With the election Donald J. Trump to a second term, the lies, exaggerations, and general hysteria over the events of Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol appeared to lose steam. Immediately following his inauguration, the president pardoned hundreds of J6 defendants in an acknowledgement that they had remained imprisoned for political rather than criminal reasons, most without due process.

But lest the uproar over J6 be allowed to ebb, as liberals and mainstream media outlets have done with the “mostly peaceful” BLM and Antifa riots, at least two blue states are pushing the J6 propaganda where they believe it will have the greatest impact, the public schools.

In a first-of-its-kind measure, Virginia lawmakers passed HB333, which prohibits schools from teaching that the Jan. 6 protest “was a peaceful demonstration or that there was massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election. According to Reader Supported News (rsn.org), Virginia is the first Democratic state to try to shape how such events are taught.”

The new law requires all teachers and instructional materials “to describe the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol as an unprecedented, violent attack on U.S. democratic institutions, infrastructure, and representatives for the purpose of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

The rsn article correctly states that politically motivated instruction has been the rule in schools for years. It cites a Washington Post analysis indicating that between 2017 and 2024, “dozens of states passed more than 120 laws and policies that reshaped instruction on race, racism, sexual orientation and gender identity — restricting or expanding what children are taught largely along political lines.”

In an opinion piece on Substack, author, historian, and former teacher, Kevin M. Levin, wrote that the Virginia measure “should worry everyone.” Calling the law “a horrible idea,” he pointed out that not only does it “set a precedent for government control over historical narratives, it also bypasses the state’s curriculum standards.” He adds that when the interpretation of a statute is mandated by law, “the state begins to determine not only what is taught, but how it must be understood.”

In other words, rather than having a debate about what actually happened on January 6, such as that most of the demonstrators actually were peaceful and never entered the Capitol building at all, schoolchildren will be taught what the state requires them to believe about the event.

Levin further wrote that if one political party establishes the precedent of legislating curriculum, “future legislatures controlled by different parties will feel justified in rewriting history standards to fit their own political narratives. Over time, history education will become even more of a political pendulum that shifts with every election cycle.”

As a historian, Levin believes good education, especially history, “involves examining multiple sources, evaluating competing interpretations, and encouraging students to think critically about complex events.” He asserts that the state legislation he’s seen focuses broadly on subjects rather than specific events, which he says “is bad enough, but the Virginia bill constitutes another dangerous step.”

New York legislation

Similarly, the proposed New York legislation S6123/A3966 will require schools “to teach lessons on the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building,” according to the news outlet amNY. A quick read through published reports by amNY shows the radical left slant the instruction will likely take if this legislation passes.

The amNY article is all too familiar in its description of January 6 as “an angry mob of President Trump’s supporters, militia members, and white supremacists [who] set upon the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election that Joe Biden won, and Trump lost despite his false assertions that the election was stolen from him.”

This account charges that “more than 100 Capitol police officers were injured in the violence,” that Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed “when the mob, of which she was part, attempted to breach the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”

The article does not mention that Babbitt was unarmed, and as Judicial Watch told Fox News in October 2021 after receiving documents obtained through a FOIA lawsuit: “These previously secret records show there was no good reason to shoot and kill Ashli Babbitt. The Biden-Garland Justice Department and the Pelosi Congress have much to answer for over the mishandling and cover-up of this scandalous killing of an American citizen by the U.S. Capitol Police.”

It’s unlikely that these facts or any others about the J6 events will be accurately taught through curricula developed as a result of the Virginia law or the proposed legislation in New York.

Voice for truth

A few brave voices for truth emerged in the aftermath of January 6. One of the most effective was that of Cynthia Hughes, who started the Patriot Freedom Project to help those arrested in the wake of the protest, starting with her nephew. Along with many of these defendants, Hughes’ nephew was placed in solitary confinement in a Washington, DC prison without due process.

On her Patriot Freedom Project website, Hughes explains that most of the attendees at President Trump’s speech “were peaceful, hopeful, and determined to defend the integrity of America’s electoral system. Mothers, veterans, retirees, small-business owners, and everyday citizens gathered with no expectation that the day would spiral into chaos.”

The majority never entered the capitol or committed any act of violence, yet many were arrested and imprisoned anyway. A few of the defendants were not even present that day. As Hughes describes:

In the days after January 6, the Biden DOJ launched the largest criminal investigation in American history, but its focus went far beyond violent actors. Nonviolent Americans—many of whom never entered the Capitol—faced:

• Militarized predawn raids
• Denial of bond despite no criminal history
• Labels of “domestic terrorists”
• Months or years in solitary confinement
• Punishing plea pressures and extreme sentencing threats

Families were ripped apart, careers destroyed, and reputations shattered.

Hughes’ organization has assisted hundreds of J6 defendants and their families financially and emotionally. She also wrote a book, Due Process Denied, published in 2023, which provides a firsthand look at what life has been like for those impacted by what she calls “political imprisonment in America.” It details the broken families, lost lives, and traumatized children that resulted from excessive prison sentences for nonviolent conduct, pretrial detention used as punishment, and the resulting loss of income from breadwinners unable to work.

While Hughes concedes a small number of J6 protesters “made poor decisions,” she points out the double standard that was applied to them compared to BLM rioters and other perpetrators of far-left unrest. The minority of J6 attendees who rioted “became the pretext for the federal government to cast the entire crowd as extremists.”

What comes next?

In view of the Virginia law and the proposed bill in New York, it’s reasonable to postulate that at least some other blue states will introduce similar legislation. As Kevin Levin points out in his opinion piece:

• Another thing to keep in mind that is often overlooked is that the events of January 6 remain relatively recent and continue to be analyzed by historians, political scientists, and legal scholars. While many facts about the event are well established, its long-term significance in American history is still being debated and will continue to be debated for the foreseeable future.

He adds that when interpretations of contemporary events are codified into law, “they risk stifling historical conclusions before scholars have fully examined them. History is often reassessed as new evidence emerges or as scholars gain greater historical distance from events.”

Cynthia Hughes says January 6 is not simply an event, but “is a chapter in American history that revealed profound dangers within our justice system. The [presidential] pardons marked a turning point, but not the end.” Hughes plans to continue her organization’s mission “until every political victim receives justice.”

Particularly in blue states, conservatives should be vigilant that Virginia’s bad law and the proposed measure in New York could be replicated nationwide.

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