Thread by @seelolago, lol @ the cover photo and the all white male faculty featured [...]

lol @ the cover photo and the all white male faculty featured in the video in case 'no riots' wasn't enough of a dog whistle for you

fyi, Jerry Falwell used similar wording - no riots or hoodlums - in a brochure for Liberty Christian Academy in the early 70s

will talk more about this tomorrow

ok, i promised a thread about segregation academies

*stretches*
*jogs in place*

came across this brief thread yesterday on the battle between segregation academies and the IRS https://twitter.com/erinjsteele/status/1275962294548205568?s=20

https://twitter.com/erinjsteele/status/1275962294548205568?s=20

if you're not familiar - white folks flipped out after Brown vs BOE and scrambled to form their own white schools, called segregation academies

sex ed and the ban on school prayer were also factors but the idea of their kids going to school with The Blacks was key

so in the early 70s when the IRS began threatening to revoke tax exempt status of private schools that discriminate against non-white students, the most consistent argument i've read and heard against this used the words 'forced' and 'racial quotas'

so yesterday afternoon i was reading the 1974 Civil Rights Commission report on equality in education, as one does

it seemed the IRS was dragging its feet doing half-assed investigations into private schools and discriminatory admissions

basically this sums up the IRS determining if private schools met the criteria for tax exempt status:

IRS: Y'all being racist?

Private schools: Nah

IRS: K

how did the IRS determine nondiscrimination?

well, private schools that applied for tax exempt status had to prove
- they aren't racist
- everyone knows they aren't racist
- because they put it in writing that they aren't racist

how did private schools prove they weren't racist?

by placing a 'hey Black people we're not racist' ad in the paper or on the radio

or simply meeting with Black leaders and making it clear they weren't racist

before i go further, here's some important context:
1969: a group of Black parents sued a private school in Mississippi for being racist (Green vs Connally)
IRS in 1970: Hey private schools, y'all can't be racist AND tax exempt
[A few days later] IRS: Really we mean that shit

in fall 1970, the IRS sent a survey to private schools confirming that they weren't racist, but this time asking for receipts that that they put this in writing and informed the public

BUT, the IRS still continued their 'meh, we'll take their word for it' approach

most of the private schools that DID end up losing tax exemption b/c of the survey did so by responding 'nah, we're racist AF'

one of those schools was Bob Jones University in South Carolina

which brings me to the case that became key in the whole racist schools vs IRS debacle

[fyi, i'll post links to all of this info at the end of this thread]

Bob Jones v IRS, a summary

IRS: Stop being racist or you gotta pay taxes

Bob Jones: NO

IRS: Guys c'mon

BJ to district court: Tell them to stop

District court to IRS: Stop

IRS: NO

BJ to Supreme Court: HALP

Supreme Court: LOL BYE

IRS: Anyway stop being racist or pay taxes

in the midst of White Christian Schools vs Right Side of History:

Paul Weyrich, architect of Christian Right and founder of ALEC, pops up like a racist Microsoft Clippy

- Hey, it looks like you're trying to be racist AND save money by remaining tax exempt, I can help with that

which brings us back to white folks flipping out over integration, and Paul Weyrich was like

YOU GUYS

instead of making this about race, let's make it about the government ENCROACHING on your RELIGIOUS FREEDOM*

*freedom to keep Black kids out of private Christian schools

religious freedom rhetoric leads to terms like 'racial quotas' which further divert attention away from I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE RACIST

got white folks seeing inclusion of Black people the same way a 5 year old sees eating broccoli*

*whatever healthy food you disliked as a kid

[ALSO it took a whole ass commission to get the IRS to even enforce a decision the Supreme Court made 20 years before but that's a whole other thread for another time]

anyway, i brought up white backlash to integration as a reminder that "government intrusion" has ALWAYS been about WHO is being intruded upon

the government was "intruding" on white ppl by restricting formation of schools that INTENTIONALLY separated their kids from Black kids

the government is "intruding" on Christians who believe their narrow interpretation of the bible overrides recognizing the basic humanity of LGBTQ people

the government is "intruding" by telling people to take precautions to prevent an illness they don't believe affects them

to sum up and in conclusion:

religious freedom = the right to be a bigot

government intrusion = white tears over the remote possibility of being inconvenienced

the end

P.S.

sources: Federal Civil Rights Enforcement Effort - 1974 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED102071.pdf

NYT 1983 analysis of Bob Jones case
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/14/us/tax-exemption-ruling-an-old-question-still-lingers-news-analysis.html

[working on organizing more of my sources, stay tuned!]

TAX EXEMPTION RULING: AN OLD QUESTION STILL LINGERS; News Analysis (Published 1983)

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED102071.pdf

PPS - this thread took hours because my ADHD brain insisted on doing 50/11 things at once

here's the 1975 brochure for Lynchburg Christian Academy I mentioned the other day - founded by Jerry Falwell
#segregationacademies

https://twitter.com/seelolago/status/1275963455552577536?s=19