As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign for president takes heat from Democrats over how his state’s public schools teach the history of slavery, it’s also been drawn into a war of words with a prominent black conservative—and Trump supporter.
At issue is the question of whether slaves benefited in any way from being enslaved.
At an appearance in Jacksonville on July 21, Vice President Kamala Harris said Florida wanted “to replace history with lies,” as middle-school students were to be told that “enslaved people benefited from slavery.”
The 216-page curriculum, approved by the Florida Department of Education on July 19, contains the statement, ‘“Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
The governor responded by accusing Ms. Harris of trying to “perpetuate a hoax.”
“And they talk in gory detail a lot of the bad in American history, including, of course, the injustice of slavery. But she is trying to perpetuate a hoax.”
He said Harris and other Democrats were promoting “a fake narrative” to use against him in his presidential campaign.
Increasingly prominent among conservatives, Mr. Donalds is one of the most prominent black conservatives in the country. He was one of the Republican holdouts that delayed the election of Kevin McCarthy (D-Calif.) as Speaker of the House in January to force more conservative leadership. He was also one of those who engineered the final deal with Mr. McCarthy.
He’s also a prominent supporter of former president Donald Trump, having endorsed him, rather than his own state’s governor, for president. Most of Mr. Donalds’s posts on X.com promote Mr. Trump’s candidacy and defend his record.
Mr. Redfern’s posts present Mr. DeSantis as less compromising on the issue than someone in the Trump camp.
Mr. Donalds didn’t take Mr. Redfern’s shot sitting down:
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz joined the fray, affirming his department’s work:
“I am issuing this memo to reaffirm that we will be moving forward with implementing Florida’s new history standards,” he said in a memo to school district superintendents released on July 26.
“The adoption of a stand-alone strand of African American History standards is a first for Florida. It builds off our continued efforts since 2019 to teach our students unbiased African American history. This effort has included the adoption of standards to teach about the Ocoee Massacre, the brutal injustices of slavery, and a robust focus on the civil rights movement.
“To develop these new standards, the Department assembled an august group of African American scholars and Florida educators utilizing a rigorous process, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. The standards are supported by historical accounts of African Americans, including slaves and their immediate descendants.”
“Let me be clear: We are not turning our backs on the great work of the African American History workgroup. We will implement these standards swiftly, transparently, and honestly.”
“Obviously, slavery was terrible in our country. It was terrible for black people coming to America, and it was just flat-out wrong. No doubt about that,” he told the Fort Myers-area TV station WINK on July 26.
“The talking point narrative around it, yeah, sounds awful. But nobody should be accepting of that. But when you read through the standards, they actually did a very good job in covering all aspects of black history in the United States.”
The best way to resolve the issue, Mr. Donalds said, was “working with the State Board of Education to bring refinement to the topic.”
His use of the College Board source was pointed. This week’s controversy was the latest installment about how Florida’s public schools teach African-American studies.
The Department of Education in January blocked the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American curriculum proposed for high schools, saying it was inaccurate and violated state law.
Mr. DeSantis defended their move, saying the state wanted “education, not indoctrination.” He cited controversial content in the curriculum, including its incorporation of “queer theory” and advocacy for the abolition of prisons.
“It’s not fair to say that somehow abolishing prisons is somehow linked to the black experience; that’s what black people want,” he said. “I don’t think that’s true at all. They want law and order, just like everyone else wants law and order.”
The governor’s office and the Department of Education released a more detailed critique of the curriculum, which included topics such as “Intersectionality and activism” and “Black queer studies,” and radical authors like the Marxist activist Angela Davis.
Quotes from required reading included statements like this from Leslie Kay Jones: “Every day, black people produce an unquantifiable amount of content for the same social media corporations that reproduce the white supremacist superstructures that oppress us.”
The College Board later submitted a revised curriculum, which the state accepted.
