15 States Have Now Passed Anti-CRT Legislation

Anti-CRT legislation is sweeping the nation, here's which states have passed laws banning the teachings.

By Rick Gonzales | Published 2 years ago

Mississippi has become the 15^th state to pass anti-CRT legislation after Governor Tate Reeves put pen to paper. The Mississippi law, which has been described as a prohibition to critical race theory, is just the latest Republican-controlled state to pass a law telling schools how history and race will be taught. The title of Senate Bill 2113 is “Critical Race Theory; Prohibit,” but inside the bill it doesn’t mention CRT even once.

For those who haven’t been following the back and forth of critical race theory, the discipline is taught in high education (colleges and universities), and it studies and analyzes how United States laws have been shaped by racism. CRT also speaks to how these anti-CRT legislations are a constant impact on the lives of non-white people. But what has been creeping into the public education system is something that many parents, and now lawmakers, are protesting. The fact that CRT is promoting racism in schools rather than preventing it. These teachings, according to parents across the nation, are telling white students they should feel guilty for simply being white. They are being told because of their skin color, that they are inherently superior.

For this reason, the very first section of the anti-CRT legislation bill states:

No public institution of higher learning, community/junior college, school district or public school, including public charter schools, shall direct or otherwise compel students to personally affirm, adopt or adhere to any of the following tenets: (a) That any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior; or (b) That individuals should be adversely treated on the basis of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.

After Gov. Reeves signed his anti-CRT legislation bill, he posted a video talking about it. In part, he said, “In too many schools around the US, CRT is running amok. It threatens the integrity of education & aims to only humiliate and indoctrinate. That’s why I signed legislation that will help keep CRT where it belongs — out of (Mississippi) classrooms.” To that, Reeves also added, “Mississippi is taking another step toward ensuring our kids receive the unbiased and impartial education they need to reach their full potential as individuals, not as liberal operatives.”

This bill, like the many other anti-CRT legislation bills introduced, has not been without its fair share of fierce debate. When the bill was brought forward in the Mississippi legislature in January, all of the legislature’s Black Democratic state senators first refused to vote on the bill and then walked out in protest.

During this debate before staging the walkout protesting the anti-CRT legislation, Mississippi state Senator John Horhn said via ABC News, “The whole situation of it is based on the founding of this country and some of the precepts that we, as a country, implicitly or explicitly accepted — chief among which we justified slavery because powers that be judged Black people to be racially inferior.” He then added, “A lot of our laws, a lot of our systems, a lot of our customs, a lot of our practices have been impacted by that.”

Republican state senator Michael McLendon is the anti-CRT legislation bill sponsor and said during the debate that “Systematic racism should not be taught to our children.” And that is the intention of the bill and those passed across the country. While many opponents claim the new bill will stop the teaching of history, Reeves made it perfectly clear what the bill stands for.

“Contrary to what some critics may claim, this bill in no way, in no shape, and in no form prohibits the teaching of history. Any claim that this bill will somehow stop Mississippi kids from learning about American history is just flat out wrong.” Mississippi’s anti-CRT legislation language is virtually identical to the other anti-CRT bills across the nation.

According to Education Week, Mississippi is the 15^th state to pass such a bill. The others include Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Iowa, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and New Hampshire. A large number of states (19 in total) have either proposed an anti-CRT legislation bill or one is currently moving through the state. You can see the entire map here.

There are states who have introduced an anti-CRT legislation bill but did not move them forward to be signed into law. These states include Wisconsin, Arkansas, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Maine. Not everyone believes that introducing CRT elements into public schools is a bad thing.