COLUMBUS, Ohio – Roughly 50 protesters and counter-protesters crowded Front Street Tuesday to send a message about Critical Race Theory for state Board of Education members and legislators to hear.

What You Need To Know

  • Groups connected to Stop Critical Race Theory in Ohio lined Front Street outside of the Ohio Department of Education, while Red Wine & Blue, a group of suburban moms, took over the opposite side of the building in support of honest and accurate teachings of history of racism in the U.S.

  • Dozens came from across the state to speak out against censorship, diversity, equity and inclusion

  • Both sides say history should be taught, but SCRT in Ohio said it shouldn't be done in a divisive way, while RWB said there needs to be real conversations on race

Two main groups showed up to the protest: Stop Critical Race Theory and Red Wine & Blue. 

While Stop Critical Race Theory in Ohio had a number of speakers on hand to talk about their concerns with CRT, the organization, which is made up of 49 different groups, came from all across the state and shared how they believe CRT divides, suppresses viewpoints and pits one group of students against another.

Their goal at this point is to make sure diversity, equity and inclusion plans that have been created in districts across the state are done away with as their belief is that it is simply code for CRT.

“Equity programs are being put in schools all around Ohio — in Hilliard, in Worthington, in Olentangy, in Upper Arlington, all around Cincinnati — and these equity plans what they do is they treat students differently,” explained Dan Regenold, co-founder of StopCriticalRaceTheory.com 

Red Wine & Blue, a group of suburban moms, took an alternate route and chose to do a read-in to condemn racism while supporting equity. Katie Paris, founder of the group said, they read books that gave accurate American history and honest conversations about racism because “We're moms and we're tired of the ranting and raving. We're just tired of the divisiveness. We actually want to have these conversations and have our kids learn all of history because we think that's how we unify.” 

As two bills in the Ohio House move forward, Paris does have hope in that “despite the super majority's efforts to ram through this legislation that would really censor our teachers and prevent our kids from being able to have conversations that they want to have in the classrooms that their efforts to ram them through before they went into recess going into the summer were thwarted."

She added that the goal is to make sure those who support an honest education have their voices heard and that politicians will listen and follow suit. However, opponents of CRT like Sen. Andrew Brenner are confident the legislature can get a bill passed banning CRT, that even Gov. Mike DeWine would sign. 

Even so, Brenner is already looking forward as the concern then would be how to stop districts who have started diversity, equity and inclusion teaching and training. Brenner's advice to fellow opponents was to shift school boards by electing people in the future who oppose CRT.

Sept. 22 Editor's Note: The story has been clarified to show Red Wine & Blue supports schools teaching about racism in history.

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