Thirty Six Years Later the Beat Goes On

By Al Benson Jr.


Recently I spoke in a radio interview on radio station WVHU in Huntington, West Virginia. The subject was mostly the 1974 textbook protest in Kanawha County, West Virginia. Since we were in West Virginia for part of that, it has been a subject that has retained importance for me, partly because of our experiences there and partly because of the implications which that event held for the entire country.

This protest was the beginning of much of the conservative reaction to the ultra-leftist direction the country had been heading in for decades. It was the first known mass resistance to what the government schools were doing to the children of America. Up until this protest most people didn’t have a clue.

It is truly amazing how the leftist origin and trends of the government school system have been mostly hidden from the average American. People in the past have tried to warn us where these schools were headed but it seems that most of their warnings were either ignored, buried, or shoved down the “memory hole” so that no significant number of people ever saw them.

Presbyterian theologian R. L. Dabney wrote, back in the 1880s, and told where the government schools were headed and what the logical outcome of that direction would be. No one listened. Zach Montgomery, Assistant Attorney General of the United States wrote back in the late 1800s telling us where public “education” was going. His writings were buried. Author and theologian R. J. Rushdoony wrote in 1964 that: “Statist education began as a subversive movement and its bitter, savage struggle has not yet been written.” He informed us in his book The Nature of the American System  back in 1965 that the founders of the government school system in this country were Unitarians, who worked to implement this system as a reaction against Christian education in New England.

For whatever reason, censorship or whatever, the work of these dedicated men remains virtually unknown to the public at large who continue to think they can send their kids to the public brain laundries and not have them suffer the consequences. I continue to be amazed at how many people here in the South just adore the government school system. Their great grandfathers despised “reconstruction” as it was thrust upon them after the War of Northern Aggression, and the public schools in the South were a major part of “reconstruction.” When I tell folks here that, mostly I get blank stares back. They don’t have a clue to what I’m talking about. Because most of them went to government schools, any real knowledge of their history has been brainwashed out of them. They literally don’t know what I’m talking about. They’ve learned to love the system that is robbing them of their cultural identity--”He loved Big Brother!”

The West Virginia situation changed that. People saw what their kids were being fed under the guise of “education” and they rose in protest--a protest strong enough that the education establishment in Washington had to make sure it was shut down--any way they could. For their Marxist mentalities the end justified the means and the means weren’t always pretty.

Karl Priest, a former government school teacher in West Virginia during the book protest there has written a revealing history of that protest, which I have alluded to in previous articles. It is called Protester Voices--The 1974 Textbook Tea Party. Mr. Priest has noted the plethora of articles, books, and research papers  done on the protest over the past three and one half decades. He has also noted that “…these have been overwhelmingly negative toward the protesters.” Do you wonder why? The government school system is the sacred cow of the establishment. It is supposed to be above criticism and so dissent in regard to it needs to be silenced. But the system has gotten so blatant after West Virginia that you can’t hide its major problems anymore. Mr. Priest has written “If you have children you should remove them from the public school…Christian parents are biblically mandated to give their children a Christian education. A Christian education encompasses all academic areas--not just a Bible lesson a couple times a week.”

This past September was the 36th anniversary of when the protest actually took off and so there is a bit of activity regarding it in parts of West Virginia. We will have to wait to see how fairly the protesters have been dealt with on this anniversary. One thought strikes me. The protest struck a raw nerve in the government’s brainwashing apparatus. The system was blooded and they have not been able to stop the bleeding. Almost 2 million homeschoolers in this country are a testament to that fact. Mr. Priest’s book is listed on Amazon.com so check it out. It is an eye-opener and will introduce you to a battle for our children that continues to this day.