Dear Mr. Rushing,
Several years ago, while attending a Civil War Preservation Trust meeting, I heard from the organization's then-president Paul Bryant Jr. that Alabama schools had the previous year decided to begin the American History courses with the post-Reconstruction period. "And they've decided that next year (2003) they will start American history with the year 1900!!!!"
I don't know if this is still true or not, but we were all quite concerned about it then as it was presented to us that "there's just no way to teach pre-1900 American history and be politically correct!"
Ralph Jones