AN ACT to provide comprehensive civil rights education to every student in the state.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑81.45 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:

(e)      Civil Rights Education. – A unit on civil rights shall be included as part of both the middle school civic and citizenship education standard course of study and high school course in Founding Principles of the United States of America and North Carolina: Civic Literacy. The unit shall include at least the following topics:

(1)        The civil rights movement that occurred in the United States from 1954 through 1968, including:

a.         The natural law and natural rights principles that informed the leadership of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

b.         The tactics and strategies of nonviolent resistance that Dr. King championed in response to the Jim Crow laws of that era.

c.         The repeal of the Jim Crow laws of that era and the passage of civil rights legislation in the United States.

(2)        The philosophy that hatred on the basis of immutable characteristics leads to profound injustice.

(3)        Instruction on other acts of discriminatory injustice elsewhere around the globe to reinforce the lesson that hatred on the basis of immutable characteristics can overtake any society.

SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2023‑2024 fiscal year for the implementation of this act.

SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2023, and applies to courses taught beginning with the 2024‑2025 school year.