'Black facts, not fiction:' Dozens blast 'revisionist' state standards on slavery history

Black community leaders, including a former Palm Beach County School Board member, sharply denounced Florida's new education standards Wednesday, packing a school board meeting to plead for teaching "facts, not fiction" about Black history.

More than 30 speakers pinned "Black facts, not history" buttons on their shirts and shared their disgust with the new state standards, which they said attempt to reframe chattel slavery.

"This governor and his cronies are attempting to tie the hands of teachers and imprison the minds of children," said Debra Robinson, a former school board member and chair of the Coalition for Black Student Achievement. "We are here to announce that we will not let that happen. Not on our watch. Not in our county."

Robinson was referring to new standards adopted by the state board of education in July, which included a "benchmark clarification" on the subject of slave labor in middle school history classes that reads, "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

Superintendent Mike Burke has called this standard "offensive." He said Wednesday that Palm Beach County teachers will continue to teach Black history using the longstanding state standards and state law.

"The state has not yet rolled out those new standards, and even when they do, we're going to be very careful," he said. "We have always valued teaching history accurately, and we want to maintain our integrity."

Burke pointed out that the school district's department of African, African American, Latino, Holocaust and Social Studies helps determine curriculum, and that the school district recently purchased new African American history instructional materials.

Burke and others added that Palm Beach County schoolchildren will not be exposed to videos created by Prager University, a nonprofit media organization that promotes conservative viewpoints on political, economic and social issues.

"We have no plans to use PragerU materials," school board member Alexandria Ayala said Wednesday.

Community leaders, parents chat 'Black facts, not fiction' at press conference ahead of school board meeting

Before Wednesday night’s meeting, supporters gathered in the muggy weather outside school district headquarters, the Fulton-Holland Educational Services Center.

Its namesakes are white former Superintendent Robert Fulton, whose desegregation plan was criticized by the NAACP for being insufficient; and William Holland, a Black civil rights activist and plaintiff in the 1958 court case that was Palm Beach County’s version of Brown vs. Board of Education.

“This is a very big setback,” former West Palm Beach NAACP President Lia Gaines said of the state standards. “This really is an editorializing of how the slaves were skilled labor. We’re pushing back on an inaccurate version of Black history.”

Robinson took direct aim at Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“Do not be bamboozled by the man behind the curtain,” she said. “We have a wizard in Tallahassee and he has no more credibility and validity than the Wizard of Oz.”

Second gathering of Black community leaders in Palm Beach County opposing new state education standards

The protest came on the heels of another visit to the school board headquarters by members of the Black community: State Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach, held a community forum July 25 to address the education standards.

"We're here this morning to condemn the board of education's passage of these new standards," Powell said. "Black people did not benefit from slavery. Period."

West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James also blasted the standards from the dais during the July 24 city commission meeting, where he pointed out that only one of the state board of education's members is not white.

"Listen, I looked on the website," the mayor said. "I saw the members of the Florida Department of Education, the board members. Let me just say: None of them looked like me, alright?"

On Wednesday, Black leaders from churches, advocacy groups and social organizations lined up to echo Powell's and James' points.

"Our children deserve Black facts, not fiction, and deserve to know that our ancestors, under no circumstances, ever benefitted from slavery," said the Rev. Richard Dames of Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Boynton Beach. "That was the oppressors who benefitted from slavery."

Dames said if schools in Florida do not teach Black history, then churches will step in to do so.

"African studies and the history of the diaspora should not frighten you into supporting a plan to whitewash this important history and present a revisionist curriculum," added T. Denise Williams, president of the West Palm Beach Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a historically Black sorority.

"The right to teach factual African American history and the history of the diaspora including racism, the truth about slavery and white supremacy, has been under attack," she said. "These efforts are evil and a demeaning form of indoctrination."

District officials: Palm Beach County students won't be exposed to PragerU videos

District leaders on Wednesday also addressed the state's approval of PragerU Kids videos as instructional materials for teachers to use in class. The videos are created by the unaccredited Prager University, a nonprofit founded by conservative radio host Dennis Prager. It does not offer degrees.

PragerU recently drew criticism over one of its cartoons where an animated version of abolitionist Frederick Douglass — voiced by a white man — said slavery was a “compromise” by the Founding Fathers “to achieve something great, the making of the United States of America.”

Douglass criticized the founders for allowing “the right to hold and to hunt slaves” in the Constitution.

"We have not purchased PragerU, we have not sanctioned its use and it's not being used in our schools across Palm Beach County," Superintendent Burke said.

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work, subscribe today!

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County Black leaders blast education standards on slavery