Teachers Angry With Black History Standards Descend on Florida School Board

Teachers, students, community members and Teamsters marched to Miami-Dade school board headquarters on Wednesday to protest Florida’s recently enacted Black history standards in the statewide curriculum.

The Florida Department of Education released new guidelines in July, ahead of the upcoming school year, noting the change on the department’s website which states: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” The new guidelines were approved for the K-12 curriculum at an Orlando board meeting that took place July 19.

They also suggest that teaching incidents of mass racial violence against African Americans, like the 1920 Ocoee massacre for example, should be taught in the context of “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”

Today’s protest was organized by the Miami Center for Racial Justice, according to local ABC affiliate WPLG, and is also being attended by those affiliated with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“The phrase that they’re saying that there were ‘benefits’ that happened to enslaved people is just disgusting,” protester Jonathan Gartrelle told WPLG. “It denigrates the experience of 50 million enslaved Africans that were destroyed and brutally tortured and trafficked. And it tries to soften and whitewash history.”

Kevin Deutsch of The Miami Times wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that gathered attendees called the state’s new standards “historically inaccurate, troubling and deeply offensive.”

Signs among the protesters included “Teach the truth,” “Slavery had no benefits,” “We stand with teachers,” “Enough is enough,” and “Teach no lies.”

Marvin Dunn organized the protest, according to Deutsch. According to his profile on X, formerly Twitter, Dunn is a progressive Democrat and former naval officer-turned-historian and author who has been published extensively for his study of African history.

“DeSantis is not the boss of us!” Dunn wrote on X on Tuesday. “Show up!”

He described the protest, which was scheduled to take place between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., as individuals “raising their hands against Florida’s new slavery standards.” They reportedly marched 10 blocks, beginning at Booker T. Washington High School to the Miami-Dade County Public Schools administration building.

DeSantis’ press secretary Jeremy Redfern rebuked criticism against the new standards, last month sharing a portion of the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies course that mentions skills gained by enslaved people.

The Florida Department of Education rejected the AP African American Studies course for high school students, part of a pilot scheme at 60 schools across the country, in January. Redfern, then DeSantis’ deputy press secretary, said at the time that the course lacks “historical accuracy” and “educational value.”

Redfern tweeted at the time: “Remember when Florida wouldn’t allow that AP African American Studies course because it focused too much on CRT [critical race theory] and not enough on history, and the @WhiteHouse lost its mind? Well, here is one of the standards considered “essential knowledge.'”

The tweet contained a screenshot from the course outline stating: “In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South. Once free, American Americans (sic) used these skills to provide for themselves and others.”

Also listed under “essential knowledge” in a course unit called “Slavery, Labor and American Law” is that many enslaved people “relied on skills developed in Africa.”

When contacted via email regarding today’s march, Redfern referred Newsweek to the state’s Department of Education. Newsweek had not received any comment from the department at press time.

Florida Representative Byron Donalds, one of the few Black members of Congress and a supporter of Donald Trump, said the guidelines pertaining to slavery and the “skills” they obtained went a step too far.

“Slavery was terrible in our country,” Donalds told Florida’s WINK-TV in Fort Myers last month. “It was terrible for Black people coming to America, and it was just flat-out wrong, no doubt about that.”

That prompted the response from Redfern and DeSantis aide and rapid response director Christina Pushaw, the latter of whom sarcastically asked whether Donalds copied the words of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Newsweek reached out to the Miami-Dade superintendent and school board via email for comment.