Fact check: NC GOP says the 'left' wants to erase Mount Rushmore from history books
In an email to potential donors on Feb. 24, the North Carolina Republican Party said: "The left is determined to erase Mount Rushmore from our history books and the stakes couldn't be higher -- the future of our nation's revered leaders is in your hands!"
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Mount Rushmore is in peril, according to the North Carolina Republican Party.
That’s what the party said in the subject line of an email it sent to potential donors on Feb. 24.
“The left is determined to erase Mount Rushmore from our history books and the stakes couldn’t be higher — the future of our nation’s revered leaders is in your hands!” the email said.
It continued: “You need to act fast to support preserving and protecting Mount Rushmore for generations to come! It’s time to put the radical left in their place and stand up for the legacies of our founding fathers.”
Mount Rushmore, completed in 1941, features the faces of former Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carved into the Black Hills mountains in South Dakota.
U.S. history, and how it’s taught, has become a political touch point.
But, prior to the North Carolina GOP’s email, PolitiFact was unaware of any controversy over efforts to teach the history of Mount Rushmore. The email offered no citations about what it was referring to, and the party didn’t respond to PolitiFact NC’s requests for comment.
We searched for news stories related to the NCGOP’s claims.
But we found no evidence of any elected leaders or political groups attempting to remove mentions of Mount Rushmore from history books.
North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction is unaware of any effort to remove Mount Rushmore from grade school learning materials, spokeswoman Blair Rhoades said in an email. Democratic leaders in the state Legislature also said they didn’t know of any such attempts.
Todd Barlow is chief of staff for state House Minority Leader Robert Reives, D-Chatham. Barlow said he searched bills dating back to 2015 and couldn’t find any proposed legislation that would remove references to Rushmore or its four presidents from state curriculum.
“Leader Reives is not aware of any conversation or effort among Democrats to do anything like what is alleged in that GOP fundraising solicitation,” Barlow said in an email.
Our ruling
An email from the North Carolina Republican Party said “The left is determined to erase Mount Rushmore from our history books.”
We found no evidence that elected leaders or political groups — at a national or local level — are pushing to “erase” Mount Rushmore from history books.
Also, conservatives often accuse liberals of being “woke” for wanting to teach the ugly side of U.S. history. If “the left” were upset about the history of Mount Rushmore, logic dictates that its activists would want its history to be included in textbooks — not excluded.
We rate the claim False.
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