Florida board approves standards for black history classes amid criticism

One rule requires instruction for middle school students to include "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit".

Another rule requires that when high school students learn about race massacres, such as the 1920 massacre in Ocoee, Florida, that instruction must include acts of violence perpetrated by African Americans.

Both rules are part of a new set of standards approved last week by the Florida Board of Education at a meeting in Orlando for how black history should be taught in the state's public schools.

The standards were created by a 13-member group of 13 educators and academics, with input from the African American history task force, according to the state's Education Department, and were the result of a "rigorous process", describing them as "in-depth and comprehensive".

"They incorporate all components of African American history: the good, the bad and the ugly," said Alex Lanfranconi, the department's director of communications.

While some of the new standards seem to emphasize the positive contributions of black Americans throughout history, they have drawn criticism from education advocates who said students should be allowed to learn the "full truth" of American history. Civil rights advocates have called them "a sanitized and dishonest telling of the history of slavery in America".

One standard has especially drawn criticism —that "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit" .

On Friday afternoon in Jacksonville, Florida, Vice-President Kamala Harris criticized the standards and singled out that standard.

"How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?" Harris, the first African American and first Asian American to serve as vice-president, said in a speech.

Ahead of Harris' speech, Governor Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, released a statement accusing the Biden administration of mischaracterizing the new standards and being "obsessed with Florida".

Two members of the group who created the standards, William Allen and Frances Presley Rice, released a statement responding to criticism of the standard depicting enslaved African Americans as personally benefiting from their skills.

"The intent of this particular benchmark clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefited," they said, citing blacksmithing, shoemaking and fishing as examples.

"Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history," they said. "Florida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves and the community of African descendants."

Education Commissioner Manny Diaz rejected assertions by groups such as the Florida Education Association teachers' union and the NAACP Florida State Conference that the standards "omit or rewrite key historical facts about the black experience" and ignore state law about required instruction.

"They incorporate all components of African American history: the good, the bad and the ugly. These standards will further cement Florida as a national leader in education, as we continue to provide true and accurate instruction in African American history,'' he said.

Paul Burns, chancellor of the Department of Education's Division of K-12 Public Schools, also rebuffed the criticism.

"For the folks in the media and in the teachers' union who are watching, we want you to please pay close attention because you've been peddling really a false narrative," Burns said.

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, condemned the new standards.

"Our children deserve nothing less than truth, justice, and the equity our ancestors shed blood, sweat, and tears for," he said in a statement. "It is imperative that we understand that the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow were a violation of human rights and represent the darkest period in American history."

The new standards are latest the development in the state's debate over African American history, including the education Department's rejection of a preliminary version of an Advanced Placement African American Studies course for high school students, which it claimed lacked educational value.

The standards come in response to a 2022 law signed by DeSantis, known as the "Stop W.O.K.E. Act," which prohibits instruction that could prompt students to feel discomfort about a historical event because of their race, sex or national origin.

DeSantis has centered his presidential campaign on cultural issues in his so-called battle against wokeness, declaring that Florida "is where woke goes to die" .

The standards are designed to guide lessons from kindergarten through high school.

The kindergarten standards focus on teaching students about important black American historical figures.

Some of the standards single out accomplishment by black Americans.

Fifth graders are expected to learn about the "resiliency" of African Americans, including how the formerly enslaved helped others escape as part of the Underground Railroad, and about the contributions of African Americans during the country's westward expansion.

One part of the high school standards directs students to describe "the contributions of Africans to society, science, poetry, politics, oratory, literature, music, dance, Christianity and exploration in the United States from 1776-1865".

Agencies contributed to this story.