“The 1974 Textbook Tea Party”

By Al Benson Jr.


Thirty five years ago last year an event occurred  in Kanawha County, West Virginia that seems to have had more far-reaching ramifications than many of us who became involved in it could have imagined at that time. All I can say is thank the Lord for those who possess a historical perspective that far outdistances mine.

Back in 2004, on the thirtieth anniversary of this event, I wrote an article called “The Thirty Years War” which was posted on http://www.federationofstates.org/articles which dealt with the Kanawha County textbook protest (war). Actually I guess the term “war” would be more appropriate, as the politically correct cultural Marxists of that day had declared war on the mostly Christian culture of West Virginia and upon that culture’s children via the government schools. Their weapon of choice was textbooks for Kanawha County’s government (public) schools. When the parents of the children in those schools saw what was in the textbooks they rebelled. That rebellion has been pretty much buried in our day. The government school bureaucracy and the leftist media wanted to make sure as few as possible heard about or remembered this event and so the leftists have tried to shove it down the memory hole as far as they could. Fortunately, they have not been able to get it down far enough for people to forget. Some remember.

In the summer of 1974 the school board in Kanawha County chose a set of textbooks that were to go into the schools the next school year. There was some pretty raunchy stuff in many of these textbooks, even by today’s loose standards, and one lady on the school board, Alice Moore, really had some problems with what was to be foisted off on the kids next year. She started trying to make parents aware of this material and, thanks to her efforts in this area, the Kanawha County textbook war was off and running.

Several ministers soon stepped forward to lead the protest, which was only fitting for West Virginia. Others remained quiet when they, too, should have spoken up.

The protesters, in order to keep the questionable material out of the schools, did several things. They bought an ad in the Charleston newspaper (which was against the protesters from the beginning) so the public at large would be aware of what was going into the government schools under the guise of education. Then they did a novel thing. They picketed all the government schools in the Kanawha Valley. West Virginia was a union state, what with all the coal mines there, and so not too many people would cross a picket line. What this accomplished was to basically shut down the government school system there. Almost no one would cross the picket line, either to go to school or to deliver supplies, or for any normal reason. And the picket lines did shut down the schools--for several weeks.  Some government schools which daily had hundreds of students found that, after the picketing began, there were maybe four or five students that showed up.

There were a couple big protest parades in Charleston, with literally thousands of parents marching and carrying signs protesting what the government schools were trying to do to their children. All of this was bad news for the government school system. The whole situation became so explosive that the national media found that it had to report something about it, lest people outside of Kanawha County hear about it (which was beginning to happen) and wonder where the “news” media was all this time. So the situation finally made it into the national, and even international news. However, through all this the “unbiased” media took great pains to paint the protesters with the blackest possible brush. It sought to portray them all as bomb-throwing anarchists and overt racists. Now, admittedly, a handful of those types showed up, but they in no way reflected the genuine concerns of the vast majority of the parents involved in the protest. I can remember the first article I read about the protest in the “Chicago Tribune” in the fall of 1974. It was so blatantly biased against the book protesters that I said to my wife “Those protesters in West Virginia must be doing something right.” Little did I know at that point that, in a year’s time, my family and I would be in West Virginia.

At one point during the protest the parents had the government educrats over a barrel--until the educrats rather grudgingly admitted that there might possibly be some problems with some of the textbooks--but they had a way to solve that thorny problem. They would have all the books reviewed if the protesters would just get off their backs and give them a month’s moratorium to get the review done. The government school educrats understood the nature of their adversaries much better than the protesters understood the nature of theirs. The protesters agreed to the moratorium. The month came and went and at the end of that time the school board announced that the books had been reviewed  and nothing was found wrong with them--they didn’t know what all the fuss was about in the first place--and back into the government schools went the raunchy textbooks.

Oh, there was a good bit of complaining, but in giving the educrats their month’s moratorium the textbook protesters had also given the situation time to cool down for their supporters, and the initial ardor of many of the protesters was gone. A great many of them ended up putting their kids back into the government schools and all their efforts seemed to be for naught. There were some, however, that, thankfully refused to do this and several new Christian schools were started in the Kanawha Valley, so I guess you have to say that the protest was not without some success, but it wasn’t, by any means, the success it could have been. The media sought to bury it, as did the educrats at all levels, although at times they have resurrected the event in order to further cast aspersions  at the protesters over the years. I guess that fact alone tells us that it had ramifications over and above what we could see at the time.

The protest limped along for another several months, with protest leaders planning several events in an attempt to rekindle the fires of protest, but, to all intents and purposes, it was finished when the protesters agreed to the moratorium, and the school board understood this. This kind of protest is hard to sustain indefinitely. People need to get on with their lives and you can only do so much for so long. The educrats made their living brainwashing America’s kids. They could go on forever. Our taxes pay their salaries for this brainwashing of our kids. Most honest folks have to go back to making a living. It’s no different today.

The vast majority of Christians, home schoolers, and patriotic folks hardly even remember this event anymore, when it should be remembered as part of their history--a major incident, among others, to demonstrate to them what they are standing for and against.

When we first got involved in the protest I thought I would like to write a book about it. At that point, I just was not up to that task. After awhile I realized it and gave up.

However, now, thirty five years later, someone has written a book about it. I just got a copy this week and have gone through quite a bit of it. The author, Karl C. Priest, was also part of the protest and he knows what he is talking about. This book needs to be in the library of every family with youngsters in Christian schools or who is being home schooled. This is part of your history. It helps to define why your parents do what they do regarding your education. Parents need to read this book. Young folks need to read it. It gives you an up-close look at what the government schools are really all about and what their agenda really is--cultural Marxism to the core!

The name of the book is “Protester Voices--the 1974 Textbook Tea Party.” The book costs $14.95, with a shipping cost of $4.05, for a total of $19.00. It can be ordered from Karl C. Priest,  141 Karmel Lane,  Poca, West Virginia 25159.