Bible stories like Jonah and the Whale would be part of a new Texas public schools reading list that drew an overflow crowd to Tuesday's state education board meeting.

Religious leaders, teachers, parents and students spent hours arguing about the reading list for the state's 5.4 million kindergartners to 12th graders.

The list includes select texts from Black historical figures like Langston Hughes and Frederick Douglass, but has relatively few Hispanic and Black authors, a move that has drawn criticism from Democratic members of the state board.