ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: Florida K-12 curriculum still will say Black people gained 'personal benefit' from slavery (Tallahassee Democrat/GANNETT)

"Res ipsa loquitur." The thing speaks for itself, in Latin.  Appealing to appalling bigots, I am reminded of the late Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who said re: Norman Vincent Peale, "I find the Rev. Peale appealing and St. Paul appealing.  This is racist flummery, Trumpery and nincompoopery. From Tallahassee Democrat/GANNETT, by reporter Ana Goñi-Lessan:

STATE

Florida K-12 curriculum still will say Black people gained 'personal benefit' from slavery

'We didn’t accept it then, we’re not going to accept it now,' one state legislator said.

Ana Goñi-Lessan

Tallahassee Democrat

For another year, Florida public school students will continue to learn that Black Americans in some way benefited from slavery.

On Wednesday, the Florida Board of Education approved the state's 2024 social studies standards, which include an African American history curriculum that has caused discomfort among the state's Black communities, who say some of the lessons "alter history" and are "inaccurate."

One of those inaccuracies, they say, is a benchmark clarification: "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

“I’m just baffled because I provided the Department of Education with language that would be less inflammatory and less inaccurate than that statement. It is unbelievable," state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, told the USA TODAY Florida-Network.

“What I suggested to them was apparently totally ignored," she said. A request for comment is pending with a Department of Education spokesperson.

While the agenda item for Wednesday's meeting was to update the standards with curriculums for 9/11 Heroes' Day and history of Asian American and Pacific Islanders, included as part of a 2023 education bill, it comprised the entire social studies catalogue, including African American history.

“These new and revised standards will directly impact student achievement in Florida and will make sure that our teachers have the right standards to engage in high quality instruction,” Chancellor for the Division of K-12 Public Schools Paul Burns said.

For almost a year, Black communities across Florida, led by elected officials and religious leaders, have petitioned and chastised the Florida Department of Education, state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the State Board of Education, currently chaired by Tallahassee attorney Ben Gibson, for allowing the curriculum to include wording that critics say victim-blames Black communities and rewrites history.

"The fact that the Board of Education ignored the voices of Black Floridians and Black Americans when it came to us asking for a revision to that language is absolutely unfortunate. It also goes to show that the state of Florida does not value the voices of the Black community when it directly misconstrues our history," said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens.

Standards prefaced with a Frederick Douglass quotation

The 2024 social studies standards, which total 217 pages, start with a Frederick Douglass quote, part of it in bold, which reads: "To deny education to any people is one of the greatest crimes against human nature."

Also still included in the 2024 African American history curriculum is a benchmark clarification for high schoolers learning about the Rosewood and Ocoee massacres: “Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”

The Ocoee Massacre is considered the largest incidence of voting-day violence in United States history, according to the Orange County Regional History Center.

In 1920, Mose Norman, a Black man, tried to vote but was turned away from the polls. Later that night, a white mob tried to find Norman and his friend. That friend, July Perry, was lynched and other Black community members were murdered and their houses burned. Most of the Black community subsequently fled Ocoee and never came back.

Thompson, who represents Orange County and worked on legislation that requires the state to teach about the Ocoee Massacre, questioned why Black people who were trying to defend themselves against a mob are considered violent.

“We didn’t accept it then, we’re not going to accept it now," she said.

Earlier this year, the Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee asked DeSantis and education agency officials to remove inaccurate language in the state's approved curriculum.

He, along with other faith leaders, called the curriculum "insulting" and provided an alternative lesson plan, created by university educators and pastors, to DOE Vice Chancellor of Strategic Improvement Peggy Aune. Attempts to meet with the governor that day were unsuccessful.

Wednesday's re-approval of the African American history curriculum is another item in a list of grievances Black legislators and Floridians have had with DeSantis and the state's education department.

In 2023, the state rejected the College Board's Advanced Placement African American Studies class because it was "inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value," and in 2022, DeSantis signed the Stop WOKE Act, which restricts how colleges and workplaces talk about race, gender and sexuality.

Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.