Florida Rally Targets DeSantis Over Black Curriculum

TALLAHASSEE, Florida. — Florida’s reversal of the African American Studies course continued to draw criticism Wednesday, as black lawmakers, religious leaders and civil rights leader Al Sharpton led a march to the Capitol.

Sharpton, a longtime activist who heads the National Action Network, has focused on condemning Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“If you were a student of history, Governor, you would know that messing with us in education always ends up in your defeat,” Sharpton told the crowd outside the Capitol.

Sharpton also urged voters to turn against the governor, who was re-elected by a wide margin in November.

“You’re going to tell the whole story. You will not give any side story to our story. Our kids need to know the whole story, not just how bad you were, but how strong they are,” Sharpton said.

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Hundreds of people marched several blocks from the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church to the Capitol for the rally.

The march and rally came after the state Department of Education informed the College Board last month that an advanced course in African American Studies would not be offered in Florida classrooms unless changes were made. Advanced Placement courses are college-level courses offered to high school students.

The department cited several topics that were planned to be included in the course, including “black homosexual studies” and “the reparations movement”, as reasons for the rejection.

The College Board on February 1 issued an updated course structure that was essentially cleared of topics and literature of concern to the Department of Education.

However, the Ministry of Education did not adopt the revised course. Cassie Palelis, a department spokeswoman, told the Florida News Service in an email Wednesday that the College Board “has yet to submit its formal structure to the department for review.”

Meanwhile, the feud between the College Board and the DeSantis administration intensifies. The college board, in a statement Saturday, said the organization regrets it “did not immediately denounce the Florida Department of Education’s defamation,” while DeSantis on Monday accused the organization of incorporating “neo-Marxism into the proposed curriculum” of the course.

The governor also suggested this week that Florida could completely cut ties with the College Board, which is developing Advanced Placement courses and creating the SAT test, which assesses prospective college students in reading, math, writing and language.

“Should the College Board do this, or can we use some of these other providers that I think have a very, very good track record? I don’t think anyone should care that our high school students don’t have the opportunity to do so. They definitely will. The only question is how best to do it,” DeSantis said during a speech in Jacksonville.

Democrats objected to the proposal to end the services of the College Board. House Minority Leader Fentris Driskell, a Tampa Democrat, accused DeSantis of retaliating against the College Board after he spoke out against his administration.

“See, it’s a snag with this guy (DeSantis) and I don’t want you to miss it – if you dare speak up against him, he will come after you. This is his order. He wants us to be intimidated and scared. And we cannot be intimidated or scared,” Driskell told the crowd during a rally on Wednesday.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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