TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Amid Florida’s manicured golf courses and sprawling suburbs lie the artifacts of its slave past: the long lost cemeteries of enslaved people, the statues 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 the state’s education system to adequately cover the subject.
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According to the state’s own statistics, 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 “vital 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 February’s 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.”
The black history mandate came at a time of reconciliation
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. It really was,” 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 in Florida classrooms remains inconsistent, inadequate in the eyes of some advocates, and under fire by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has defended efforts to ways in which race, history and discrimination are limited. that can be talked about in the state’s public schools.
DeSantis has led attacks on education “wokeness” that have galvanized conservatives across the country, including newly elected President Donald Trump. In 2022, the governor signed a law that restricts certain racist conversations in schools and businesses and bans teaching that members of an ethnic group should feel guilty or bear responsibility for actions of previous generations.
Last year, DeSantis’ administration blocked a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in Florida, saying it violated state law and was 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 the AP’s requests for comment.
“People who are interested in advancing 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.”
READ MORE: This South Florida historian teaches free black history classes every month
Most schools in Florida do not offer black history classes
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.
Renee O’Connor stands in one of the classrooms where she teaches black history at Miami Norland Senior High School, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Florida.
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.”