1836 Project promotes sanitized version of Texas history, experts say

[TexasTowelie]

by Sneha Dey, Texas Tribune


A committee charged with producing a “patriotic” telling of Texas history approved a 15-page pamphlet last month that will now be distributed to new Texas drivers.

The advisory committee — named the 1836 Project after the year Texas gained its independence from Mexico — was created last year with the passing of House Bill 2497. The legislation required the committee to tell a story of “a legacy of economic prosperity” and the “abundant opportunities for businesses and families, among other requirements.”

“We must never forget why Texas became so exceptional in the first place,” Gov. Greg Abbott said when he signed the bill. Abbott, along with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan, later selected a nine-member, largely conservative group to head the 1836 Project.

The creation of the committee was largely a conservative backlash to The New York Times’ publication of “The 1619 Project,” which was named after the year enslaved people first arrived on American soil and aimed to center slavery in conversations about U.S. history. The pamphlet, which will be distributed at driver’s license offices, comes at a time when the state is increasingly trying to regulate how race, sexuality and history are taught in public schools.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/26/texas-1836-project-pamphlet/

[vlyons]

1. I doubt their history will tell how Jim Bowie sat in Fredonia (Nacadoches)

forging land deeds signed by the King of Spain to sell to Yankees. Or that a big reason to separate from Mexico was because Mexico freed its slaves in 1825.

[yonder]

6. I endured 6-7th grade at a small school in Central Texas.

Coming from elsewhere, I could not believe the amount of positively spun Texas history continuously shoved down our throats: Sam Houston, Alamo, etc. all good, Santa Ana, Mexicans, indigenous "others", etc. bad, everyday, all the time. After escaping and in retrospect, I came to realize what that propaganda was all about.

I also got into more fights than anywhere else we ever lived. Most of the squabbles were from chest-thumping bully types defending their home-grown illusion of "Texas We're #1". Damn, I hated that place more than any other and was grateful to finally get out of that state and back home.

[vlyons]

7. The larger cities in Texas, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, etc are becoming more cosmopolitan

as people from all over the world move here. That's a good thing. But get into more rural areas and the Fundamentalist evangelicals are very closed-minded. At least that has been my experience.

[broiles]

2. I recommend you read Forget the Alamo instead.

[Paladin]

3. I could smell Dan Patrick on this before I read it. (nt)

[niyad]

4. I have never been in a state where its history was part of acquiring one's license.

[TexasTowelie]

5. While I don't condone spreading propaganda,

there isn't a history test for obtaining a drivers license or state issued ID.

As ignorant as most citizens are about Texas history and as long as the pamphlet remains politically neutral, I can support learning history even if it is sanitized. The pamphlet is supposed to be promotional rather than provide critical analysis---if anything too controversial is included in the pamphlet then I expect media will provide that analysis. However, I fully expect that 99% of those pamphlets will end up in the garbage within a week.

[niyad]

8. Given that, as it states in the OP, this is a conservative ba klash to thev1619

project, one can just imagine how useful it would be. Heck, I remember the gloriffed and highly sanitized version of the state's history I was taught in elementary school, and the utter BS I dealt with on the textbook committee years later.

[Genki Hikari]

9. If a state agency tried that with me when I had to renew

I'd tear it up that pamphlet in front of them, and tell them to stop wasting money pumping lies to people who know better.

Maybe I'd even bring along my copy of "Forget the Alamo," and make sure to display it in a way they couldn't miss.

That's what I'd do if I were a Texan subjugated to such nonsense.

[Shell_Seas]

10. I told you so. This was Abbott's response to Trump's squashed 1776 Project.

Duh, it's about white supremacy.