11. A Measuring Rod to Test Text Books, and Reference Books in Schools, Colleges and Libraries
In Atlanta in October, 1919, the Sons of Confederate Veterans resolved “to inaugurate a movement to disseminate the truths of Confederate history”. The result was the establishment of a committee of former officers of the SCV, educators, and clergy who produced the work entitled A Measuring Rod to Test Text Books, and Reference Books in Schools, Colleges and Libraries. Published in 1920, and subsequently updated several times, the Measuring Rod specified how history of the antebellum period, the Civil War, and Reconstruction should be presented in Southern schools. The committee published its findings with the request that all materials used for teaching history adhere to the Measuring Rod, and refuse to adopt any “which do not accord full justice to the South”.
In its foreword, the Measuring Rod urged schools to reject “a book that speaks of the Constitution other than a Compact between the Sovereign States”. It suggested omitting material “that says the South fought to hold her slaves”. It likewise demanded the omission of a text “that speaks of the slaveholder of the South as cruel and unjust to his slaves”. According to the Measuring Rod, texts which glorified Abraham Lincoln, or vilified Jefferson Davis, were unacceptable for use in Southern schools and libraries. Instead, it recommended the use exclusively of texts from a list compiled by the SCV and the UDC. Thus, generations of students in Southern schools were presented the Lost Cause version of the Civil War, rather than the truths about the Confederate constitutions in each state and the role of slavery in the causes of the American Civil War.