Rise in Censorship

Reagan and the First Amendment.

Ronald Reagan spoke to a religious group in Dallas on 22 August 1980 during the presidential campaign: "When I hear the First Amendment used as a reason to keep traditional moral values away from policy-making, I am shocked. The First Amendment was written not to protect the people and their laws from religious values, but to protect those values from government tyranny." Before this group candidate Reagan also claimed there were "great flaws" in the theory of evolution, and he suggested that along with the scientific version of creation, public schools should teach the biblical story of creation. Not surprisingly, after the election a significant rise in the number of objections to textbooks and curriculum occurred nationwide, evenly distributed across both city and rural areas. By the year 1985-1986 the organization People for the American Way recorded 130 attempts to censor classes, texts, and...

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