Textbook Claims "Thousands" Of Black Americans Fought For South In Civil War

The Washington Post (10/20, Sieff) reports that "a textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War -- a claim rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking to play down slavery's role as a cause of the conflict." Joy Masoff, author of the textbook, "Our Virginia: Past and Present," has said that "she found the information about black Confederate soldiers primarily through Internet research, which turned up work by members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans." But, the overwhelming majority of scholars call "these accounts of black Confederate soldiers a misrepresentation of history." Education officials in Virginia said that "they will contact school districts across the state to caution them against teaching the passage."