For months, Tennessee Republican lawmakers were hearing from dozens of parents concerned about how educators were trying to make their lessons more inclusive in response to the nation’s racial reckoning.
One lawmaker said a mom reported that her 7-year-old daughter, who is white, was having suicidal thoughts because of uncomfortable conversations about race in her classroom.
Simultaneously, GOP leaders were tracking bills that would restrict how race and racism are taught in other states. But they hadn’t planned to push their own version until the week of April 19, when President Joe Biden’s administration announced a new grant program for history and civics education.
The grant program – prioritizing instruction on diversity, anti-racism and the legacy of slavery – unleashed a torrent of backroom discussions just 2 weeks before Tennessee’s General Assembly adjourned on May 5.
Interviews conducted recently with key players in those discussions shed light on why Tennessee lawmakers abruptly moved to join their counterparts in Idaho, Iowa and Oklahoma to ban the teaching of topics they viewed as cynical, divisive and misguided.