ENROLLED HOUSE
BILL NO. 1397 By: Lepak and West (Tammy) of the House
and
Bergstrom
and Jett of the Senate
An Act relating to schools; mandating curriculum include a unit
on the civil rights movement; providing description of curriculum; directing
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to prepare and make available
materials; providing for codification; and providing an effective date.
SUBJECT: Civil rights movement
BE IT
ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA:
SECTION 1.
NEW LAW A new section of law
to be codified in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 11-103.6p of Title 70,
unless there is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows:
A. The State Department
of Education shall develop and make available to every public elementary school
and high school in the State of Oklahoma, a curriculum that may be taught as a
stand-alone unit of instruction, or may be integrated into one or more existing
courses of study, studying the events of the civil rights movement from 1954 to
1968, the natural law and natural rights principles that the Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., drew from that informed his leadership of the civil rights
movement, and the tactics and strategies of nonviolent resistance that he
championed in response to the Jim Crow laws of that era. This period in American history is known as
the civil rights era because during this period reform-minded Americans organized
to press for a rejection of the doctrine of "separate but equal" and
to repeal the Jim Crow-era laws in parts of the United States that embodied
that doctrine. One of the universal
lessons of the civil rights era is that hatred on the basis of immutable
characteristics, including not just race or ethnicity, but also characteristics
such as nationality, religious belief, disability, or sex, can overtake any
nation or society, leading to profound injustice. To reinforce that lesson, such curriculum shall
include an additional unit of instruction studying other acts of discriminatory
injustice, such as genocide, committed elsewhere around the globe. The study of this material is a reaffirmation
of the commitment of the people of this state to reject bigotry, to champion
equal protection under the law as a foundational principle of our Republic, and
to act in opposition to injustice wherever it may occur.
B. The State Department
of Education shall identify resources and provide exemplar units or sample
lesson plans designed to help teachers provide instruction on the subject
matter outlined in this act.
SECTION 2.
This act shall become effective November 1, 2023.
Passed the
House of Representatives the 22nd day of March, 2023.
Presiding
Officer of the House
of
Representatives
Passed the Senate the 25th day of
April, 2023.
Presiding
Officer of the Senate
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
Received by the Office
of the Governor this ____________________ day of ___________________,
20_______, at _______ o'clock _______ M.
By:
_________________________________
Approved by the
Governor of the State of Oklahoma this _________ day of ___________________,
20_______, at _______ o'clock _______ M.
_________________________________
Governor of
the State of Oklahoma
OFFICE
OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE
Received by the Office
of the Secretary of State this __________ day of ___________________, 20_______,
at _______ o'clock _______ M.
By:
_________________________________