward a larger dissatisfaction with the way the country is heading. 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. 114
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One of the major slurs against the Kanawha County Textbook Protesters is that they were uniformed about the books and that Alice Moore rallied them based upon irrational religious fervor. The truth in this recording TOTALLY destroys that lie.
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Was it the protesters who were narrow-minded? Could their opponents have been guilty of that slur?

Dr. Jack Welch, associate professor in the Department of English at West Virginia University, pointed out that on November 5, 1974 the Charleston Gazette devoted “a whole page of ridicule” by taking a "500 page document that dissident members of the textbook review committee prepared, and after openly confessing that 'this is not meant as a carefully balanced representation of the 500-plus page report' the Gazette went on to draw ridiculous cartoons ridiculing the taste and even the religion of the dissidents. Such a treatment would be frankly impossible to imagine in this newspaper if the dissidents had been black or some other minority group. However, the continual barrage of editorial criticism, slanted character portraits of the principals in the controversy, and cartoons show a blindness to the import of the events that are transpiring in their own city that only class prejudice can account for.” (Welch, Jack. “Cultural Revolution in Appalachia.” The Educational Forum Nov. 1976: 28-29.)
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Paul Cowan (author of The Tribes of America) was a self-described “political radical” and part of the “New York left” (13) wrote for the ultra-liberal Village Voice when he came to Kanawha County in 1974. His experience resulted in a chapter he titled “A Fight over America’s Future.” “It was clear that the rest of the county felt sympathy for the protesters. In November, the Charleston Gazette (whose editorials reflected the hillers’* point of view) published a poll showing that only 19 per cent of the people they contacted wanted all of the books in the schools. But the Board of Education held firm.” (81)

Cowan interviewed high school students from protester and pro-booker families. While both groups held some extreme stereotype images of the other, the hillers’ exhibited more snobbery as exemplified by the following. A hiller lawyer’s daughter asked “sharply, ‘why anyone would want to visit people like those coal miners.’” (86) A creeker said, "'I can expect someone who doesn’t believe in God not to see anything wrong with the textbooks,’ said one minister’s daughter. 'But they can at least respect our rights, since those books do talk about God. And they don’t have to insult our faith or our parents by calling us rednecks.’” (87)

“I have rarely covered a story that left me as emotionally conflicted as this one did. For it seemed to me that some of the pro-textbook people—the northern educators and bureaucrats who devised them, not the local people who adopted them--were involved in a kind of cultural imperialism. But some of the protesters were clearly capable of outright totalitarianism.” (89) He knew those who designed the books wanted to free the children of fundamentalists from “the narrow-minded influence of their parents in order to become functioning citizens of twenty-first century America. But is it ethical to confront them with textbooks they regard as blasphemous, to use their classrooms as ‘testing grounds,’ to train their teachers as ‘change agents.’” (90)

Cowan interviewed some of the textbook authors and curriculum reformers and found that “it’s clear that from the vantage point of New York or Boston, they saw the creekers (protesters) in the same derisive terms H. L. Mencken used during the Scopes trial.” (90)

"The people I quote in this chapter taught me an enormous amount.” (305)

Cowan, Paul. The Tribes of America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977

*“Hiller” is a term often used to describe the pro-bookers (a non-complimentary term I use in Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea Party) as opposed to the term for the protesters which is “creekers”. The hillers lived in the rich area of South Hills in Charleston and the creekers lived in rural hollers.
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The 20-member screening committee, comprised of parents throughout the county, will recommend only one of five elementary social studies series to the textbook selection committee…Two of the five series—including the one which will be recommended—have been challenged by members of the Charleston Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW). Susan Weaver, coordinator of NOW’s Task Force on the Media and Education, said books by Silver-Burdette Co. and Laidlaw Co. are objectionable in their blatant representation of sexist stereotypes…“We find it abhorrent that material of such poor quality could have even gotten to the point of being considered for use in the school system,” she said. Charleston Daily Mail 2-6-75
Where is the cry of “CENSORSHIP”?
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That religion is frequently ignored in Appalachia today by liberals who, otherwise sympathetic to Appalachians’ problems, cannot tolerate the persistant emphasis of Appalachian folk . (Welch, Jack. “Cultural Revolution in Appalachia.” The Educational Forum Nov. 1976: 25.)
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The protesters convinced the board of education to adopt guidelines. The opposition “blasted” those reasonable guidelines as “too vague”, had no “teacher input”, and were “completely unnecessary.” (Charleston Gazette 12-12-74) How is that for open-minded compromise by the opponents of the protesters?

Here are the guidelines.

Textbooks for use in the classrooms of Kanawha County shall

> recognize the sanctity of the home and emphasize its importance as the basic unit of American society.
>not intrude into the privacy of students’ homes by asking personal questions…
> not contain profanity.
> not encourage or promote racial hatred.
>must encourage loyalty to the United States and the several states and emphasize the responsibilities of citizenship and the obligation to redress grievances through legal processes.
>must not encourage sedition…
>shall teach the true history and heritage of the United States and of any other countries…
>must not defame our nation’s founders or misrepresent the ideals and causes for which they struggled and sacrificed.
> shall teach that traditional rules of grammar…
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Followers who may not be sufficiently theologically astute to recognize the examples of ‘humanism’ and ‘situation ethics’ decried by the ministers can readily agree on language which has traditionally been proscribed from print by local standards. Page, Ann L. & Clelland, Donald A. “The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy: A Study of the Politics of Life Style Concern.” Social Forces Sept. 1978: 274.

Interwoven among the major objectives are a number of subsidiary themes: concerns about lack of patriotism, leftist political values, neutral treatment of immoral sex, drinking and violence, violations of privacy, and evolutionism…All of these concerns are elements of a way of life which has been under attack for generations and increasingly so today. Page, Ann L. & Clelland, Donald A. “The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy: A Study of the Politics of Life Style Concern.” Social Forces Sept. 1978: 275.

(Referring to the four basic protester complains of 1. Disrespect for traditional conceptions of God/Bible 2. Use of profanity 3. Disrespect for authority 4. Advocacy of moral relativism) (T)hey are statements of concern about the destruction of a style of life. Page, Ann L. & Clelland, Donald A. “The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy: A Study of the Politics of Life Style Concern.” Social Forces Sept. 1978: 274.
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The U.S. Commissioner of Education, T. H. Bell commented on the protest after protesters took their case to Washington. He said, “Parents have a right to expect that the schools, in teaching approaches and selection of instructional materials, will support the values and standards that their children are taught at home. And if the schools cannot support those values, they must at least avoid deliberate destruction of them.” Quoted in “The Furor over School Textbooks” by Noel F. Busch. Reader’s Digest January 1976.
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An unsigned editorial commented on a Nicholas von Hoffman Washington Post article regarding “Guidelines, the Macmillan Publishing Company has set up…And what shocks Mr. Hoffman is that this is an admission by a major publisher to what the protesters have been saying all along—that the required school texts in the compulsory school system are being used as instruments of indoctrination. Furthermore, they are being used as instruments of indoctrination without the knowledge, participation or consent of the people for whose children this indoctrination is proposed and required. Macmillan and its authors will prescribe for them what is ‘positive’ in sexual (gender-KCP) imagery, what is ‘negative.’ and as this may arouse some misgivings in uniformed quarters, Macmillan will arbitrate the dispute…By design or not, someone’s values, ideals, attitudes, prejudices will shape both the text and context. therefore, it matters greatly who makes this distinction between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ and even more who enforces it…The notion that it is the function of some self-appointed elite to monopolize the indoctrination of the next generation is simply unacceptable in a society which pins its hopes on government with the consent of the governed.” (Charleston Daily Mail, July 29, 1975, pg. 6A)
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Alice Moore and the parents of Kanawha County saw secular humanism infiltrating their schools first through the textbooks and then slowly from the textbooks to the minds of their teachers and students. They wanted the school to serve as a moral anchor that, along with the church, could provide continuity and certainty in troubled and confused times. (Kincheloe, Joe L. Understanding the New Right and Its Impact on Education. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1983: 15.)
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In Kanawha County the nation witnessed a collision of values between those who believe that parents have a right to determine what values their children will be exposed to and those who believe the curriculum should reflect the social, cultural, and racial diversity in the nation. (Kincheloe, Joe L. Understanding the New Right and Its Impact on Education. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1983: 7.)
Dr. Kincheloe was correct about the values of the parents. The protesters did not object to works by any nationality or race. What they objected to was a deliberate attempt to use teachers as Change Agents to re-shape society through the schools by undermining the fundamental principles and beliefs expressed in the founding documents of our country.
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What is the role of parents and the family in determining a child’s education? What is the role of the state? Questions like these, which emerged from the textbook controversy, transcend education and have relevance in a number of societal institutions. (7) Ironically, the New Right protesters have raised the same questions that some liberals were asking: Who controls education? Do parents have to send children to school to be exposed to values they do not accept? (15) Kincheloe, Joe L. Understanding the New Right and Its Impact on Education. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1983.
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Alice Moore watched with great consternation as television reporters and other journalists entered Kanawha County on the prowl for the spectacular. According to Moore, the media portrayed the conflict as a class struggle between the rich urbanites and the poor coal miners. The worst distortion, Moore argued, was the common depiction of Kanawha County as a “unique little spot in America” riddled by a controversy that was uncommon to the rest of the nation. (8) Referring to the National Education Association (NEA) panel that came to Kanawha County in 1974 to examine the controversy and concluded that, among other things, the problem was a rural-urban fight: Careful examination would have alerted the NEA investigators to the fact that the controversy was not a rural-urban fight. Alice Moore was a middle-class mother from suburban Kanawha County. Her initial core of support came not from the rural coal mining portion of the county but from the middle- to upper-middle class suburbs. (29) Kincheloe, Joe L. Understanding the New Right and Its Impact on Education. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1983.
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In 1977 a poll revealed that 83% of the United States favored a return to the basics in education. The same issue of the Charleston Gazette-Mail (Dec. 4) quoted the governor of Vermont as saying the schools are so bad that President Carter should call a constitutional convention.
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The National Education Association knew the value of people power. Of course, they would not want the people with power to be the textbook protesters. From a man who spoke at the 1974 NEA convention: “It is possible to be foolishly sentimental about ‘the people.’ But one unsentimental and inescapable fact about human society—any human society—is that the vitality and coherence of a society begins and ends with motivated people and the ideas they have in their heads of what their society is and ought to be. That’s where it begins, and if it ends, that’s where it ends.” (Gardner, John W. “Citizen Action can turn Things Around.” Today’s Education Nov.-Dec. 1974:16+)
What hypocrisy!

Another article revealed that the NEA was not as pure regarding judicial power as they proclaimed when wanting to condemn the protesters. “When a judge first slapped an injunction on us for striking, the myth told us that he or she was acting from the objectivity and justice of the law. But after a few strikes, we have come to realize that justice is political…We also have learned that justice can also depend on the political connections of the judge and on his or her evaluation of our power versus that of the board of education.” Raby, Al and Perkins, Stephen A. “Teacher Power and American Myths.” Today’s Education Nov.-Dec. 1974: 83+
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The people responsible for the textbooks were bureaucrats who wrote blithely of pedagogy's power to “induce changes’ ... in the behavior of the 'culturally lost of Appalachia,” and identified teachers as state-designated "change agents" and schools as "the experimental center, and the core of this design." Nowadays the arrogance of this formulation is as grating to us as a chalkboard screech. Not then. It was an era when the language of universally applicable liberal enlightenment flew trippingly off cosmopolitan tongues. Which was why it came as such a shock when the "culturally lost" proved to have ideas of their own – that their culture had inherent dignity and value, and that textbooks suggesting that Christian revelation was on a par with Greek myth were, as protesters put it, "moral genocide."

It took a keen eye and an open mind to recognize that the cosmopolitans were pursuing a form of class warfare. Cowan noticed how urban and suburban professionals in Kanawha County – "Hillers," in local parlance – spoke nervously in private of how familiarity with names like Mailer and Baldwin would get their precious darlings into Harvard and keep them out of West Virginia Tech. The Hillers weren't about to risk having their upward climb impeded by the "Creekers," poor residents in the hollows who wanted "to protest corruption," as one suburbanite told Cowan, but didn't "even know how to spell that word

Dynamite wasn't the answer. But neither was a kind of cultural imperialism indifferent to the fact that 81 percent of the district opposed the textbooks. It was, in a word, complicated. Certainly more complicated than the portraits other journalists were creating for sneering consumption back home: death threats, double-barreled shotguns, Onward Christian Soldiers. The futile last stand of yokels against the inevitable march of progress.

Perlstein , Rick. “Tribal Warfare in America.” Review of: The Tribes of Americaby Paul Cowan, 1979. Columbia Journalism Review November 16, 2004.
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She (Alice Moore) read one of the offending stories on a local television station, but only after the station issued a warning that the subject matter might be inappropriate for children. (Kennedy Manzo, Kathleen. “Book Binds.” Education Week, January 12, 2000: 30-31.)
Does anyone see the irony of this?
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The protesters have been caricaturized as uneducated, strange-talking hillbillies by the national media which has not attempted to understand these people, their position, or the reasons for their actions…The most outstanding characteristic of these people and the one most pertinent to the textbook controversy is their religious heritage…Claiming that their religious freedom is at stake, the protesters will not compromise their belief in absolute values of right and wrong and accept situation ethics. Over the past few years, books have been rewritten to accommodate the needs of ghetto Blacks and other minority groups: are the deep-felt religious needs of Appalachians of less importance? One woman wrote to the local press saying, ‘I have every right to say that my children not be taught disrespect to law officers, parents and most of all to God.’ This woman has a valid point. As minors, children do not have the right to intellectual or academic freedom if their parents veto it…Much criticism has been leveled at the protesters on the grounds that they are narrow-minded, provincial, intolerant and even illiterate, that they haven’t read the texts, and they have brought about a state of near anarchy. But it is also true that many persons far better educated contributed to the polarization of factions by having lent the weight of their prestige to approve the whole book package with little or no knowledge of the contents or understanding of the community. Smith, Shirley A. “Crisis in Kanawha County: A Librarian looks at the Textbook Controversy.” SLJ-School Library Journal, January 1975: 35.

Ms. Smith received a memo regarding her article (February 25, 1975. Original at WV Archives) from far-left liberal Charleston Gazette editor Don Marsh. He said, “In the past, I would have applauded the even handed way in which you treated the protesters. I’m afraid my opinion is beginning to change. (The protesters) are representatives of the dark side of American character that prospers wherever fear, bigotry and ignorance are found.” Hmmm. The Charleston Gazette city editor, Don Marsh, referred to the protesters as the “crazies.” (Rupp, Carla Marie. “Charleston Editors Wrestle with Antitextbook Crusade.” Editor and Publisher Nov. 2, 1974: 9.)  So much for open-minded liberalism! Would it be reasonable to think that the Gazette would slant its news against the protesters? There is more about Marsh’s hypocrisy on pages 24-25 of Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea Party.
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In an appraisal of the Kanawha situation, The Wall Street Journal observed: "A reading of some of the textbooks indicates that we may owe the demonstrators a vote of thanks." Busch, Noel F. “The Furor Over School Textbooks.” Reader’s Digest, Jan. 1976
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A look through some of the disputed books reveals that white, working-class parents from the coal fields and Southern mountains do have legitimate grounds for complaint. The editing reflects a value system that runs counter to most of what they cherish. The supplementary books, in particular, play out the alienation felt by urban intellectuals and university militants of the 1960s, who seem to the protesters to have taken over the publishing houses in New York. Some of the selections are unpatriotic, sacrilegious, and pro-minorities, and they would, as the parents predicted, legitimize different values and raise heretofore taboo questions. Equally important was the almost total exclusion of people like themselves from the ‘multi-cultural’ texts. (Seltzer, Curtis. “West Virginia Book War—A Confusion of Goals.” The Nation, Nov. 2, 1974: 432)
This admission, from a liberal publication, must have come through clenched teeth.

The board would have gained support if it could have argued that the new books had a proven record of up-grading reading scores, or increasing conceptual abilities or enhancing expressiveness. But when asked specially for such evidence, the consultants said they had none…Neither parents nor students were included in the year-long selection procedure. "We built these schools with our sweat and taxes,’ one miner summed it up, ‘and, son, no bureaucrat is going to tell me that my kid has to learn garbage." When the teachers and consultants first presented their selections to the board, much of their defense consisted of totaling up their years of college education and urging the parents to trust that they knew best what to teach children. (Seltzer, Curtis. “West Virginia Book War—A Confusion of Goals.” The Nation, Nov. 2, 1974: 432)

A cheerleader at Dupont High School located in the center of the boycott and strike activities recounted how many of her neighbors felt that they could understand the constitutional reasons for banning prayer and Bible reading. "It’s not that they want religion in the schools as much as they don’t want anti-religion to replace it.” (Seltzer, Curtis. “West Virginia Book War—A Confusion of Goals.” The Nation, Nov. 2, 1974: 432-433)
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WARNING: PROFANITY

(Referring to a 3rd grade book myth): Anyone acquainted with the biblical story of Adam and Eve can see a near perfect correlation. Across the nation millions of homes and thousands of churches hold to the literal account of Adam and Eve. Those parents do not want their children to be encouraged to ‘make up a myth’ about a god that tends to undermine their faith. Then the sixth-grade Communicating series mockingly describes a group of religious people as ‘shuffling Holy rollers at an all night inspiration.’ In the same book children are taught how to use “standard” and “nonstandard” English. “Rewrite the paragraph below so that it looks like ‘standard’ English to you.” The example presented is the antisocial reaction of a young bully who justifies his stealing.” Sommer, Carl. Schools in Crisis: Training for Success or Failure. Houston, TX: Cahill Pub. Co., 1984: 185.

One of the junior high school books adopted by the school board...was to be read aloud by 12- and 13-year-old children. The play shows Arthur and Ernie conversing about Clifford Truckston, who was getting drafted next month and had got his girl “knocked up.” Clifford was going to “get four other guys to swear she’d put out to them, too, but then he decided he’d better do the honorable thing and get her an abortion…The following scene is found in Act Two…They would’ve stopped talking about their goddam problems…Get out of here you sonofabitch!...Get out, God dammit!...Here are some additional phrases children will learn injunior high from this approved play: hell, fat old bitch, by God, work your ass off, stupid son of a bitch, and Christ no. some of this wording is repeated over and over. Sommer, Carl. Schools in Crisis: Training for Success or Failure. Houston, TX: Cahill Pub. Co., 1984: 186.

For more details see “The Books”.
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When U.S. District Judge K. K. Hall ruled against a First Amendment lawsuit brought by protesters he said, “Careful consideration, evaluation and analysis of plaintiff’s complaint and testimony compel the conclusion that material in some of the controversial textbooks and supplemental materials are offensive to plaintiff’s beliefs, choices of language, and code of conduct.” Charleston Daily Mail 1-31-1975
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Another mystery has been the fact that few, if any, of the textbook protesters have read any of the books that their leaders tell them are offensive. (New York Times, 9-18-1974, pg. 26) The fact is that few teachers (if any) including the selection committee and none of the board of education (except for Alice Moore) had read the books. There were simply too many books. I have served on other selection committees and know this first hand. Also, Betty Jarvis (see Chapter 12 of Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea Party, served on the 1974 committee that screened the language arts selection and told me that she did not read all of the books. It was Alice Moore and the protesters who took the books around for the public to read. A photo in the Charleston Gazette (8-3-1974) showed the protesters reading the books. Members of the Magic Valley Mother’s Club began making available to anyone wishing to see them copies of the proposed texts with objectionable sections marked and paper clipped. (Candor, Catherine. “A History of the Kanawha County Textbook Controversy, April 1974-April 1975.” Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1976:64.)
A two-full-page ad listing offensive parts of some of the books was placed in both Charleston papers on November 14 by the Business and Professional People’s Alliance for Better Textbooks. The splinter group of the Citizen’s Review Committee issued a “massive 500-page report,” that was meticulously documented, listing objections. (Charleston Daily Mail 10-31-1974)
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During a Wednesday meeting, the Kanawha County Associaton of Classroom Teachers (KCACT) voted to oppose any recommendation of the Textbook Review Committee that was contrary to the original Board of Education adoption. Candor, Catherine. “A History of the Kanawha County Textbook Controversy, April 1974-April 1975.” Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1976:124.)
Non-educator tax-paying citizens and parents had been excluded from the original selection process. The review committee was supposed to be a means of allowing citizen input and quieting the protest. The KCACT was guilty of narrow-mindedness.
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Octogenarian Emmett Shaffer, who was principal of one of the elementary schools that was bombed in 1974, said that Alice Moore became a board member with the backing of the John Birch Society and for the express purpose of challenging the status quo according to the groups ideology (Shafer interview). (Mason, Carol. “An American Conflict: Representing the 1974 Kanawha County Textbook Controversy.” Appalachian Journal. Spring 2005: 360)
Being over 80 years old may imply wisdom, or it could be senility, but Mr. Shafer was flat-out wrong! In the same paragraph Mason quotes Moore as stating “Absolutely not” when asked if she ever was associated with the John Birch Society. (Emphasis in original.) Then Mason goes on to try to build her case by saying that Moore “certainly associated with members of that group.” I used to know a lady that (after her death) I found out was a member of the John Birch Society. I met her several times because she was helping with a street ministry a friend and I tried to develop. By her criteria Mason would mistakenly make me a Bircher. Mason never explains what is so evil about the Birchers and goes on to try to tie Moore to national conservative Christian leaders. I used to be on Jimmy Swaggart’s mailing list, but he never influenced my actions. Mason is tilting at windmills.
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On November 26, 1976, I spoke on this subject at the annual meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English in Chicago. For several weeks prior to my talk, Scott, Foresman, one of the publishers whose texts were involved in the protest, had been negotiating with me to join them in a revision of their American Reads series. They had invited me to attend a series of meetings in November 28-30, to prepare for helping with the revision. Six hours after the talk, I received a message from the vice-president for editing that I need not attend the meetings. I had used a Scott, Foresman text to illustrate the kinds of textbook material that the protesters were angry about. “You did what you wanted with your audience,” he said. “You made them think that perhaps the protesters were right.” Hillocks, George, Jr. “Books and Bombs: Ideological Conflict and the Schools—A case Study of the Kanawha County Book Protest.” School Review Vol. 86, No. 4 (Aug., 1978) : 653
Also see: Books and Bombs (Hillocks Hits Some Homeruns)
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I received heat from some people from the pro-book camp because they felt that my report gave too much attention to and was perhaps too sympathetic to the protester perspective. They complained that I didn't tell the story of the people, who supported the textbooks. Kay, Trey. December 5, 2011 email to Karl Priest
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On one side, it can be argued that the protesters are following a tradition as old as the Boston Tea Party and as recent as the civil rights movement. They seek redress of deeply felt grievances…In the name of majority rule, freedom of religion, the right to privacy, patriotism, and free enterprise—all hallowed concepts in American history—the protesters risked their jobs and their security to challenge a governments and a social system they feel has abused them. Egerton, John. “The Battle of the Books.” The Progressive June 1975: 13.

The school board, whose members are elected countywide to staggered six-year terms, have been dominated by the Charleston power structure, and the system’s administrators and teachers have been no more inclined to encourage community participation and parental involvement than professional educators elsewhere…It has been customary for the board and administration to conduct business in private, for teachers to provide instruction behind closed doors, and for parents to serve—if allowed to serve at all--on advisory committees which have little influence and no authority. Egerton, John. “The Battle of the Books.” The Progressive June 1975: 16.

Contemporary instructional materials give a more favorable and representative portrayal of blacks, women, Indians, and other groups, but the mountain culture to which so many people in Kanawha County belong is stereotyped and distorted in the materials—when it is presented at all. Egerton, John. “The Battle of the Books.” The Progressive June 1975: 17.

Even the most avid supporters of the textbooks acknowledge that a majority of the county’s population disapproves of many of the adopted materials. Egerton, John. “The Battle of the Books.” The Progressive June 1975: 17.

It is fruitless to argue whether or not schools should teach values; the fact is they do, and always have…But trite as it may be to say it, education is too important to be left to educators. And it is precisely that cleavage—between experts, authorities, technicians, and bureaucrats on the one hand, and the multitudes of culturally diverse and pluralistic people on the other—that threatens not just the peace and freedom of West Virginians, but the future of public education and the achievement of true democracy. Egerton, John. “The Battle of the Books.” The Progressive June 1975: 17.
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The (Supreme) court has upheld the rights of local communities to set their own obscenity standards. (Recent instances of banning have also involved allegedly sexist or racist material, objected to by minority group and feminist leaders.) Benzin, Philip. “War over Words—Latest Moves to Ban Certain School Books Worry U.S. Educators.” The Wall Street Journal September 20, 1974: 18.
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We will see later that those who defended the books employed arguments that had little relevance to the concerns of the book critics, and that these arguments were simply repeated as the rift widened… (148) In the ‘Overview’ (“Overview of the Language Arts Program’) the board was given (by the Textbook Selection Committee) both a justification for the recommended texts and a rebuttal to criticisms leveled against the books. But the declarations offered in defense of the books were less convincing arguments than articles of faith. (152) They (TSC) did not anticipate arguments to it, they provided no factual evidence to support their views, and they did not answer any criticisms made by antibook citizens...It also seems not to have occurred to them that others could legitimately criticize their definition of the purposes of the language arts program. The failure of the educators to give sufficient attention to the arguments of the book protesters was made more explicit at the May 23 meeting of the board of education. Mrs. Moore’s objections to the books were belittled and disparaged by defenders of the books. In addition, others charged that racism lay at the basis of her objections. (153) (At the June 27 meeting) “The probook arguments were restatements of faith rather than a series of persuasive reasons for purchasing the books and using them in Kanawha County schools...The defense of nonconscensual views of American life, alternative life-styles, constantly changing standards, and freedom of choice among nontraditional value systems could well have been seen as a confirmation of their (protesters’) worse fears. In a similar matter, the arguments of the book critics—that the books were anti-American, anti-Christian, and that they encouraged antisocial behavior and would lead to the disintegration of the family—were also essentially articles of faith...” (154) [Burger, Robert H. “The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy: A Study of Communications and Power.” Library Quarterly 48.2 (1978)] History proved THE PROTESTERS WERE RIGHT.
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On the other hand, it is understandable that a board member (Alice Moore), sensitive to parental concerns, might feel a compelling responsibility to speak for the parents at the stage of the final opportunity for parental input into the book-selection process: the meeting of the board at which approval was sought for the TSC (Textbook Selection Committee) recommendations. Burger, Robert H. “The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy: A Study of Communications and Power.” Library Quarterly 48.2 (1978): 149.
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While the adults interviewed represented differing viewpoints. The only high school students heard were in favor of the disputed books. (Anonymous. “NEA Reort on Kanawha County.” Wilson Library Bulletin. March, 1975: 484.)
I analyze the imbalance of the NEA Report in Chapter 7 of Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea Pary. This statement is additional support that the NEA did not intend on having a fair hearing. At a recent American Library Association meeting an NEA panel member (Ms. Judith Krug of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom) spoke about the panel report and was asked why the “other side was not represented on the panel. Her answer was not disclosed. A “Kanawha County librarian, Mrs. Hortenzia Rapking of the W. Va. Library Commission said that the parents’ opinions must be respected...”(pg. 535)
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Moore called the books ungodly and anti-American. Passages chosen as particularly offensive ranged from the writings of Malcolm X to evolutionary theories to the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk. (Byers, Robert J. “Documentary to Feature Textbook Battle.” Charleston Gazette Sept. 23, 1996)
Did the reporter mean that Malcom X passages were really bad and “Jack and the Beanstalk” was at the other end of the range? Probably he wanted to slant the report by making it seem like the protesters objected to an innocuous folktale. It was not the folktale that qualified “Jack and the Beanstalk” to be listed among one of the hundreds of objections—it was the context of moral relativism and leading children to question whether or not it is okay to steal. Also, although evolution is a lie, I don’t recall it being an issue during the protest. In fact, at that time, teachers could actually teach creation science in Kanawha County schools.
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One of the most condescending articles I have found was published in Dissent magazine which proudly proclaims to be a “magazine of the left” founded by “radicals” in the “tradition of democratic socialism" and that the “most glorious vision of the intellectual life is still that which is loosely called humanist...” (http://www.dissentmagazine.org/display.php?id=about) This section is taken from that article.

For them (protesters) there are no relative matters, no equivocations, no parables, no legends. [Humphreys, James. “Textbook War in West Virginia.” Dissent 23.2 (April 1976): pg. 164.]
What malarkey! The protesters understood and had no problem with legends. It was the use of such genre to attack (both subtlety and blatantly) our biblical values and belief in the historicity of Bible stories. His inclusion of “parables” in his list of lies is absurd! He must have not realized that Jeusus used parables to teach. Regarding “relative matters”—the issue was the attempt to indoctrinate our children with relativism ( truth and moral values are not absolute). “Equivocation” is closely tied to relativism (having more than one interpretation), but it is fitting that the word refers to having the intent to “mislead or confuse” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/equivocal ) which is the exact equivocation the protesters rose up to resist.

There are also (protester) objections to the alleged ‘prosocialistic’ bias of the books, such as references to Social Security. [Humphreys, James. “Textbook War in West Virginia.” Dissent 23.2 (April 1976): pg. 165.]
Huh! That is an idiotic statement. Many of the protester’s elderly relatives relied on their Social Security income.

Evolution also, the bugaboo of fundamentalists since before the Scopes Trial, is among their (protesters’) prime targets. [Humphreys, James. “Textbook War in West Virginia.” Dissent 23.2 (April 1976): pg. 166.]
Not so. At the time, Kanawha County was the only school system in the nation that allowed the teaching of Creation Science. After the protest the liberals launched a campaign to remove all criticism of evolutionism. Now, which side is narrow minded on that issue?

The parents, with honorable intentions, want to pass on to their children an America with "absolute values," revered leaders, firm and distinct roles, behavior patterns, , and expectations, and an America sharing a consensus on the propriety of fundamentalist religion. [Humphreys, James. “Textbook War in West Virginia.” Dissent 23.2 (April 1976): pg. 166.]
Humphreys was right in the goal, but he went on to say that America “never existed, it never will.” Well, the further one goes back in history, the closer to that ideal America is found. He is probably correct about the future, but that can be attributed to the onslaught of liberalism that swept in after the protester blockade faded away. West Virginia School News headlines verify that fact. Anyway, what is wrong with trying to achieve those goals?

What he wants in the schools, Horan explains, is a program of ‘basic’ education that will include the three Rs, with no profanity taught in the literature, plus shorthand, typing, patriotism, and respect for authority. Loyalty to government and parents must be stressed. [Humphreys, James. “Textbook War in West Virginia.” Dissent 23.2 (April 1976): pg. 167.]
What was wrong with wanting that?

There are but two philosophies, she (Alice Moore) says, and an individual must choose: one is moral absolutism, the other moral relativism. [Humphreys, James. “Textbook War in West Virginia.” Dissent 23.2 (April 1976): pg. 168.]
That is simply a reality of life. Mr. Humphreys, and those who share his worldview, are dogmatic that the latter option is correct. The results of their dogma are apparent throughout the West Virginia School News headlines.

Alice Moore gained a great deal of sympathy from the public and press—including many of those who supported the textbooks which she opposed—when she demanded that beliefs contrary to her conscience not be forced on her children. Going a step further, she now seeks to impose her beliefs upon the majority. Having won the recognition of the right not to read, she now fights to prohibit others from reading. [Humphreys, James. “Textbook War in West Virginia.” Dissent 23.2 (April 1976): pg. 170.]
I almost want to bang my head on my desk when I read that! First, the facts show that what Alice Moore believed was the same as the majority of Kanawha County citizens. Mrs. Moore won her next election by an astounding majority of votes distributed throughout all areas of the county. Second, she never tried to prevent anyone from reading anything. She tried to stop tax paid school books from being used to indoctrinate students. Third, three was miniscule support from the press.
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A Charleston Gazette editor referred to the protesters as “the crazies.” (Rupp, Carla Marie. “Charleston Editors Wrestle with Antitextbook Crusade.” Editor and Publisher Nov. 2, 1974: 9.) So much for the loving attitude of liberals.
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Nationally syndicated columnist, Jeffrey Hart, revealed (January 28, 1975) media hypocrisy and bias against the protesters. He pointed out how the media had conveyed the image of the protesters as “ignoramuses and religious nuts.” Hart said that the Washington Post had printed some innocuous lines from a poem from one of the protested books while omitting “more lurid” lines. Priest, Karl. Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea Party. Poca, WV: Praying Mantis Publishing, 2010. 62
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The protesters lost a lawsuit in U.S. District on the constitutionality of the books. The judge did say, “Careful consideration, evaluation and analysis of plaintiff’s complaint and testimony compel the conclusion that materials in some of the controversial textbooks and supplemental materials are offensive to plaintiff’s beliefs, choices of language and code of conduct.” Charleston Daily Mail, January 31, 1975
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Well, I stood with them (Kanawha County book protesters) one evening and felt that I was taking my life in my own hands to do it (they didn’t cotton to outsiders), but I learned that they weren’t so dumb after all. They got me to think and to read some of the books in question, books that I’m convinced many of them knew little of except for choice, damaging passages. Nevertheless, they had some good points indeed. (Charleston Daily Mail September 20, 1978)
Daily Mail columnist Rex Woodford, seemingly sneering at the protesters, was bemoaning how bad some books were in 1978.
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During one trip to D.C., some protesters met with U. S. Department of Education representatives. Referring to what was happening in Kanawha County, the United States Commissioner of Education, Terrell Bell, said (December 2, 1974), “Parents have a right to expect their schools, in their teaching approaches and selection of instructional materials, will support the values and standards that their children are taught at home. And if the schools cannot support these values they must at least avoid deliberate destruction of them.” Priest, Karl. Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea Party. Poca, WV: Praying Mantis Publishing, 2010. 72. [An article about Bell’s speech (without this exact quote was in the Charleston Daily Mail on December 2, 1974.)
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What does the Kanawha County textbook war tell us about the political and ideological construction of school knowledge? First, that school textbooks are in a very real sense political literature and reflections of cultural history,particularly in the way they are seen as artefacts through which to strengthen national moral consciousness...At the centre of the discourse promoted by the Kanawha protesters lay faith in the concept of “America” and what it meant to be American rooted in evangelical Christianity. At the heart of this ideology were the principles of authority, allegiance and tradition. The Kanawha protesters saw cultural changes and shifts in patterns of socio-economic and political relationships as dangerous to traditional forms of life. Crawford, Keith. 'Godless Books': The 1974 Kanawha County Textbook Controversy. (http://www.docstoc.com/docs/4847622/Godless-Books-The-Kanawha-County-Textbook-Controversy-Dr-Keith)
Dr. Crawford is a Reader in Education working on contemporary issues in education, educational policy making and international perspectives on education as part of the BA and MA degree in Education Studies. (http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/edgeways/issue11/literallyspeaking.htm)  See 'Godless Books': The 1974 Kanawha County Textbook Controversy.
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A November 3, 1974 Gazette op-ed tried to force BPPABT President Elmer Fike into a corner over Fike’s claim that patriotic themes were lacking in the textbooks and his objection to profanity. The writer lampooned Fike’s dilemma at Admiral Farragut’s famous “Damn the torpedoes” statement. Of course the liberals hooted at this. It turned out that the context in the textbook was ridiculing the admiral’s quote. Mr. Fike responded in a letter printed on November 10. He explained that the passage was actually a parody that was a “downgrading of what has been considered sacred ‘America’.”
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A Chicago Tribune reporter described how they entered (uninvited) a protester rally and were about to be tossed out. Marvin Horan intervened and asked the reporters to provide a fair report. Strobel, Lee. The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2004. 25

Mr. Strobel came after other reporters tried to enter a meeting uninvited and were run off by the miners. His editor had told him “These hillbillies hate reporters. They have already beaten up two of them. They are volatile.” Volatile: tending or threatening to break out into open violence (Dictionary.com)
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Mrs. Wood said that after reading a 500-page report from a sub group of a citizen’s committee which studies textbooks in West Virginia, she realized that nothing was safe. (Garland, Gregg. “Niles Teachers Hear ‘Horror Stories’ of Censorship”. Tribune Chronicle June 18, 1977: 11)
This is a statement made by Nell Wood to a group of Ohio teachers. Wood was the chairman of the committee of five white female teachers that selected the protested books. Mrs. Wood was filled with hate toward the protesters in 1974 and her hatred had not subsided in 2009. She referred to the protesters as “stupid”) in the radio documentary “The Great Textbook War” (point 47:00 at http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/textbooks/). In the same program she complained that no one ever wanted to hear her opinion (point 49:45 of original version—not on the website version). That claim is disproven by this incident and others cited on page 180 of Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea Party. The report was made by a group of protesters who broke away from a committee which was deceitfully designed to break the school attendance boycott. During a so-called “cooling off” period, citizens appointed by board members were assigned to closely examine the books. The committee members found that it was a sham and they were targets of ridicule by teachers and liberal committee members. This is documented by a member of that committee on pages 245-247 of Protester Voices. Mrs. Wood went on to say, “The document contained ‘horrible misrepresentations of literature’ with the censors even objecting to the famous saying by an American admiral, “damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.” The simple explanation to the Admiral Farragut’s famous quote censorship exaggeration is above. As far as “horrible misrepresentations”, Mrs. Wood’s colleagues attempted to rebut them. The best example is illustrated in a full page newspaper ad placed by the protesters listing several specific objections. I welcome an objective researcher to compare the November 14, 1974 ad in the Charleston Gazette and Daily Mail to the November 21 response by pro-book* teachers in the Daily Mail.
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The National Education Association magazine had an article in 1974 (Carson, Mary. “Action in Cedar Rapids.” Today’s Education. March-April 1974: 87) about a parent that complined “that a major reading series being used in the Cedar Paid’s Schools contained extensive sexist bias.” Within six months the system “significantly changed teacher awareness of the problem and devised a set of strategies to cope with the needed changes which had been identified.” Well, that is how a liberal complaint is treated. Of course the Kanawha School Board complexly missed the article’s last sentence: “The main thrust must be awareness, for a problem must first be seen and recognized before anything constructive can be done about it.”
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The textbook battle is really an attempt on their (WASP America) part to affirm their way of life and values—unadvisable as some of those values seem to us—and to overcome stereotypes that offend them. (Marty, Martin E. “Taking Sides in Kanawha County.” Christian Century November 13, 1974: 1079)
But the protests, now led by a coalition of preachers and parents—many of whom admit they have not even read the controversial texts—continued. (“The Book Banners.” Newsweek 30 September 1974: 95.)
First, I doubt if the author of this “report” (that is being generous with the term) actually had read the books or even the widely published excerpts provided by the protesters. Second, how does he know there were “many” and if there actually were “many” how many were there? Twelve thousand people signed a petition objecting to the books! Third, as documented in Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea Party—the protesters made great efforts to display the books county wide and encourage folks to read them. Some of the most outrageous items I found in researching the literature about the Textbook War were found in this “news” article and another one of the same title dated 9 June 1975.

“There are some leading phrases in these books that will change a person’s attitude toward his family and his country,” explains Joseph Tuemler, a picketing miner. “We’re against that kind of stuff—we don’t teach it at home and we don’t want it in school.” School officials are at a loss as to how to counter such sentiments.” (Sheils, Merrill. “The Book Banners.” Newsweek 30 September 1974: 95.)
DUH! “Such sentiments” CANNOT be countered. There is no right for schools to attempt to counter the values taught in homes! In case anyone thinks Mr. Tuemler was blowing smoke, consider that the protesters produced a 500 plus page documentation of information to support Tuemler’s statement. Some of the most outrageous items I found in researching the literature about the Textbook War were found in this “news” article and another one of the same title dated 9 June 1975.

Some critics of the boycott charge that the miners seized on the school issue as a pretext to strike—hoping to reduce coal stockpiles and pressure their employers into raising their pay. But many of the protesting workers seem genuinely convinced that a “Communist influence” is governing the education of their children. (“The Book Banners.” Newsweek 30 September 1974: 95.)
Even the most prejudiced “reporter” sometimes is forced to or mistakenly make(s) a factually revealing statement. Actually, it is reasonable to say that almost all of the miners were concerned with the attack upon the values they wanted to convey to their children. Some of the most outrageous items I found in researching the literature about the Textbook War were found in this “news” article and another one of the same title dated 9 June 1975.
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To miner families in Kanawha County or to educational and religious conservatives in Prince Georges County (MD) and elsewhere, the public schools are out of control, unresponsive to a minority, purveyors of a “secular humanist philosophy,” a heretical liberalism that is offensive to their beliefs. In a sense their frustrations have a kinship with the community control advocates of the late 1960s in New York and elsewhere who wanted to rescue their schools and their curriculum from the imposed values of the white majority. In the recent past the liberals were quick to ban old standards like Little Black Sambo as offensive to blacks, and Dick and Jane readers for being grossly sexist.

When the extremism of the book banners in Kanawha County is laid aside some real issues of significance to any democratically run public school system remain.

Who governs the curriculum? Public school teachers have never had an absolute right to decide what books and materials are used in the classroom. (Matthews, John. “Texts for Our Times.” New Republic January 4, 1975: 20)
This liberal (despite his swipes at the protesters) comes close to comprehending the matter.

Most importantly the series (D. C. Heath Communicating for elementary children) does not shy away from what educators call the ‘affective’ side of education. Particularly in the teacher’s guide—which children never see and teachers may ignore—discussion questions encourage children to deal with the moral and ethical issues raised in the stories, to express their feelings, emotions and opinions, and to confront issues of principle. (emphasis added) (Matthews, John. “Texts for Our Times.” New Republic January 4, 1975: 21)
I stressed “may” because it is a rare (I say non-existent is likely) teacher who would not have used the teacher’s guide. Most parents do not want their 7-11 year old child being confronted with “affective” (psychological realm dealing with emotions) education led by adults who may not share the family values of the child.
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On their mission to Washington, a dozen parents and ministers tried to persuade federal officials to cut off school funds to West Virginia unless the books are banned. (“Back to the Boycott.” TIME November 4, 1974: 88-90)
TIME magazine could easily compete for the Most Biased Media prize of 1974-75. The parents were not banning the books. They were insisting that THEIR tax money not be used to fund an attack on THEIR values. See above for what United States Commissioner of Education, Terrell Bell, said about the rights of that peaceful delegation. Also, Mr. Bell said that some juvenile literature “appears to emphasize violence and obscenity and moral judgments that run counter to tradition” and “I feel strongly that the scholar’s freedom of choice must have the approval and support of most parents.” (“Interpretations Differ on Bell Textbook View.” Charleston Daily Mail. December 2, 1974)
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What is apparent in recent months in the Mountain State is a widespread cultural counter-revolution which outrages Eastern sensibilities and attitudes toward education, religion and community values. (Gibbons, Russell W. “Textbooks in the Hollows.” Commonweal December 6, 1974:231)
Yep, and who says ours are of less value than theirs?
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The Kanawha County Textbook War is mentioned in numerous studies such as the 2006 Ph. D. dissertation “Be Careful Little Eyes What You See: Factors Affecting Challenges to Materials in Private College Preparatory School Libraries” by Renee E. Franklin. On pages 5 she gives a synopsis of the event and focuses on the District Court case Williams v. Board of Education of County of Kanawha. Franklin says that the lawsuit was filed by “a group of Kanawha residents” who had “concerns that the county’s decision to retain the textbooks forced them to place their children in private schools because ‘both religious and anti-religious materials offensive to Christian morals, matter which defames the Nation and which attacks civic virtue, and matter which suggests and encourages the use of bad English...’” (quoting Foerstel, H.N. 1994 Banned in the U.S.A.: A reference guide to book censorship in schools and public libraries. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ) (page 6) Actually the lawsuit was brought by parents of two children who were (when the suit was filed) attending public school. The gist of the other complains is adequate, but the KEY point was the board “violated the position of neutrality in religious matters as required by the U. S. Supreme Court...and cconstitution.” (Charleston Gazette 9-18-1974).

Again quoting Forestel, Franklin reported (page 6) that “[T]he court finds nothing in defendant’s conduct or acts which constitutes an inhibition on or prohibition of the free exercise of religion. These rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment, but the amendment does not guarantee that nothing about religion will be taught in the schools nor that nothing offensive to any religion will be taught in the schools.” She did not include the statement by the judge that “Careful consideration, evaluation and analysis of plaintiff’s complaint and testimony compel the conclusion that materials in some of the controversial textsbooks and supplemental materials are offensive to the plaintiff’s beliefs, choices of language and code of conduct.” (Charleston Daily Mail 1-31-1975)

All three of her reference sources were focused on the subject of censorship. The other two are: Hull, M.E. (1999). Censorship in America: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABCCLIO and Kravitz, N. (2002). Censorship and the school library media center. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
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Other books proposed by the selection committee were perhaps even more unsettling. Soul on Ice, written by the Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver, described the author engaged in rape and other criminal activities. Another textbook related Sigmund Freud’s thoughts on the Oedipus Complex, which purports to identify an element of sexual desire in child-parent relationships. (emphasis added and the statement speaks for itself)
Skinner, David. A Battle over Books.” HUMANITIES , September/October 2010 Volume 31, Number 5
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Referring to Trey Kay who produced the radio documentary The Great Textbook War:

But when beginning work on the documentary, he wondered if the textbook controversy, which looms large in the memories of West Virginians, would be of interest outside the state. And he was a little bit worried about getting the interviews he needed.

He was a “Hiller,” meaning he’d grown up in the white-collar neighborhood known as The Hill, where the new books were welcomed. Would the rural former protesters even talk to him? He was also concerned that his years living in New York City and working for Public Radio International would further alienate him from potential sources.

Instead, he found himself warmly received, especially by the aging protesters. (emphasis added and the statement speaks for itself)
Skinner, David. “A Battle over Books.” HUMANITIES , September/October 2010 Volume 31, Number 5
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Most of the people of the Mountain State still don’t know that their “Liberal” betters consider it passé to have strong religious and patriotic convictions, to prefer the traditional to the avant-garde and mediocre, and to believe that in the education of children the rights of the parents must be given precedence over the theories of the pedagogues. (Hoar, William P. “Parents Revolt—When Textbooks are Propaganda.” American Opinion Nov. 1974: 1.
Mr. Hoar is probably the only conservative writer quoted on these pages. His comments are insightful.
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The protestors appeared to be unwilling or unable to compromise. Watras, Joseph. “The textbook Dispute in West Virginia, A New Form of Oppression.” Educational Leadership October 1975: 21.
The article had one half-page photo of a classroom damaged by a dynamite blast. In an email (1-9-13) Alice Moore told me, “ I made a mistake when I acquiesced to a protester leader who called into a secret, private location board meeting to ask me to go alone with withdrawing the books for thirty days for review. I will concede that was a great mistake.” She said that because the Protesters soon found out it was a strategic move by the Board to deceive them.

The protesters showed us that pluralism cannot be served if traditional values are trivialized...Just as the Appalachian people have to lose their paranoia, we have to lose our fear of strongly held values. (Watras, pg. 23)
He would have been more scholarly if he had replaced “have to lose their paranoia” with “may become less suspicious of those who think they are more intelligent and enlightened when given good reason.”
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“Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Fike spent many hours with this stranger and helped to identify others who could assist…Reverend Avis Hill, who functioned at the center of the controversy from beginning to end, not only spent time recounting his experiences, but was most generous in sharing his files with me. Also, Mr. Donald means, who died tragically only a few days after I spoke with him, provided welcome information.” Goode, Don J. A Study of Values and Attitudes in a Textbook Controversy in Kanawha County, West Virginia: An Overt Act of Opposition to Schools. 1984. Michigan State University, PhD dissertation: vii
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“Objections to ‘non-standard English’ can be a coded way of registering dislike of blacks and other minorities. It can also be what it purports to be: objection to non-standard English.”
Martin, William. With God on Our Side. New York: Broadway Books, 1996: 121 (Chapter 5: “The Culture War”)
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“Alice Moore was less inclined to think actual communists were involved, but she did believe the books bore the marks of ‘people in our country who are maybe leftist leaning, who think socialism is a better system than we have.’”
Martin, William. With God on Our Side. New York: Broadway Books, 1996: 124 (Chapter 5: “The Culture War”)
As proven by 2019 news headlines, she was right.
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“In regards to the Kanawha County controversy, a number of dissertations, chapters of books, and one entire book have been written. Specifically, I utilized the works of Carol Mason, Don Goode, and Catherine Candor. (7)… Although the works mentioned above were immeasurably useful to my research, for the most part their words were laden with political biases and less than subtle distain for those who disagree. In addition, the nuanced voices of the community and protest were absent from the existing literature written about the controversy.” (9)
Engell, Sarah Michelle. “Replacing Periods With Question Marks: A study of the Roll of Public Education in Kanawha County, West Virginia.” Penn Humanities Forum on Sex May 2016: 7, 9
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“His (Superintendent Underwood) repeated claim that the controversy is ridiculous sent a strong dismissal of legitimacy of the protesters. Though he stated he was willing to speak with concerned parents, his dismissal of legitimacy from the very beginning of the controversy was a strong indicator of the growing distance in understanding between multiple factions.”
Engell, Sarah Michelle. “Replacing Periods With Question Marks: A study of the Roll of Public Education in Kanawha Couth, West Virginia.” Penn Humanities Forum on Sex May 2016: 47
Underwood, and his cohorts on the left, always looked down their noses at the Protesters.
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“I have also gained a deep appreciation for the impact of textbooks on shaping students’ notions of identity and community. As evinced by the controversy in Kanawha County, textbooks have the potential to have an incredible impact.”
Engell, Sarah Michelle. “Replacing Periods With Question Marks: A study of the Roll of Public Education in Kanawha Couth, West Virginia.” Penn Humanities Forum on Sex May 2016: 84
That is exactly what the Protesters said.
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The first scholar to cite Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea Party was Dr. Adam Laats. See a comprehensive review of his book The Other School Reformers-Conservative Activism in American Education.
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In 2015 Marshall University Libraries and the American Civil Liberties Union had a program to observe “Banned Books Week” which had a “panel discussion included Trey Kay, the executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia, and a Riverside (Kanawha County) High School AP literature teacher.” Trey Kay is reasonably objective, the ACLU is a hate-group, and regarding the teacher. It brings to mind an image of three ostriches with their heads in the sand patting each others’ fannies with their tail-feathers. Now, who is narrow-minded?

(Marshall, ACLU host discussion on Kanawha County 'textbook war' by Bishop Nash Oct 1, 2015
https://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/marshall-aclu-host-discussion-on-kanawha-county-textbook-war/article_b6c141f6-67f1-11e5-9e95-7727d5f14663.html)

For more about Marshall, see “Marshall Exposed.”
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*Pro-bookers is a non-complimentary term I use in Protester Voices—The 1974 Textbook Tea P arty.
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This page is based upon points made in a Powerpoint presentation which was prepared to portray the truth about the 1974 textbook protesters to parry the pompous people who have poured propaganda into the public’s perception. Some of the material was overlooked or unavailable when the protesters’ book was being researched. More detailed material can be obtained from Protester Voices: The 1974 Textbook Tea Party. That is a book liberals do not want anyone to read!

The TRUTH is that the Kanawha Coutny Textbook Protesters were true patriots and heroes. They consisted of thousands of humble people who have suffered humiliation because they stood up for children and America in 1974. The Kanawha County Textbook Protesters deserve to be honored.

For documented facts that the Courageous Corps of ’74 were also NOT IGNORANT, NOT RELIGIOUS FANATICS, NOT CENSORS, NOT VIOLENT, and NOT RACIST--click on each slur. Also, please see PERTINENT POINTS which do not fit the slur categories. Note: Some items may apply to more than one category. In that case the item is placed arbitrarily into whatever I feel is the best fit. The anchor for these particular pages is “The Facts”.

A detailed example of how propagandists disguised as professors have passed deception down the line since 1974 is in “A Tale of Three Tiny Tomes”.

A video is worth a million words. A video is worth a million words. See Textbook War videos and see if you believe your lying eyes and ears.

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