Dear Progressive Reader,

Friday was the ninety-eighth anniversary of the conviction of Tennessee educator John Scopes for the teaching of evolution in a high school science class. The trial, which pitted radical attorney Clarence Darrow against former presidential hopeful William Jennings Bryan, was covered in newsreels of the day, and chronicled in the popular Broadway play Inherit the Wind, later made into a 1960 film with Spencer Tracy and Fredric March. A law, enacted by the conservative state legislature earlier that year had made it illegal to teach “the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normals, and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds.”

The legacy of this statute, which was finally repealed in May 1967, is very much alive in Florida today. This week Florida’s board of education approved new standards for the teaching of Black history that required “Instruction [that] includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” Vice President Kamala Harris denounced the decision in a speech in Jacksonville, calling the new standards “propaganda” and stating: “These extremist, so-called leaders should model what we know to be the correct and right approach if we are invested in the well-being of our children.” This follows on the heels of a bill, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in April, designed “to give businesses, employees, children and families tools to stand up against . . . woke indoctrination.” DeSantis, who is building his 2024 presidential campaign on the slogan that “Florida is the state where ‘woke’ comes to die” is leading history to repeat itself in the most negative way. As one blogger writes, “If the Tennessee trial had never happened, there was a good chance it would have materialized in another state, possibly even Florida.”

In 2017, Florida enacted the first state law to allow individual residents to challenge textbooks in the classroom. At the time, much of the energy was directed against the teaching of climate change as science. Today, those same forces are being marshaled around the country to challenge books about racism, gender diversity, and even simply activism for human rights. According to PEN America’s 2022 report on the topic, “This evolving censorship movement has grown in size and routinely finds new targets and tactics, homing in on the books encompassed in district book purchases or digital library apps. A parallel but connected movement is also targeting public libraries, with calls to ban books; efforts to intimidate, harass, or fire librarians; and even attempts to suspend or defund entire libraries.”

This week on our website, David Masciotra interviews Camilo Perez-Bustillo of the National Lawyers Guild on the unaddressed root causes of immigration; Miriam Davidson looks at a shocking resurgence of church burnings that echoes a dark history; Jeff Abbott reports on continued challenges to Guatemala’s democracy; and Bill Lueders speaks out on the recent decision by the Biden Administration to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. Plus, Eleanor Bader reviews a new book on how to get rid of a world of ‘spam’ messages; Sarah Cords watches the interrogation of whistleblower Reality Winner; and Ed Rampell previews the new three-hour bio-pic of atomic bomb creator J. Robert Oppenheimer.

In addition, David Helvarg opines on the need for a “global mobilization of resources such as occurred during World War II” to combat climate change now; Jonah J. Lalas calls for support of striking California hotel workers and affirmative action in college admissions; and Lindsay Koshgarian describes the way the “culture wars” are hijacking the real, needed debate over military spending.

Finally, tomorrow marks the fiftieth anniversary of Richard Nixon’s refusal to hand over White House tape recordings to Watergate investigators. We know where that got him. We have yet to see how similar refusals to turnover documents will play out in the case of Donald Trump. As The Progressive presciently wrote in July 1974, “The coming trial of Richard M. Nixon provides us with an opportunity to recognize these realities and to treat him not so much as an author of evil but as a willing instrument. We can begin to cope with the monster of corporate power that will endure when Nixon is gone. It is an opportunity that should not be lost in squabbles over subpoenas, transcripts, and ‘executive privilege.’ ”

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. - The 2023 Hidden History of the United States calendar is now on sale for half price. You can still order one online.

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