Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick Joins Vice President Harris in Florida to Condemn New African American History K-12 Standards
JACKSONVILLE, FL – Today, Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick joined Vice President Kamala Harris at the Ritz Theatre and Museum to condemn the Florida Board of Education’s approval of new African American history standards for K-12 students.
“Florida students deserve to know about our nation’s past — the good, the bad, and the ugly,” said Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick. “Slavery was a reprehensible crime against humanity, regardless of this insulting attempt to dress it up. Its horrors must be taught unfiltered, not through revisionist, rose-colored glasses. Teachers cannot be forced into telling middle schoolers that our nation’s original sin was beneficial to enslaved people. I am grateful that President Biden and Vice President Harris remain committed to protecting fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to learn America’s complex and painful history.”
Approved on July 19, the Florida State Board of Education’s new standards include language about how “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” The standards also include language about how Black people were perpetrators of violence during race massacres.
“This was the darkest chapter in our nation’s history. Let me be abundantly clear — the enslaved did not benefit from slavery. The systematic practice of brutality and cruelty against African Americans — which included rape, torture, murder, and using children as alligator bait — should not be associated with any benefit. Black history can never be up for debate. It is only when we acknowledge and learn from our past that we can embrace the present and shape our future,” added Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick.
In addition to providing remarks at today’s event in Jacksonville, Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick co-led a letter with Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-FL-10), Frederica Wilson (D-FL-24), and the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), that urged the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Board of Education to reverse the history standards decision.
“These new standards and instructions are not the truth of American history but riddled with falsehoods that minimize the unique racial terror experienced by Black people in America throughout time… Not repealing these new standards would dig up the corpse of the worst version of our nation and force our children to live in it,” the lawmakers write.