Education

<BillNo> <Sponsor>

HOUSE BILL 356
By Powers

HB0356
001989
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 15;
Title 49, Chapter 1 and Title 49, Chapter 6, relative
to victims of communism.

WHEREAS, over 100 years have passed since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and
the formation of the first communist government under Vladimir Lenin, leading to decades of
oppression and violence under communist regimes throughout the world; and
WHEREAS, based on the economic philosophies of Karl Marx, communism has proven
incompatible with the ideals of liberty, prosperity, and dignity of human life and has given rise to
such infamous totalitarian dictators as Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot;
and
WHEREAS, communist regimes worldwide have killed more than 100 million people and
subjected countless others to exploitation and unspeakable atrocities, with victims representing
many different ethnicities, creeds, and backgrounds; and
WHEREAS, through false promises of equality and liberation or through coercion,
brutality, and fear, communist regimes have systematically robbed their own citizens of the
rights of freedom of worship, freedom of speech, and freedom of association; and
WHEREAS, many victims of communism were persecuted as political prisoners for
speaking out against these regimes, and others were killed in genocidal state-sponsored purges
of undesirable groups; and
WHEREAS, in addition to violating basic human rights, communist regimes have
suppressed intellectual freedom, cultural life, and self determination movements in more than
forty nations; now, therefore,
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

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SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 10, is amended by
adding the following as a new section:
(a) Each LEA and public charter school shall recognize November 7 of each
year as "Victims of Communism Day" to honor the people who have fallen victim to
communist regimes across the world.
(b) Each LEA and public charter school that provides a world history and
geography course to high school students enrolled in the LEA or public charter school
shall provide the students enrolled in the course with at least forty-five (45) minutes of
instruction on Victims of Communism Day that includes topics such as Mao Zedong and
the Cultural Revolution, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet System, Fidel Castro and the
Cuban Revolution, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and Nicolás Maduro and the
Chavismo movement, and how victims suffered under these regimes through poverty,
starvation, migration, systemized lethal violence, and suppression of speech. If Victims
of Communism Day is on a day in which a high school student enrolled in a world history
and geography course does not receive instruction for the course, then the student must
receive the instruction required pursuant to this section on the immediately following day
that the student receives instruction for the course.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect July 1, 2025, the public welfare requiring it.