This article presents a detailed example from the Albert Shanker Institute's report that shows the error of U.S. history textbooks and how it is distorting the historical record. One of the most glaring errors in textbooks is the treatment of the role that unions and labor activists played as key participants in the civil rights movement. The textbook coverage of the civil rights movement is quite good, but the omission of organized labor's contribution to that movement is deeply problematic and seriously distorts the historical record. This article shows that there is no mention in the textbooks of labor's role in supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In short, the picture painted by U.S. history textbooks simply airbrushes labor out of this vital historical period and, in the process, paints an incomplete picture of both the labor and civil rights movements. (Contains 16 endnotes.)