Attacks against teaching the history of enslaved Africans and their descendants in America

Juneteenth commemorations in recent years have spread across America, recognizing the end of slavery following the Civil War.

Last year marked the ultimate milestone. President Biden signed legislation to observe Juneteenth as a federal holiday. South Dakota is now the only state without a Juneteenth holiday on June 19, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Yet as the nation prepares to celebrate the 156-year-old observance, efforts continue to limit discussions about the role racial discrimination has played in shaping American history and modern society.

Republican politicians in 42 states have introduced varying legislation to restrict how teachers, workplaces and public institutions address what they consider “divisive concepts," according to Education Week magazine. Those concepts include racism, sexism, transphobia, unconscious bias, white privilege and discrimination.

Republicans decry discussions around these topics as “indoctrination,” while civil rights leaders and Democrats condemn bans as attempts to whitewash the history of enslaved Africans, their descendants in America and other marginalized groups.

“(Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis) turned our classrooms into political battlefields and put kids in the crossfire to advance his presidential ambitions,” Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Florida, tweeted April 18, 2022, while sharing video of a media appearance.

Here are some of the forms the political rhetoric has taken across the country.

Florida

The Sunshine State is on the front lines of this divisive national debate.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Florida lawmakers enacted the Stop WOKE Act to restrict discussions and diversity training in schools and workplaces, rejected more than 50 math textbooks to protect students from "indoctrination" and sought to punish Disney for opposing a bill that prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

DeSantis is among many right-wing politicians who have broadly applied to these issues the term "critical race theory" while attempting to rally supporters against teaching practices related to race and racism. Critical race theory, or CRT, is a college-level academic framework that examines how racism permeates institutions. It is not taught in elementary and secondary education.

“Florida’s education system exists to create opportunity for our children,” DeSantis tweeted in June 2021. “Critical Race Theory teaches kids to hate our country and to hate each other. It is state-sanctioned racism and has no place in Florida schools.”

Democrats claim the rhetoric and legislation are designed to diminish past and present inequities faced by minorities.

“Why is it bad to be awake, to be conscious of things, aware of what’s happening and aware of what’s happened?” Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Lighthouse Point, said during a state Senate session in March 2022. “Make no mistake, racism is alive and doing all too well in the year 2022.”

Tennessee

Tennessee lawmakers have followed a similar page, particularly when it comes to books.

In June 2021, after state restrictions on race and bias teaching took effect, a parent group petitioned for the removal of “Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story” by Ruby Bridges. The book was published in 2009.

As a 6-year-old, Bridges made history on Nov. 4, 1960, as one of the first Black students to integrate America's public schools following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.

Back in Tennessee, a parent group, Williamson County Moms for Liberty, argued the autobiography contains "explicit and implicit anti-American, anti-white and anti-Mexican teaching" designed to make children "hate their country, each other, and/or themselves."

The group later tweeted in July 2021: "'I always say that it would be really really hard to explain to a six year old child what I was about to encounter, going to school that day.' --Ruby Bridges. Should history be taught? Emphatically, YES. But with objectivity and at an appropriate age."

Rep. Jerry Sexton, R-Bean Station, introduced an amendment during a state House session on April 27, 2022, that would give his state’s politically-appointed textbook commission veto power over what books are allowed in school libraries. When asked on the House floor what he would do with any books that are banned — specifically whether he'd put them in the street or light them on fire, Sexton replied, "I don’t have a clue, but I would burn ‘em."

Sexton later said on the floor he wasn’t a member of the textbook commission and didn’t think any book-burning was likely to occur. Sexton’s comments came less than three months after Tennessee pastor Greg Locke organized a book burning that destroyed copies of Holocaust-themed graphic novel "Maus," "Harry Potter," "Twilight" and other works.

Arizona

An investigation by USA TODAY and its network of newspapers found right-wing groups such as the Center for Arizona Policy and the Goldwater Institute helped draft much of the anti-CRT legislation proposed across the nation.

In Arizona, legislation seeks to make teachers subject to a $5,000 fine if they allow classroom discussions on controversial topics such as racism, or fail to give equal weight to divisive topics. Legislation has also been proposed that would allow parents to review instructional material and school library books.

"Racism cannot be combated by teaching children to be racist," Republican state Rep. Michelle Udall, the sponsor of Arizona’s "Unbiased Teaching Act," said in a May 2021 release.

Parents have voiced similar views at school board meetings in Arizona and beyond, igniting heated confrontations throughout many traditionally nonpartisan government bodies.

State Sen. Martín Quezada is among the Democrats who condemned Udall's arguments.

"This bill is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to a complete misunderstanding of what #CriticalRaceTheory even is," Quezada tweeted in response. "The people who need it the most are the ones who voted to ban it."

Oklahoma

Incendiary remarks about racism haven’t been confined to anti-critical race theory bills. A Oklahoma state representative sparked backlash in April 2021 when he, a white Republican, compared lawmakers’ push to end abortion to the fight against slavery.

Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, defended his comments after Democrats asked for Olsen to be formally censured.

"I made a very historically appropriate analogy. I never spoke positively of slavery," Olsen told the Associated Press. "One evil at one time was acceptable in our society, and now it’s not. I look forward to the time when we stop killing babies."

Later in the year, Olsen proposed a slavery education bill to prevent Oklahoma schools from teaching students that one race was the "unique oppressor" or "victim."

"The fact that Jim Olsen chooses to fight to romanticize the legacy of slave owners in the American south is a little strange, but not all that surprising," Rep. Monroe Nichols, a Black Democrat, tweeted in response on Dec. 15, 2021.

Oklahoma’s Republican majority killed a bill last year that would have mandated all state lawmakers attend racial sensitivity training.

Indiana

Indiana is another state that has pitched legislation to allow parents to review teachers’ lesson plans and educational materials.

Lawmakers’ efforts to pass broad restrictions on teaching content ultimately failed, unlike in other Republican-controlled states, but a watered-down version of the bill did offer school districts the option to create parental review boards.

While the legislation is softer than other states like Florida that grant parents authority to sue schools if they believe critical race theory is being taught, teachers have expressed concern the measure will still have a chilling effect.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita tweeted on April 28, 2022: "Staff from my office attended the Noblesville School Board Candidates’ Forum earlier this week to interact with Hoosiers who are concerned about their children’s education. My office fights for parents' rights!"

Maine

Maine hasn’t passed any legislation restricting lessons on racism, but GOP leaders did use the Republican Party’s convention in April 2022 to adopt a platform aimed at doing so.

The symbolic platform would limit teaching about critical race theory, sexual orientation and gender identity, the Bangor Daily News has reported. The platform now defines teaching or promoting biological genders other than male or female as child sexual abuse, with limited exceptions, according to the newspaper.

A measure to remove same-sex marriage opposition from the platform failed, meaning the Maine GOP's official platform still considers marriage to only be between a man and a woman.

Gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage, a former governor, said during the convention, according to a Maine GOP tweet: "The Choice next November is Clear – I stand for Faith, Freedom and Trust. My opponent stands for Power, Control, Mandates and DC Swamp Politics."

Texas

After the University of Texas Faculty Council passed a resolution in February 2022 to affirm the academic freedom to teach about race, gender justice and critical race theory, the state’s Republican lieutenant governor fired back.

Dan Patrick proposed ending all tenure for new hires at Texas public universities, on top of revoking tenure for faculty who teach CRT. The move is one of several Texas is considering this year to fight what it considers liberal indoctrination.

Joining Texas teachers and Democrats in opposition to Patrick’s proposal were professors in other parts of the country, including those who said they disagree with lessons contained with CRT.

University of Chicago economics professor Harald Uhlig tweeted on Feb. 21, 2022: "Let me state clearly that banning CRT teaching at universities or revoking tenure of faculty that do, is a terrible idea, @DanPatrick (and I am not a friend of CRT). It should not be done in a free country. Enhancing the diversity of views is the way to go."

New Hampshire

After attempts to pass legislation banning CRT and other "divisive concepts" failed in the New Hampshire House in 2021, Republicans used a trailer bill to insert the language into the state’s budget.

State Rep. Richard Littlefield, R-Laconia, tweeted his support in June 2021, one month before Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed the budget and language into law. He tweeted: "Why first amendment rights in this case supercede childrens rights not to be indoctrinated by liberal hate filled Rhetoric?"

In November 2021, the Granite State’s Department of Education created an online tip line parents and students can use to report teachers who violate the restrictions. A New Hampshire chapter of national group Moms for Liberty followed the announcement with tweets offering $500 to the first person "that successfully catches a public school teacher."

Educators fired back and 10 members of the governor’s Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion resigned over the "divisive concepts" language.

"The language of this bill is scary, it’s scary for educators, public employees; all of us who want to have, who need to have, deep conversations about the issues really affecting New Hampshire," said state Rep. Jim Maggiore, D-North Hampton, one of the individuals who resigned from the governor’s council. "We’re not just talking about race, ability, gender and sexual orientation; it’s everything that touches our lives. (With this budget), what we’ve said is we’re going to put a gag order, and put up a time limit on history, and only talk about a historical context that is undefined."

Supporters of banning "divisive concepts" used social media to characterize teachers who publicly came out against the reporting site as "communists."

The New Hampshire chapter of the Free State Project, a libertarian group, tweeted Nov. 11, 2021: "Unsurprisingly, the communists in the teacher's union are big mad about New Hampshire's public school CRT ban."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Which states celebrate Juneteenth and which ban critical race theory?