‘An atmosphere of violence.’ DeSantis’ policies rebuked after racist Jacksonville killings

Bishop William J. Barber II considers himself a student of history.

So when asked about Florida’s climate following the Aug. 26 racist attack in Jacksonville that left three Black people dead, he paraphrased a piece of Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s 1963 eulogy for three of the girls killed in the Birmingham church bombing.

“You have to talk about not who killed them but what,” said Barber, the founder and president of Repairers of the Breach, a nonprofit that self-describes as a group with “a framework that uplifts our deepest moral and constitutional values to redeem the heart and soul of our country.”

Repairers of the Breach has organized a group of students from Edward Waters University and other schools to deliver a cease and desist letter to the governor’s office Friday, the 60th anniversary of the Birmingham church bombing, in response to what they consider the divisive policies spearheaded by Florida’s elected officials. The letter calls for the resignation of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s other elected officials if they plan “to continue to spew racist and hateful rhetoric.”

“He has helped create an atmosphere of violence,” said Barber, who also serves as co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. The pastor plans to lead a march to Jacksonville City Hall on Saturday in order to call further attention to what’s happening in Florida.

Barber is not alone in his sentiments. Many here in South Florida and beyond share similar beliefs, citing DeSantis’ policies and actions that date back to his initial bid for governor.

“Ron DeSantis bears a burden for what happened to Jacksonville,” former state Sen. Dwight Bullard told the Miami Herald. Now the senior political adviser for FLRising, Bullard was arrested and charged with trespassing for staging a sit-in at the Tallahassee Capitol building in May to protest DeSantis’ “anti-Black” policies. “For Black people who have experienced racialized violence, it feels resonant because people in positions like Ron DeSantis used to be the ones under the hoods.”

DeSantis, a GOP presidential nominee hopeful, was told by an unidentified Black man at a press conference in Jacksonville last week that his policies “allowed people to hunt people like me.”

“No, you don’t get to come here and blame me for some madman,” DeSantis responded. “That is not appropriate, and I’m not going to accept it.”

DeSantis critics argue that “the atmosphere” that the governor created dates back to his don’t “monkey this up” comment directed at Andrew Gillum during the 2018 gubernatorial race. But subsequent policies only deepened many Black Floridians’ concerns: His anti-protest bill came in the aftermath of the summer of 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations. The redrawn congressional maps he proposed eliminated two Black-led districts. The Stop WOKE Act banned instruction that could make students feel uncomfortable about a historical event due to their race. He battled with the College Board over its AP African American Studies class. His hand-picked Department of Education updated Black history education standards to include the theory that enslaved people benefited from the bondage.

History is filled with examples of anti-Black rhetoric and policies that led to violence, said Barber. He pointed to how “Birth of a Nation,” a 1915 film known for its grotesque depictions of Black Americans, led to the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. He pointed to how the Florida legislature’s antipathy towards integration led to Ax Handle Saturday — named after the weapons used by the white mob that attacked Black protesters — in Jacksonville in 1960. And he pointed to how Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” assertion during his inaugural speech led to the 1963 Birmingham church bombing.

“The power of a tongue on a public mic creates an ethos and atmosphere that allows [anti-Black violence] to be OK,” Barber said.

‘The devaluation of Black lives’

Less than 48 hours after Christopher Palmeter went on a racist rampage that ended with three deaths in her district, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon had an interview with MSNBC.

Through her tears, she sent a very clear message: DeSantis and the state’s Republican leadership share the blame for the shooting that killed Angela Michelle Carr, 52, Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19, and 29-year-old Jerrald Gallion.

“We have repeatedly told him what his rhetoric was going to do and that’s exactly what transpired yesterday,” Nixon said in the interview. A few minutes later, she added, “They are doing everything to erase Black history. They are feeding our children propaganda. All that does is lead to the devaluation of Black lives.”

“There were literally three Black people who were killed because this guy is pushing agendas and rhetoric that’s devaluing Black lives,” Nixon later told the Miami Herald.

What’s worse, Nixon said, is that children “won’t even be able to learn about what happened” in Jacksonville under the Stop WOKE Act. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters described the shooter as a “madman” who “hated Blacks,” “hated just about everyone that wasn’t white” and even left behind a manifesto. DeSantis did not use similar language at a vigil the day following the attack. DeSantis called Palmeter’s actions “totally unacceptable in the state of Florida” and said that he won’t allow people to be “targeted based on their race.”

“He wouldn’t say Black, he wouldn’t say racist,” Nixon said of DeSantis’ address at the vigil. The Associated Press reported that DeSantis “was loudly booed” during his speech. “He uses words that he knows won’t upset his base because the stuff has been message tested. He knows he can’t say the word racist because that will anger his base of voters.”

Historian Marvin Dunn agreed that the Jacksonville shooting might be a difficult topic for teachers to cover given the nebulous parameters of the Stop WOKE Act. Discussions about the racist killing could lead students to question why someone would do that and if it has happened before, an answer deeply tied to Florida’s history.

“If you teach kids what happened in Jacksonville,” Dunn said, “there’s no way for students to avoid feeling bad.”

High school students, Dunn continued, “are perfectly capable of handling these feelings.” The teenagers he has brought on his Teach the Truth tours, which takes individuals to sites of racial violence in Florida, “weren’t angry at white people.”

“They were angry because they had never learned this,” Dunn added.

The Miami Herald reached out to the Governor’s office about Nixon’s comments and to ask if the Stop WOKE Act would prevent lessons about the killings in schools but no statement was given. State Sen. Shevrin Jones of Miami Gardens took issue with the hypocrisy.

“So it’s OK for you to speak about racism and discrimination in a microphone in front of Black people in a city where three people were killed senselessly by a racist individual who had manifestos talking about what he was going to do?” Jones asked rhetorically. Students, he said, won’t be able to learn the origins of this hatred and, in turn, will be worse off.

“When you don’t teach this type of stuff, young people think those types of actions are OK,” Jones said. “And if people can’t see the link between policies and politics and what we’re seeing right now, you’re missing the whole point.”