The Washington Post reports today that a fourth grade textbook recently distributed in Virginia includes the claim that “thousands of Southern blacks fought in the Confederate ranks.”

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Apparently, the author of the textbook, Joy Masoff, says she included the claim after doing some “Internet research,” which is alarming on its own. State education officials are asking teachers to disregard the claim in the classroom, of course, because there's no scholarly research to support it.  

Black Confederates fighting in the Civil War has long been a claim of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, but unfortunately there's no real research to back it up. This is a well-worn issue, which Style highlighted in a recent story about a mysterious map that the Sons claim disappeared from City Hall. This map allegedly proves that there are black Confederates buried in Oakwood Cemetery. It's just that no one can find it.