It appears Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon did not do her homework before appearing at a congressional hearing Wednesday.
Testifying before the House Committee on Education and Labor about her department’s budget and priorities. McMahon was asked by U.S. Rep. Summer Lee whether the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 should be taught in public schools.
McMahon responded to the Pennsylvania Democrat with a deer-in-headlights expression that seemed to indicate she didn’t know what Lee was talking about.
“Would you say that it would be an illegal DEI for a lesson plan on the Tulsa Race Massacre?” Lee said. After a noticeable pause, McMahon answered, “I’d have to get back to you on that.”
Lee followed up, directly asking McMahon, “Do you know what the Tulsa Race Massacre is?”
McMahon essentially repeated her initial answer, “I’d like to look into it more and get back to you on it.”
The massacre, engineered by white supremacist groups, took place over Memorial Day weekend in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma and is widely considered one of the worst instances of racial violence in America’s history. Black citizens’ homes and businesses were attacked and destroyed by mobs of whites, with up to 300 people killed in what had been one of the most prosperous Black communities in the country.
Lee was clearly seeking clarity from McMahon about whether classes in Black history violate the executive order signed by the president that bans certain courses based on race and gender and threatens to withhold federal funding from states and universities that fail to comply.
“If they are taught as part of a total history package, so that if you’re giving the facts on both sides, of course they’re not DEI,” the secretary responded.
Lee, flummoxed, replied, “I don’t know what both sides of African-American history would be.”
The congresswoman did finally receive an answer that appeared to surprise her when McMahon told her, “I think that African history can certainly be taught and not considered part of any DEI course.”
That would be a much more liberal interpretation of Donald Trump’s DEI policy than, say, the Department of Defense’s reading.
The DOD, under Pete Hegseth’s leadership, temporarily removed any reference to Jackie Robinson, among other Black icons, from its website and is now contemplating renaming any vessel or ship named in honor of civil rights leaders such as Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman and Medgar Evers, claiming they violate the president’s anti-DEI measures.
McMahon also didn’t have an answer for Lee when asked whether she considered civil rights activist Ruby Bridges’ book, “Through My Eyes,” to be “DEI” material that should be prohibited in classrooms. Bridges was the first Black student to desegregate a public school in New Orleans and was the centerpiece of Norman Rockwell’s 1964 painting, “The Problem We All Live With.”
McMahon said she hadn’t read the book and didn’t seem to know anything about Bridges.
Lee blasted the administration’s anti-DEI agenda, saying “it’s indistinguishable from … post-Civil War South advocating to rewrite history with the Lost Cause narrative (and) to censor truths about slavery.”
She continued, “This department’s financial aid policies harken back to a time when higher education was reserved for affluent, well-connected and predominantly white students.”
The White House aims to cut the Education Department’s budget by 15 percent in 2026, targeting programs from preschool to college. The School Superintendents Association said recently the deductions will impact low-income families the most.
McMahon also refused to say whether schoolchildren should be taught Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, igniting another fiery exchange.
McMahon said “I think our studies should all be taught accurately.”
Lee demanded a “yes or no” answer but McMahon only repeated her reply.
“No, you’ve not answered the question. I don’t understand why you’re incapable of answering the question,” said Lee.
“I’m just not giving you the answer you want,” retorted McMahon.
