Florida public schools will now teach students that some black people benefited from slavery because it taught them useful skills, part of new African-American history standards passed Wednesday that were criticized by a state teachers union as a “step backwards.”
The new standards from the Florida State Board of Education include controversial language about how “slaves developed skills that, in some cases, could be applied to their personal benefit,” according to a 216 page document on the 2023 Social Studies State Standards, published by the Florida Department of Education.
Other language that has drawn the ire of some educators and education advocates includes teaching how blacks were also perpetrators of violence during race massacres.
That language reads: “The instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans, but is not limited to the Atlanta race riots of 1906, the Washington, D.C. race riots of 1919, the Ocoee massacre of 1920, the Tulsa massacre of 1921, and the Rosewood massacre of 1923.”
The Florida Education Association, a statewide teachers union representing some 150,000 teachers, called the new standards “a disservice to Florida students and a huge step backwards.” for a state that has required the teaching of African American history since 1994.”
“How can our students be equipped for the future if they don’t have a full and honest picture of where we came from? Florida students deserve a world-class education that prepares them to be successful adults who can help heal our nation’s divisions rather than deepen them,” Andrew Spar, union president, said in the statement.
“Gov. DeSantis is pursuing a political agenda that is guaranteed to pit good people against each other, and in the process he is cheating our children,” Spar said. “They deserve the full truth of American history, the good and the bad.”
The union said it is concerning that at the high school level, the standards conflate the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, when at least 30 African-Americans were killed trying to vote, with “acts of violence perpetrated by African-Americans.” And in middle school, the standards require students to be taught slavery was beneficial to African-Americans because it helped them develop skills, the union said.
The updates to the African American history curriculum were required by a controversial 2022 law that Governor Ron DeSantis dubbed the “Stop the Mistakes of Our Children and Employees Act” or the “Stop the WOKE Act.” NBC South Florida informed.
A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education responded to questions from NBC News on Thursday through a statement from Dr. William Allen and Dr. Frances Presley Rice, who are members of the Florida Black History Standards Task Force.
The new standards were defended in the statement as “comprehensive and rigorous instruction in African American history. We are proud to endorse these Black History Standards,” the statement said.
“The intent of this particular reference clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefited. This is factual and well documented,” he added.
The statement continued: “Some examples include: blacksmiths as Ned Cobb, Henry Blair, Lewis Latimer and John Henry; shoemakers as James Forten, Paul Cuffe, and Betty Washington Lewis; fishing and shipping industry workers such as Jupiter Hammon, John Chavis, William Whipper and Crispus Attucks; tailors like Elizabeth Keckley, James Thomas, and Marietta Carter; and teachers as Betsey Stockton and Booker T. Washington”.
It is “disappointing” that some detractors devalue the task force’s research and reduce it to “a few isolated expressions without context,” the statement said.
A representative for Gov. DeSantis could be immediately contacted for comment Thursday.
In January, the DeSantis administration blocked a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools, saying it violated state law and was historically inaccurate. The state that points to six areas of concern and works by Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, bell hooks, Angela Davis, and other black authors.
That same month, DeSantis and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr.. discussed the issue at a press conference. They said the course was a Trojan horse to “indoctrinate” students with a left-wing ideology under the guise of teaching about the black experience and African-American history.
