A Virgin Walks Into a Civil Rights Debate ...

SBOE member Mary Helen Berlanga holds a portrait of World War II prisoner of war Jose Angel Flores of Corpus Christi. The portrait to the left is of Jose Antonio Navarro, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. (Photo by Jana Birchum)

The highly entertaining yet cringe-worthy circus known as the Texas State Board of Education was back in town last week, bringing along its usual assortment of clowns. The centerpiece of the show was testimony on proposed revisions to the social studies portion of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, the mix of requirements and guidelines for public school curriculum in the Lone Star State. Things weren't quite as explosive as expected and not nearly as emotionally charged as the science standards hearings earlier this year, but the antics were still enough to have the sane slapping their heads.

First, things kicked off with a woman telling the board she is a 56-year-old virgin, only to have board Chair Gail Lowe cut her off, pointing out that the sex ed discussion was held the day before. (Look it up on YouTube. Everyone else has.) With everyone's eyes still popping out from that one, things moved to the topic at hand. Liberals and advocates for racial minorities came ready to do battle over proposals by some on the SBOE's "expert" social studies panel recommending that civil rights leader Cesar Chavez and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall be removed from guidelines suggesting them as discussion-worthy historical figures.

WallBuilder David Barton spins the media outside the SBOE boardroom. (Photo by Jana Birchum)

While most of the six-member panel appointed by board members had solid academic credentials, board critics such as the Texas Freedom Network – a watchdog group combating the influence of the religious right – blasted the selection of David Barton and Peter Marshall, saying the pair were culture war activists, not scholars. Earlier this summer, the two slammed the inclusion of Chavez in the guidelines.

In his recommendations to the board, Bar­ton – leader of the conservative Christian WallBuilders organization – wrote, "Cesar Chavez may be a choice representing diversity but he certainly lacks the stature, impact, and overall contributions of so many others; and his open affiliation with Saul Alinsky's movements certainly makes dubious that he is a praiseworthy to be heralded to students as someone 'who modeled active participation in the democratic process.'" Marshall, who runs Peter Marshall Ministries, made similar comments about Chavez and wrote that Thurgood Marshall is "not [a] strong enough [example] in light of the multiplicity of persons who have impacted American history." (See "Social Studies 'Experts' Don't Know Much About History," July 24.)

The pair were met by a wall of portraits of important Latino historical figures surrounding the desks of board members Mary Helen Berlanga, Rene Nuñez, and Rick Agosto. Berlanga asked Barton why Chavez should be removed from the standards. Barton did a sidestep by saying that he merely thought Chavez should be placed in a different area of the standards; TFN reps speaking to the Chronicle declared this a "full retreat" from his previous comments.

The expert testimony was preceded by several public speakers, including Austin state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, local League of United Latin American Citizens member Fidel Acevedo, and Yannis Banks of the Texas NAACP, decrying Barton and Peter Marshall's opinions. Marshall apparently wasn't listening when Banks laid out a long list of the many pivotal civil rights cases that Thurgood Marshall had argued as an attorney, saying Justice Marshall was "only known for that one case" – that being the landmark Brown v. Board of Education that desegregated America's public schools. If that's true, then he may have inadvertently laid out the reason why Thur­good Marshall's role in history should be discussed more.

Board members, even the arch-conservatives who appointed Barton and Peter Marshall, agreed that the civil rights leaders belonged in Texas classroom instruction. The TEKS writing teams will make further revisions this month, with a first vote by the board in Octo­ber and a final vote in January.