Texas students to be taught slavery played 'central role' in Civil War

Texas' 5.4 million students will be taught that slavery played a "central role" in the Civil War, according to reports. The Texas Board of Education voted Friday to make the change, which goes into effect beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, NPR reported.

Students were being taught that there were three causes for the Civil War: sectionalism, states' rights and slavery. The board's Democrats favored listing slavery as the only cause. "What the use of 'states' rights' is doing is essentially blanketing, or skirting, the real foundational issue, which is slavery," Democratic board member Marisa Perez-Diaz, of San Antonio, said at a Tuesday board meeting, NPR reported.

Republican board member David Bradley, of Beaumont, argued for keeping the other causes in the social studies curriculum. "Each state had differences and made individual decisions as to whether or not to join into the conflict, correct?" he said. "I mean, that's the definition of states' rights."

The board also decided to keep Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller in the curriculum.