DeSantis vs. Harris on Florida's African American history curriculum: What to know

Florida's controversial new African American history standards have stirred up strong reactions among political leaders, even leading to splinters within the Republican party in Florida.

On July 19, the Florida Board of Education unanimously approved a new social studies standard for African American history. In doing so, the board pushed pushed through criticism of the standards. Some critics said the curriculum downplays Florida's role in the historic oppression of Black people and others said the standards blame the African-American community for some of the crime they suffered, Ana Goñi-Lessan of the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Vice President Kamala Harris slammed the new standards at an speech in Jacksonville days after it passed, prompting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to challenge her to a debate in a letter Monday. Harris fervently rejected his invitation Tuesday while speaking in Orlando, Florida at the African Methodist Episcopal 20th Women's Missionary Society Quadrennial Convention.

"I'm here in Florida, and I will tell you there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact. There were no were redeeming qualities of slavery," she passionately told the crowd.

Here is what to know about Florida's new education standards that led to the Harris and DeSantis feud:

What is in the new Florida African American history curriculum?

Florida is required by state law to include history, culture, and experience of the African American community in K-12 curriculums. The same statute also created the African American History Task Force that reviews the standards for the curriculum. Despite it's nearly 20-year history, this is the first time that the state has created separate standards for the subject, chancellor of public schools Paul Burns told the Tallahassee Democrat.

Here are some controversial parts of the new curriculum standards:

• "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

• "Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to ...1920 Ocoee Massacre" (The Orange County Regional History Center called the Ocoee Massacre the "largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history." A white mob lynched a Black man after he attempted to vote and then went on to kill an unknown number of other African American citizens and burn down their homes.)

• The curriculum does not include Florida's role in upholding slavery and segregation by seceding from the Union during the Civil War or by passing a resolution that opposed the Supreme Court's decision, Brown v. Board of Education, according to Genesis Robinson, political director for advocacy group Equal Ground, and other critics according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

• Critics also say that the new curriculum does not use person-first language by using the term "slave" instead of "enslaved people."

Kamala Harris: 'They want to replace history with lies.'

Vice President Harris spoke at the Ritz Theatre and Museum in Jacksonville, Florida two days after the new African American history standards were passed by the FBOE.

She criticized the new standards for indicating that enslaved people benefited from slavery and victims of violence were also perpetrators.

"Adults know what slavery really involved. It involved rape. It involved torture. It involved taking a baby from their mother. It involved some of the worse examples of depriving people of humanity in our world," Harris said. "So in the context of that, how is it that someone could suggest that in amidst of these atrocities, that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?"

She called the revised history curriculum "propaganda," that intended to mislead children.

"They want to replace history with lies," she told the packed room in a historically Black neighborhood in Jacksonville. "They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not have it."

Ron DeSantis, Byron Donalds and William B. Allen react

• On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis penned a letter to Harris defending the state's policy and inviting her to Florida to debate the issue. "You have instead attempted to score cheap political points and label Florida parents 'extremists.' It's past time to set the record straight," the letter states.

• The letter also mentions William B. Allen, a conservative politician who sits on Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup, which spearheaded writing the new standards. Allen criticized Harris for promoting false criticisms of the curriculum. "It was never said that slavery was beneficial to Africans,” he said in an interview posted by ABC News. Allen also went on to say, "It is the case that Africans proved resourceful, resilient, and adaptive, and were able to develop skills and aptitudes which served to their benefit, both while enslaved and after enslaved."

• As reported by the Tallahassee Democrat, Florida GOP Congressman Byron Donalds, a prominent Black supporter for Donald Trump, supported the majority of the curriculum. He still found himself in a Republican fire storm for criticizing the part of the standard that suggests enslaved people benefited from slavery.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris, DeSantis and the Florida fight over African American studies