TALAHASSEE, Fla. — Buried among Florida’s manicured golf courses and sprawling suburbs are the artifacts of its slave past: the long lost cemeteries of enslaved people, the statutes of Confederate soldiers that still stand guard over town squares, the old plantations have been turned into modern subdivisions that bear the same name. But many students don’t learn that kind of black history in Florida classrooms.
In an old wooden bungalow in Delray Beach, Charlene Farrington and her staff gather groups of teenagers on Saturday mornings to teach them lessons she fears public schools won’t offer. They talk about South Florida’s Caribbean roots, the state’s dark history by lynchingsHow segregation still shapes the landscape and how grassroots activists mobilized the Civil Rights Movement to end generations of oppression.
“You need to know how it happened before so you can decide how you want it to happen again,” she told her students as they sat at their desks, morning light illuminating historic photos on the walls.
Florida students spend their Saturday mornings learning about African-American history at the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach and in similar programs at community centers across the state. Many are supported by black churches, which have helped forge the cultural and political identities of their parishioners for generations.
Since Faith in Florida developed its own black history toolkit last year, more than 400 congregations have pledged to teach the lessons, the advocacy group says.
Florida has required public schools to teach African-American history for the past three decades, but many families no longer trust that the state’s education system to adequately address the subject.
According to the state’s own metrics, only a dozen Florida school districts have demonstrated excellence in teaching Black history, showing evidence of integrating the content into lessons throughout the school year and receiving support from the school board and community partners.
Officials from school districts across Florida told The Associated Press that they are still following the state mandate to teach about the experience of slavery, abolition and the “essential contributions of African Americans to build and strengthen American society.”
But a common complaint from students and parents is that the instruction seems limited to heroic figures like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and rarely extends beyond the annual February celebrations. Black History Month.
When Sulaya Williams’ eldest child started school, she couldn’t find the comprehensive education she wanted for him in their environment. So in 2016, she launched her own organization to teach Black history in community settings.
“We wanted to make sure our children knew our stories so we could pass them on to their children,” Williams said.
Williams now has a contract to teach Saturday school at a Fort Lauderdale public library, and her 12-year-old daughter Addah Gordon is inviting her classmates to join her.
“I feel like I’m really learning my culture. Like I’m learning what my ancestors did,” Addah said. “And most people don’t know what they did.”
State lawmakers unanimously approved the African American history requirement in 1994, at a time of reconciliation over Florida’s history.
Historians commissioned by the state had just published an official report on the deadly attack on the town of Rosewood in 1923, when a white mob razed the predominantly black community and displaced its residents. When the Florida Legislature approved financial compensation for Rosewood’s survivors and descendants in 1994, it was seen as a national model for reparations.
“There was a moment of enlightenment in Florida decades ago. That was really there,” said Marvin Dunn, who has written several books about Black Floridians. “But that was short-lived.”
Thirty years later, the teaching of African-American history remains inconsistent in Florida classrooms, inadequate in the eyes of some advocates. under fire by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who favors it attempts to limit How race, history And discrimination that can be talked about in the state public schools.
DeSantis has guided attacks about “wokeness” in education that brought together conservatives across the country, including President-elect Donald Trump. In 2022, the governor signed a law limiting certain race-based conversations in schools and businesses and prohibits teaching that members of an ethnic group should feel guilty or bear responsibility for the actions of previous generations.
Last year, DeSantis Gov has blocked a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies because it is not taught in Florida, saying it violates state law and is historically inaccurate.
A spokesperson for the College Board, which oversees Advanced Placement courses, told the AP that they are not aware of any Florida public schools currently offering the African American Studies course. It is also not listed in the state’s current course directory.
Representatives from the Florida Department of Education and the state’s African American History Task Force did not respond to requests for comment from the AP.
“People who are interested in promoting the history of the African diaspora cannot rely on schools to do that,” said Tameka Bradley Hobbs, manager of the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Broward County. “I think it’s even clearer now that there has to be a level of self-reliance and self-determination when it comes to passing on the history and heritage of our ancestors.”
Last year, only 30 of Florida’s 67 traditional school districts offered at least one standalone course on African American history or the humanities, according to state data. While not required by state law, having a dedicated Black history lesson is a measure of how districts are following the state mandate.
Florida’s large urban districts are much more likely to offer these classes, compared to small rural districts, some of which have fewer than 2,000 students.
Even in districts with staff dedicated to teaching black history, some teachers fear breaking state law, said Brian Knowles, who oversees African-American, Holocaust and Latino studies for the Palm Beach County School District .
“There are so many other districts and so many kids that we’re missing because we’re tiptoeing around what is essentially American history,” Knowles said.
Frustration with the limitations teachers face prompted Renee O’Connor to take a sabbatical last year from her job teaching black history at Miami Norland Senior High School in the predominantly black city of Miami Gardens. Now she’s back in the classroom, but she’s also helped community groups develop their own black history programs outside the public school system.
“Obviously I wish all kids could take an African-American history class,” O’Connor said, “but you have to pivot when that doesn’t happen in schools.”
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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.