Before Moms for Liberty, There Was Norma
Fifty years before Moms for Liberty, the Gablers launched a movement
In 1960, Norma Gabler, a housewife from Hawkins, TX, noticed the words “under God,” were missing in the Gettysburg Address in her son’s history book. She knew those words were in the original and wanted to know why they weren’t in the textbook.
When she questioned the school superintendent, he suggested she attend the hearings where textbooks were reviewed in Austin. So she attended her first Texas State Board of Education hearing where textbooks were reviewed for use in Texas classrooms. It was 1962, and an activist and conservative movement was born.
At that time, the Texas State Board of Education had a detailed process for reviewing textbooks for inclusion in the state’s classrooms. The first step, of several, was a hearing by a committee of teachers, publishers, and other experts.
The publishers presented their latest books for consideration. (Note: the process has changed recently though it’s still similar). An interesting feature of this process was that ordinary citizens could present their objections or concerns about any book on the list.
Norma, and her husband Mel, who preferred to stay behind the scenes, had found their calling in challenging textbooks in the State Board of Education meetings…
