Tea Party Groups In Tennessee Demand Textbooks Overlook U.S. Founder’s Slave-Owning History

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July 10, 2012

By Trymaine Lee, Huffington Post

Tea Party activists in Tennessee are attempting to remove any and all references to slavery from local history textbooks, specifically references to the Founding Fathers owning slaves.

Hal Rounds, a Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the organization, said at a news conference that they seek to eliminate “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.”

This push comes after the Texas Board of Education approved changes to its history and civics curriculum, changes which examine slavery’s positive aspects, equate the positions of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, and note the “unintended consequences” of affirmative action.

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Often, people are surprised to discover their family’s racist histories.

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